Transcript 1. Write a list of all your possessions

Life in the Camps - Assignment
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1. Write a list of all your possessions (Things you could
take with you today if you moved out)
2. Write a list, by name, of all the people you enjoy
spending time with, or people you see regularly (family
members and other relatives, friends, classmates, etc.).
3. Describe your daily routine - things you do regularly
on a weekly or daily basis. (What, where, when, with whom
do you do these things?)
4. Describe your bedroom. How big is it? Do you share it
with anyone?
5. How far is it (minutes/seconds, feet/yards) from
your bedroom to a) the bathroom; b) the kitchen; c) the
dining room or place you eat?
6. Name 3 of your favorite foods.
Japanese-American Internment
Camps
of World War II
1942 - 1946
Copy this table on to the back of your paper & use to take notes for these two
powerpoint presentations. Be as complete and thorough as you can.
The Beginning: Pearl Harbor (but
not really the beginning)
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http://www.densho.org/sitesofshame/timeline.xml
High-ranking officials of the United States military believed
Japan might invade the West Coast.
While such concerns may seem unrealistic today, military
strategists were still reeling from the surprise attack on Pearl
Harbor.
The most popular song of the day was “Remember Pearl Harbor”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suuN6bkYiug
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR As we go to meet the foe Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR As we did the Alamo.
Executive Order 9066
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Concerned that Japanese-Americans were more
loyal to Japan than to the United States,
American military leaders convinced FDR to sign
Executive Order 9066.
The order authorized the "appropriate Military
Commander" to determine whether anyone
posed a military risk to the country and, if so,
authorized the military to exclude those
persons from affected geographic areas.
Japanese American women
packing dolls and dishes in
storage crate
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The entire State of California, half of
Oregon and Washington and a third of
Arizona were affected and were declared
"war zones on the Pacific Frontier." Every
person of Japanese descent living in those
"zones" was suspected of disloyalty.
NOW
THEN
Transporting Asian-Americans
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As governmental directives ordered
Japanese-Americans to leave their homes
and businesses, these American citizens including children - were evacuated to
desert internment camps.
Transported by buses and trains, they
were placed under the control of the War
Relocation Authority.
Evacuation
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Life in the camps was hard. Internees had
only been allowed to bring with then a few
possessions. In many cases they had been
given just 48 hours to evacuate their
homes.
Consequently they were easy prey for
fortune hunters who offered them far less
than the market prices for the goods they
could not take with them.
Bainbridge Island
evacuees boarding ferry
under army guard
Bainbridge Island evacuees walking to train (notice spectators on bridge)
Relocation Centers
Gila River War Relocation Center, Arizona
Granada War Relocation Center, Colorado (AKA "Amache")
Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, Wyoming
Jerome War Relocation Center, Arkansas
Manzanar War Relocation Center, California
Minidoka War Relocation Center, Idaho
Poston War Relocation Center, Arizona
Rohwer War Relocation Center, Arkansas
Topaz War Relocation Center, Utah
Tule Lake War Relocation Center, California
Justice Department detention camps
These camps often held German and Italian detainees in addition to Japanese
Americans
Crystal City, Texas[
Fort Lincoln Internment Camp
Fort Missoula, Montana
Fort Stanton, New Mexico
Kenedy, Texas
Kooskia, Idaho
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Seagoville, Texas
Citizen Isolation Centers
The Citizen Isolation Centers were for those considered to be problem inmates
Leupp, Arizona
Moab, Utah (AKA Dalton Wells)
Fort Stanton, New Mexico (AKA Old Raton Ranch)
Federal Bureau of Prisons
Detainees convicted of crimes, usually draft resistance, were sent to these camps
Catalina, Arizona
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
McNeill Island, Washington
US Army facilities
These camps often held German and Italian detainees in addition to Japanese
Americans
Angel Island, California/Fort McDowell
Camp Blanding, Florida
Camp Forrest
Camp Livingston, Louisiana
Camp Lordsburg, New Mexico
Camp McCoy, Wisconsin
Florence, Arizona
Fort Bliss
Fort Howard
Fort Lewis
Fort Meade, Maryland
Fort Richardson
Fort Sam Houston
Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Griffith Park
Honolulu, Hawaii
Sand Island, Hawaii
Stringtown, Oklahoma
REGISTERING AT THE CAMP
Japanese-Americans surrendering cameras and radios
Cramped Quarters
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They were only allowed to take few
belongings with them, and many families
lost virtually everything they owned
except what they could carry.
Internees spent many years in camp,
behind barbed wire fences and with armed
guards patrolling the camps.
Entire families lived in cramped, one room
quarters that were poorly constructed.
