The Gila River Indian Community maintains sovereignty over and owns its 
land, visitors may not visit the former sites unless they have applied 
for and received a permit from the community.
		The former prison camp is one of two that were located in Arizona, the Colorado River Relocation Center, known as Poston, near Parker, Arizona is the other camp. The Gila River War Relocation Memorial is located north of Indian Route 
24, west of Interstate 10, near Sacaton, the capitol of the Gila River 
Indian Community. On December 21, 2006, President Bush signed H.R. 1492 into law to restore the Gila River Relocation Center along with nine other former Japanese American prison camps dating to World War II. Little restoration has been accomplished at Gila River. Among the 13,000 residents imprisoned at Gila River was actor Pat Morita (Happy Days and Karate Kid) and Kazuo Otani, who served with the "Go For Broke" 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Europe and is a Medal of Honor recipient.

The Gila River Relocation Center, or Rivers Relocation Center, is one of the two World War II prison camps located on American Indian Reservations in Arizona at which Americans of Japanese descent were incarcerated. It was located about 30 miles (48.3 km) southeast of Phoenix.  It became Arizona's fourth-largest city during World War II, with a peak population of 13,348.

Gila River War Relocation Memorial

Ten War Relocation Centers housed more than 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. Internees were removed from their homes in the Military Exclusion Zone that spanned the entire West Coast. 

Legislation signed in 2006 provided for federal funding to restore and interpret these sites, with additional funding and leadership from local organizers. Some of these sites are still being developed, while others have been richly interpreted. But each of these sites contains thousands of stories.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Pres. Franklin Roosevelt ordered the evacuation of Japanese Americans to internment camps.&nbsp; While these camps were being hastily constructed, the Japanese Americans were housed at processing centers.&nbsp; The vast area of Santa Anita Park served this purpose for housing these persons from San Diego and Santa Clara counties in California. When Japanese Americans arrived, they were given an army cot, blanket and straw tick which they used in rows and rows of barracks that were constructed on the park's parking lot.&nbsp; More than 8,000 lived in converted horse stables that some claimed never lost the stink of manure.&nbsp; The race track was surrounded with barbed wire and searchlights.&nbsp; Once the Japanese Americans has been evacuated to their respective internment camps, the park was converted to an army base. where more than 100,000 soldiers were trained in weapons, ammunition and combat vehicles. In 2001, a marker was placed close to the grandstand of the racetrack commemorating this segment of the racetrack's history. 

















&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Its February 19,1942, President Roosevelt just announced
the actions of Executive Order 9066 which declared all Japanese American
citizens to be relocated into temporary internment camps across America. In
order for them to go to certain camps each Japanese American citizen had to go
through a processing center and then waited to be relocated to a camp. These
processing centers were just holding areas for the time being. Santa Anita Race
Track in California was used for one of those centers. It housed over 8000
Japanese American&nbsp;

With the government building the barracks on site officials
also made old horse stables living quarters for people with only a cot, a
blanket to sleep with. Families could only bring a bag of belongings and had to
leave behind all other goods. George Takei whom was a young boy at the time he
was taking to his processing camp in the Northern California area was then
relocated to an Arkansas Camp. When the citizens arrived to the centers they
were given a meal card, ID number and then waited days, weeks, or months to get
put into a interment&nbsp;

Over time Executive order 9066 processed and incarnated over
120,000 Japanese American citizens.<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[1]</a> Most
of these families came from 2nd and 3rd generations of
Japanese families and were called Issei and Nisei. They were also called
cultural traitors. Around this time of February Three months after Pearl
Harbor, Japanese Americans’ constitutional rights no longer existed. Japanese
American people could not leave the country, because all of their assets had
been frozen when the initial raids occurred. The Issei generations could not
become American citizens and thus were labeled as “enemy alien.” The right to
sign up for the draft during the start of the war was denied due to being of
Japanese descent. Rights and duties as simple as buying gasoline were halted
due to panic of threat. At the end of February a committee that was created by
the House of Representatives, which investigated the national defense
migration, held hearings about what action should be taken for the Japanese
“enemy aliens”. It was until John Tolan of the Democratic Party that said, “If
it is necessary from a danger standpoint the United States should evacuate all
Japanese Americans into camps.”<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[2]</a> The
Japanese were dehumanized as soon as they arrived to the camps. They only had
the clothes on their backs and the few they were able to take from their homes.
In California camps especially, it was the norm to use abandoned racehorse
stables as homes. Most camps only had metal cots with hay mattresses, and never
had enough to stay warm in the harsh weather conditions. Though the treatments
were insensitive and immoral, the Japanese spirit stayed strong and gave them a
sense of great community for one another. Although they were in these camps out
of punishment for their cultural heritage, they managed to keep their
traditions alive through the tough times.<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[3]</a>George
Takei put it the best way, “Our democracy and be just as great as the people
but can also be just as fallible as the people.” Looking back through history
and when Pearl Harbor happened, America, was terrified and needed to do
something. At the time this was that something. We at times now have entered
the same paradox. Not to far from here San Bernadino was attacked by terrorists
and multiple attacks around the world had happened. At that time the world was
scared, an American official gave rise to this idea again, about labeling
Muslim people. We learn from our mistakes in history not repeat them. We cannot
be a great country if we separate each other. United We Stand, Divided We
Fall.&nbsp; 

<div> 





<div>

<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[1]</a>
Taylor Shiro, Japanese Internment Camps:
Inequality in the Land of Equality (California: University of the Pacific,
2013), 70

</div>

<div>

<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[2]</a>
Roger Daniels, Prisoners Without Trial (New
York: Hill and Wang, 1993), 26

</div>

<div>

<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[3]</a>
Shiro, 70

&nbsp; 

</div>

</div>

Santa Anita Park served two purposes during WWII.  From March 1942 until October 1942, it served as an assembly and processing center for Japanese Americans prior to their displacement of internment camps across the United States.  In all, over 20,000 Japanese Americans were processed there.  After October 1942 until  1945 the property was utilized as the largest ordnance training center on the West Coast --Camp Santa Anita.  During these years, over 100,000 soldiers were trained there.  Prior to the war Santa Anita Park served as a horse racing park.  Racing resumed after VE day in May 1945.

