B Y : C A T H E R I N E M C K A Y

JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMPS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Historical Question: What were the objectives and

conditions of the World War II Japanese Internment

camps with in the United States?

• Learning Objectives:

• What were the government’s objectives for the camps?

• What were the living conditions like for the Japanese in

the camps?

• Locations: California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming,

Colorado, and Arkansas

http://wps.ablongman.com/lo

ng_divine_appap_7/0,9455,151

8971-content,00.html

GOVERNMENT OBJECTIVES

• Rumors after Pearl Harbor

• Eliminate Japanese

competition

• Fear of spies

• First generation- Issei

• Second generation- Nisei or

Sansei

• Politicians gain popularity

• Keep Japanese away from

Military Areahttp://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/17/4272434/unknown-

japanese-internment-people.html

CONDITIONS OF CAMPS

• Families put in different camps

• Bring few possessions

• Communal areas

• Simple frames, no plumbing or

cooking facilities

• No coals, few blankets

• Families of four or up to ten people

in one room

• “cots and oil burning stoves for

heat”

• Used latrines

• Makeshift classrooms

• Gangs- Black Dragon Society, White

Terror and Blood Brothershttp://history.howstuffworks.com/world-war-ii/japanese-internment-camp2.htm

http://questgarden.com/64/19/3/080417100246/process.htm

Conditions of first three

Internment Camps

MANZANAR, CALIFORNIA

• Opened March 21, 1942

• Closed November 21, 1945

• Population: 10,046

• Located in Death Valley

• Japanese volunteered to help

finish build the camp

• Farmers tended orchards and

built an irrigation system

• “The doctors, nurses, and

dentists imprisoned in the camps

staffed small hospitals.”

• Churches, post offices, fire

departments, newspapers,

camp banks and camp stores

• Three men shot

http://www.ww2incolor.com/homefront/japanese-american-internment-camps.jpg.html

POSTON, ARIZONA

• Opened May 8, 1942

• Closed November 28,

1945

• Population: 17,814

• August temperatures

130 degrees Fahrenheit,

• Sand storms would last

for several days

• Two soldiers denied

beating a third man

caused a strike.

http://www.raven1.net/mcf/images/poston.jpg

TULE LAKE, CALIFORNIA

• Opened May 27, 1942

• Closed March 20, 1946

• Population: 18,789

• Located in Northern

California

• Mountains, no trees

• Minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit

• Violent riot- November 1942

• Resembled a prison

• High barbed wire

surroundings

http://www.colostate.edu/orgs/TuleLake/fence.jpg

http://www.momomedia.com/CLPEF/camps/tule.html

GEORGE TAKEI

• An American actor

• Best known for role in Star Trek.

• Lived in Rohwer and Tule Lake

• Camp life became normal

• Tule Lake, in his opinion, harsher

than Rohwer.

RETURNING HOME

• Left the camps after WWII ended

• Happy to return home

• Properties destroyed

• Two years later Japanese American Evacuation

Claims Act of 1948

• 1988- Congress passed House Resolution 442

• People too old to start a new life

• Emotional and psychological damage

WORKS CITED

Cooper, Michael L. Fighting for Honor: Japanese Americans and World War II. New

York: Clarion, 2000. Print.

"George Takei." Archive of American Television. 27 Oct. 2004. Web. 09 May 2012.

"Japanese- American Relocation." Houghton Mifflin. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.

"Japanese Relocation Centers." Infoplease. Web. 22 Apr. 2012

"Rohwer Internment Camp." In Their Words. 2010. Web. 9 May 2012.

"World War Two - Japanese Internment Camps in the USA." History on the Net. Nov.

2000. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.