“One
of the
hardest
things to
endure was
the
communal
latrines,
with no
partitions;
and showers
with no
stalls.”
Making the best of a bad situation
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Japanese Americans endured many changes and
indignities.
The War Relocation Authority (WRA) the civilian
agency that administered the camp, formed an
advisory council of internee-elected block
managers.
Internees with the support of the WRA established
churches, temples, and boys and girls clubs.
They developed sports, music, dance, and other
recreational programs.
They built gardens and ponds and published a
newspaper, the Manzanar Free Press.
•Most
adults worked, maintaining and operating
the camp.
•Children and many adults attended school.
•The barracks had no cooking facilities.
•That meant that internees had to line up three
times a day, in any kind of weather, to eat at
their block mess hall.
•As the war turned in America’s favor, restrictions
were lifted, and Japanese Americans were
allowed to leave the camps.
•Church groups, service organizations, and some
camp administrators helped find sponsors and
jobs in the Midwest and the East.
Tule Lake
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The camps were guarded by military personnel
and “internee’s” who disobeyed the rules, or
who were deemed to be troublesome were sent
to the Tule Lake facility located in the California
Rocky Mountains.
In 1943 those who refused to take the loyalty
oath were sent to Tule Lake and the camp was
renamed a segregation center.
Waiting for a meal
Manzanar riot
December 6, 1942
Three nisei incarcerees are arrested on suspicion of beating a
fellow incarceree they allege is a pro-camp administration
"informer." A crowd of about five hundred incarcerees
demands the release of the three arrested nisei. Military
police (MP) use tear gas to break up the crowd; chaos
ensues and without an order the MP fire, killing a seventeenyear-old and a twenty-one-year old and wounding nine. In
the aftermath of this incident, authorities set up the Moab
citizen isolation center to hold sixteen men they label
"troublemakers."
Japanese American army unit
February 1, 1943
The War Department announces the formation of a segregated
unit of nisei soldiers and calls for volunteers in Hawaii
(where there was no mass incarceration of Japanese
Americans) and from among the men held in the camps.
One month later President Roosevelt announces the
formation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team with the
words, "Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race
or ancestry."
Loyalty Oath
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In 1943 all internees over the age of seventeen were
given a loyalty test. They were asked two questions:
1. Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the
United States on combat duty wherever ordered?
(Females were asked if they were willing to volunteer for
the Army Nurse Corps or Women's Army Corps.)
2. Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United
States of America and faithfully defend the United States
from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces and
forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the
Japanese emperor, to any other foreign government,
power or organization?
Jackson Street in Seattle showing vacant stores after evacuation
Hirabayashi v. US, 1943
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Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi, UW student, who
was accused of violating the curfew order, a
misdemeanor based upon Executive Order 9066 and a
subsequent Congressional statute designation the
violation of military orders in Military Area Nos. 1 and 2
a misdemeanor.
The Justice Department knew that someone would
challenge all of the three substantive elements of the
orders -curfew, exclusion, and internment.
Hirabayashi was convicted of violating a curfew and
relocation order, and his appeal of this conviction
reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that the application of curfews
against members of a minority group was constitutional
when the nation was at war with the country from which
that group originated
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Korematsu v. United States
1944
was a landmark Supreme Court case concerning
constitutionality of E.O. 9066.
In a 6-3 decision, the Court sided with the government,
ruling that the exclusion order was constitutional.
The opinion held that the need to protect against
espionage outweighed Korematsu's individual rights, and
the rights of Americans of Japanese descent.
In 1984, a federal district court judge granted a writ of coram nobis,
overturning the conviction. Coram nobis is a legal writ issued by a court
to correct a previous error "of the most fundamental character" to "achieve
justice" where "no other remedy" is available.
President Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest
civilian honor in the United States, to Korematsu in 1998, saying, "In the
long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of
ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls. Plessy, Brown, Parks ... to that
distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu."
The men and women who joined the military were not
the only Americans of Japanese ancestry who
contributed to the war effort.
Manzanar internees immediately went to work helping
to build and maintain a community that included mess
halls and agricultural operations, a hospital, a
newspaper, and schools.
Children participated in patriotic assemblies and
pledged allegiance to the American flag.
Nearly 500 citizen internees wove camouflage nets for
U.S. Army use overseas.
cloth strips were woven into the netting after being dyed camouflage colors–6000 nets/month were woven. The quote at the bottom is interesting.
Momo Nagano says “Our pay was $16 per month and we certainly earned it as we took pride in our work
Application for leave clearance WRA Form
126 Rev.
Question 27: If the opportunity presents
itself and you are found qualified, would
you be willing to volunteer for the Army
Nurse Corps of WAAC?
