The Internment of Japanese Americans in United States History Read Free

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Concentration Camps
    These camps were not as severe as the death camps run by the Nazis. In Germany, innocent civilians performed slave labor. Sadistic doctors performed ghastly medical “experiments” with unwilling subjects. Millions of people were put to death in these Nazi concentration camps.
    But there was one important similarity. Jews and gypsies were sent to the Nazi death camps because of their ancestry. In America, people were placed in the camps because they had Japanese ancestry. The WRA called them relocation centers. However, another term was more commonly used. “I’m for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and Hawaii, and putting them in concentration camps,” said Congressman John Rankin. “We picked [the Japanese] up and put them in concentration camps,” wrote United States Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark. “They were concentration camps. . . . We were in a period of emergency, but it was still the wrong thing to do,” said Harry Truman, who became president when Roosevelt died. “Men and women who knew nothing of the facts . . . hotly deny that there are concentration camps. Apparently that is a term to be used only if the guards speak German and carry a whip as well as a rifle,” wrote socialist reformer Norman Thomas. 6
    These people did not live in the camps. Kenneth Matsushige, a Heart Mountain veteran, did. “They had the army all the way around you, just like, well they were concentration camps more or less,” he said. “They didn’t call it that really, but relocation made it sound better.” 7
Keeping Busy
    “[W]e had absolutely nothing to do,” recalled William Hohri. “So what sets in is boredom. We used to play these long games of chess, four hours, one game of chess. Then we’d say, ‘Let’s play again.’ There was nothing to do.” 8
    Eventually, most evacuees shook that boredom. Many continued the activities of their previous free lives and the assembly centers. The actors returned to acting, the gardeners planted new seeds, and the Lexington Dodgers continued to win baseball games. The camps’ greater space led to new activities. Some roamed the desert grounds looking for arrowheads or fossils or interesting stones. “We would play near barbed wire. We weren’t supposed to, but we did,” said Hiroshi Kanno, who lived in the Minidoka camp. “There was a target range not far from us. I can remember hunting around us for bullet shells.” 9
    Camps set up schools, and children up to age sixteen were expected to attend. Vocational and adult education programs served older camp members. Both Nisei and white teachers taught basic reading and math skills. They also instructed students on how to act and what to say when they returned to the outside world. All classes were taught in English.
    The camps had limited self-government. Block representatives formed community councils. Only Nisei could serve on the councils, but anyone sixteen or older could vote. For some Issei, it was the first time they could vote in an American election.
    Judicial committees settled disputes within a camp. Three Nisei and three whites chosen by the camp director served on each committee. They recommended actions to the project director, who usually followed the recommendations.
    Block managers took care of day-to-day functions of the camp. The managers supervised general maintenance of grounds and buildings and informed residents of new rules and regulations made by the camp administration. Older, respected Issei usually held these positions.
    Dillon Myer claimed that the councils served as a communications liaison between residents and administration, and that they also enforced ordinances in the interest of the community. Myer’s critics pointed out that councils had only advisory, not decision-making, powers. Community government, they said, was a way to get inmates to do most of the camp’s housekeeping chores for a low wage.
Workers
    All communities need workers to