The Story Behind Japanese American Internment

By Executive Order 9066 issued during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established Japanese American internment camps. People of Japanese descent, including citizens of the United States of America, were incarcerated in isolated camps by the U.S. government between 1942 and 1945. During the war that followed the Pearl Harbor attack, Japanese Americans were incarcerated as a reaction to national security concerns. This was one of the most atrocious violations of civil rights during the 20th century.

Approximately 120,000 Japanese families were forced to relocate and be incarcerated in concentration camps in the country's western interior during World War II. A majority of these internees were American citizens.

Facilities in the Internment Camps

It's common knowledge that this event was called the Japanese American internment, but the government operated several camps to hold them. There were two main types of facilities, the WCCA Assembly Centers and WRA Relocation Centers, referred to (but unofficially) as internment camps because they were both run by the military. Scholars have advocated referring to concentration camps and the prisoners as incarcerated in place of such euphemisms. 

In terms of size and public presence, the WCCA and WRA facilities ranked top. To organize and assemble internees, temporary assembly centres were first set up at horse racing tracks, fairgrounds, and other large public gathering places before transporting them by truck, bus, or train to WRA Relocation Centers. WRA Relocation Centers housed refugees who were relocated from the exclusion zone after Japanese Americans in 1942 or were unable to relocate elsewhere within the United States.

• WCCA Civilian Assembly Centers: In order to expel all Japanese Americans from the West Coast, Executive Order 9066 was issued; however, there were no facilities completed to accommodate the displaced Japanese Americans. When the voluntary evacuation program failed to result in many families leaving the exclusion zone, the military implemented a mandatory evacuation program. In April 1942, the Western Defense Command established the Wartime Civil Control Administration that took responsibility for the forced removal of Japanese Americans to concentration camps.

• WRA Relocation Centers: In the United States, the War Relocation Authority (WRA) relocated and detained refugees. President Roosevelt created the WRA by Executive Order 9102 on March 18, 1942. The WRA officially ceased to exist on June 30, 1946. WRA was established under the direction of Milton S. Eisenhower, then a USDA official.

Location of the Internment

The majority of Japanese American internment camps were located within western U.S. states. Manzanar underwent its first operation in California in 1942. Between 1942 and 1945, ten different camps were opened in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arkansas, housing approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans.

Internment Camps Conditions

In the camps, conditions were not good. The internees lived in uninsulated barracks and furnished with the bare necessities of life, including cots and coal stoves. There wasn't enough hot water for the residents to bathe and use the laundries in most cases. A barbed-wire fence surrounded the camps, and guards patrolled them with guns. If anyone tried to leave, they were ordered to shoot. Generally, the camps ran humanely, despite a few isolated incidents of the internees being shot and killed and numerous examples of suffering that could have been prevented.

In the camps, people attempted to create a sense of community. The internees were permitted to live together in family groups, and they set up schools, a church, a farm, and a newspaper. Children played sports and were involved in many other activities. Nevertheless, Japanese Americans were subjected to an atmosphere of tension, suspicion, and despair for as long as three years during the internment.

Types of Camps

The camps were divided into three types:

• Civilian Assembly Centres: During the interwar period, Japanese Americans were relocated to civilian assembly centres, often near horse races, after being evicted from their communities. 

• Internment Camps: Over time, most Japanese Americans were relocated to internment camps or Relocation Centers. 

• Detention camps: Throughout the war, Nikkei were confined to detention camps, including those considered disruptive and those who the government thought was of special interest. Following their closure, the US military turned most of the Assembly Centers into military training camps.

Conclusion

Thus, we can conclude that it was undoubtedly an unfair historical incident for the American Japanese people living on the West Coast. During World War 2, these people were forced to move into the camps which led to property losses and loss of lives as well. It all happened after the Pearl harbour Attack and most of the Americans also supported this Internment. Japanese had to leave their heritage properties, work, agricultural land as well as established lives and still also faced injustice after it.