Japanese-American Internment Camps

•After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the US questioned The loyalty of Japanese- Americans. •President agreed to send them to “relocation” camps.

• The War Relocation Authority was created to administer the assembly centers, relocation centers, and internment camps, and relocation of Japanese-Americans began in April 1942.

• Japanese-Americans were forced to sell their homes and businesses at a great loss.

Where were the camps?

The Building of the camps……..

A Typical layout of a camp….

• The internees were arranged into the "block", consisting of about 12 to 14 barracks, a mess hall, baths, showers, toilets, a laundry and a recreation hall. Each barrack was about 20 by 16 to 20 by 25 feet. Each room housed at least one family, even if a family was very large. Even at the end of 1942, in 928 cases, two families shared a 20 by 25 foot room.4 The barracks often were built poorly and constructed of green wood which warped. The barracks were built of planks nailed to studs and covered with tar paper

• The camps in the West were very dusty.

Arrival at the camps……

Perimeter Warning Sign…..

• In fact, no really appetizing meals could be produced regularly under a requirement that feeding the evacuees could not cost more than rations for the Army, which were set at 30 cents per person per day. Actual costs per evacuee were approximately 45 cents per person per day; sometimes they fell as low as 31 cents.12

Dry Goods Canteen

• This replica of a Tule Lake Internment Camp watchtower. Twenty eight of these towers surrounded the 11x4 square mile camp

Barbed Wire Fences…..

A Kindergarten class….

A High School……..

Waiting in line for a meal….

Meal time

Working…..