Japanese Internment Camps in the United States

Japanese Internment Camps in the United States

Just off of US Highway 395, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, motorists can 

find one of the black eyes of American history. There stands the Manzanar War 

Relocation Center in which thousands of Japanese-Americans were confined during 

World War II. It is a harsh reminder of civil liberties being restricted during wartime. 

Manzanar was not the only internment camp; it is the best preserved of ten camps in 

seven states. These were constructed in response to President Roosevelt's Executive 

Order 9066. Enacted on February 19, 1942, it stated that local military commanders could 

designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones", from which "any or all persons may be 

excluded." This translated to the removal of all people with Japanese ancestry from 

within 100 miles of the west coast of the United States, except for those confined in 

camps. The order was supported by the Supreme Court when challenged in 1943 and 

1944.

Some people were able to find new homes inland. These residents, whom the government 

referred to as having "enemy blood", were required to file change of address forms. 

However, people's assets were quickly frozen, and more than 100,000 Japanese-

Americans and resident Japanese aliens were forced into camps. People had to quickly 

sell their homes and bring only what they could carry. More than 60% were US citizens. 

The Japanese-Americans were also given the options to join the US Army or to renounce 

their American citizenship. (The Civil Liberties Union said that such recruitment and 

renunciations were coerced.) About 1,200 people joined the armed forces. About 6,000 

gave up their US citizenship; approximately 1,300 were deported to Japan.  

The federal government began compiling potential lists of detainees in 1940, but the 

internments were the culmination of long-standing tensions between whites and Asian 

immigrants, especially in California. Laws had already been passed to discourage 

Japanese immigration, prohibit citizenship, and even prohibit land ownership. California 

law also banned the intermarriage of Caucasians and Asians. Once internment began, it 

was supported on racist and economic grounds by white farmers who had competed with 

Japanese landowners. 

After Japan attacked Hawaii's Pearl Harbor in 1941, many Americans feared a west coast 

invasion. In California, people worried that Japanese-Americans would support an 

invasion by poisoning water supplies or setting brush fires. The round-up zones were 

later extended to include the west coast, however, as fear of Japanese spies grew. 

Approximately one third of the country's territory was affected. A similar Canadian 

program was underway in British Columbia. The United States government also arrested 

more than 2,000 people of Japanese descent living in other countries, with the main focus 

being on Japanese Peruvians. 

When the internment program began, its leader, General John DeWitt, revealed his fear 

and racism in stating, "American citizenship does not necessarily determine loyalty... 

[W]e must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map." The 

government also had smaller camps for Italians and Germans.

Most internment camps were located on Native American reservations without tribal 

permission. The government provided only primitive shelter, and sometimes the prisoners 

had to construct the barracks themselves. Families lived in tarpaper-covered barracks. 

They did not have plumbing or their own cooking facilities. The food ration was less than 

50 cents per meal, and people ate in groups of 250-300. About 2,000 college students 

were permitted to leave for campus.

President Roosevelt rescinded the internment order two and a half years later in 1944. 

The last camp closed in 1945. People were given just $25 and a train ticket to home.

The government has made a few attempts to redress the wartime situation. Some 

compensation was given for property loss in 1948. Forty years later, President Reagan 

signed the Civil Liberties Act. This granted $20,000 to each of 60,000 survivors for their 

forced incarceration. Perhaps more importantly, it stated that the removal and 

incarceration were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political 

leadership". President George H. W. Bush issued a formal apology in 1989.