Question 28: Will you swear unqualified
allegiance to the US of A and forswear any
form of allegiance or obedience to the
Japanese emporer or any other foreign
government power or organization?
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the opportunity to tell
you what you have done for this country. You fought not only the
enemy, but you fought prejudice. And you won. You have made
the Constitution stand for what it really means: the welfare of all
the people, all the time.”
President Harry S. Truman speaking to the
100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat
Team, July 15, 1946
Hiroshima and Nagasaki August 6, 1945
The U.S. drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later,
a second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrenders on August 14.
Gradually leaving incarceration camps August 1945
Some 44,000 people remain in incarceration camps. Thousands have
nowhere to go after losing their homes and jobs. Many are afraid of
anti-Japanese hostility and refuse to leave the camps.
Last incarceration camp closed March 20, 1946
Tule Lake segregation center shuts down, the last War Relocation
Authority incarceration camp to close its gates.
Termination of E.O. 9066 February 19, 1976
President Gerald Ford issues "An American Promise," a presidential
proclamation terminating Executive Order 9066. The proclamation calls
upon the American people to affirm "that we have learned from the
tragedy of that long-ago experience forever to treasure liberty and
justice for each individual American, and resolve that this kind of action
shall never again be repeated.
Legal appeals
1983-1988
The wartime convictions of Gordon Hirabayashi, Minoru Yasui, and Fred Korematsu (the
three men who protested the curfew and/or exclusion orders) are vacated, or "nullified,"
because of government misconduct.
Civil Liberties Act
August 10, 1988
President Ronald Reagan signs HR 442 into law. It acknowledges that the incarceration
of more than 120,000 individuals of Japanese descent was unjust, and offers an apology
and reparation payment of $20,000 to each person incarcerated under Executive Order
9066.
Redress
October 9, 1990
In a Washington, D.C. ceremony the first nine redress payments are made to the oldest
surviving issei.
Medals of Honor
June 21, 2000
After military review, President William J. Clinton awards an additional twenty Medals of
Honor, the nation's highest military award for valor, to nisei members of the 100th
Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
The inscription is in Japanese and reads 慰霊塔 (ireitõ),
meaning "Monument to console the souls of the dead."
The inscription on the back reads "August 1943" and "erected by the Manzanar Japanese."
The obelisk shrine currently is draped in strings of origami and has offerings of personal items left
by survivors and visitor
Currently
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In 1980, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and
Internment of Civilians reviewed the impact of Executive Order
9066 on Japanese-Americans and determined that they were
the victims of discrimination by the federal government.
On August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil
Liberties Act of 1988. The Act was passed by Congress to
provide a Presidential apology and symbolic payment of
$20,000 to the internees, evacuees, and persons of Japanese
ancestry who lost liberty or property because of discriminatory
action by the Federal government during World War II.
Respond to situation Japanese Americans faced using the same
paper you used in the beginning of this powerpoint.
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1. Imagine you were going away - you don't know where, how long, or
under what conditions. Out of the list you have made (in Question 1 of Part
1) take anything you want and need , as long as you can carry them.
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2. Imagine that you will not be able to see any of those special people again
(Question 2)?
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What would you take?
Was it difficult/easy to decide what to take?
How would you feel about the things you had to leave behind?
How do you feel? (one word)
What would you do?
Who will you miss the most and why?
How do you feel? (one word)
3. You cannot take your pet with you where you are going.
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What do you do with it?
How do you feel? (one word)
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4. In your new "home," you smell horses and manure. You
notice a barbed wire fence surrounds the buildings you and
other people like you live in. And you see that you cannot get
out.
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5. Your new "home" is one room, where all of your family must
live. There are only some cots to sleep on, nothing else.
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What do you do or say?
How do you feel? (one word)
How do you feel? (one word)
How do you feel about living in this room?
6. In your new "home," you cannot do any of the things you do
regularly.
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What things would you miss the most?
How do you feel? (one word)
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7. Imagine getting up in the morning. You have to go to the
bathroom, but you have to walk about a half a block to get
there.
 Describe the bathroom (100 people in your block of houses
must use the same bathroom as you)
 How do you feel? (one word)
8. It's breakfast time, served exactly at 7 a.m. If you miss
breakfast, you must wait until noon for any food. (You have no
refrigerator, nor is there a store nearby.) You must walk
outside of your "house" again to the Mess Hall to eat. You have
to wait in line, along with about half of the hundred people who
live in your block of buildings. You have to eat what is served in
the Mess Hall. This morning, it is the usual powdered eggs and
powdered milk, or oatmeal mush.
 What do you choose?
 How do you feel? (one word)