Santa Anita Park During World War II-Japanese Relocation and Military Training Centers

Located in the Owens Valley in central California, Manzanar is 225 miles northeast of Los Angeles and adjacent to the Sierra Nevada 
mountain range. The name, "Manzanar", is Spanish for apple. The land originally was Paiute and Shoshone. Settlers of European ancestry moved into the area after the discovery of gold in California in the mid-19th century. Manzanar Irrigated Farms, which bought the land from a local rancher 
named John Shepherd in 1905, established a fruit orchard and distributed their produce to the Los Angeles area. After the attack by Japan at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and without due process, the government gave everyone of Japanese ancestry 
living on the West Coast only days to decide what to do with their 
houses, farms, businesses, and other possessions. Each family was assigned an identification number and, taking only what they could carry, were transported under military guard to 17 temporary assembly
 centers located at racetracks, fairgrounds, and similar facilities in 
Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona. The first Japanese Americans to arrive at Manzanar, in March 1942, were men and women who volunteered to help build the camp. Japanese Americans provided most of the labor for the construction of Manzanar and the improvements made during their years of incarceration. The 500-acre housing section was surrounded by barbed wire, guard towers with searchlights and patrolled by military police. By 
September 1942 more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were crowded into 504
 barracks organized into 36 blocks. Manzanar was the only camp that was used to confine Japanese American orphans 
during the war. In total, 101 children resided in a section of Manzanar 
known as Children's Village. Japan surrendered&nbsp;on August 14th, 1945, and&nbsp;Manzanar closed on November 21st, 1945. After the war, all but three of the camp’s 800 buildings were dismantled
 or relocated. Former Manzanar buildings were re-purposed and can be 
found throughout the Owens Valley. The National Park Service has led major projects to recreate some of the buildings and features at Manzanar, including barracks, a mess hall, the fire station, and latrine, which helps visitors understand the lack of privacy faced by inmates. The National Park Service also organizes educational tours of the site and operates interpretive center in the 
restored Manzanar auditorium. The Manzanar Committee organizes an annual pilgrimage to the former prison camp each April, which draws thousands each year. The annual pilgrimage is open to the general public and includes a Manzanar at Dusk program in the early evening at the Lone Pine High School gymnasium. Manzanar is open to the public year round and provides self-guided walking and driving tours through the one-square mile former prison camp.

After the authorization of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, the War Relocation Authority established ten major incarceration centers at which over 120,000 American citizens of Japanese descent and Japanese immigrants were confined. 

The former Manzanar Relocation Center opened as a temporary "reception center" under the control of the Wartime Civil Control Administration on March 22, 1942, until the War Relocation Authority oversaw control of the camp on June 1, 1942. At its peak, the camp held 10,046 people. Manzanar closed on November 21, 1945, after the end of World War II.

Manzanar National Historic Site

Located southeast of Tulelake, California, the Tule Lake Unit, World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument is the former site of one of the ten Japanese internment camps during World War II. It was built in 1942 and was initially called the Tule Lake War Relocation Center but it was renamed (and security upgraded) a year later to the Tule Lake Segregation Center. It became a maximum security camp for those proved to be "disloyal" or who protested conditions at other camps. Draft resisters were also held at there.  

The World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument commemorates sites of major importance in the Pacific theater of the war. It comprises nine different sites; the camp is the only one located in the contiguous United States. At its peak it held over 18,000 prisoners (the total number of prisoners at the camps reached 120,000). Immediately after the war it served as a holding place for Japanese Americans who were going to be either expatriated or deported to Japan. The camp finally closed for good in March 1946. Many prisoners filed a class action lawsuit to regain their citizenship but this did not come to fruition until twenty years later. 

The camp is fenced off but visitors can stop next to it and look inside. There is also a sign posted describing the history of the camp.  The site—which includes the internment camp, a 1935 Civilian Conservation Corps Camp, and the Peninsula/Castle Rock formation—is a California Historical Landmark, a National Historic Landmark, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There is a camp visitor center in Tulelake and it is open weekdays from 9:30-4:30. Tours of the internment and CCC camps are offered from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Tule Lake Unit of World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument

In 2000, the Bainbridge Island WWII Nikkei Internment and Exclusion Memorial Committee was formed with a partnership between the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community and the Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap Interfaith Council. The two organizations have worked together in recent years to&nbsp;create a meaningful and site–specific memorial that interprets the history of Japanese internment and honors&nbsp;those who endured the experience of being forced from one's home, stripped of their property, and placed in an internment camp.&nbsp;

On March 30, 1942, two hundred twenty–seven men, women and children — two–thirds of them American citizens — were forcibly removed from their homes by US Army soldiers and put on a ferry to Seattle's Bainbridge Island. These were just the first of nearly 120,000 other Nikkei — people of Japanese ancestry – who were exiled from their homes on the West Coast following Executive Order 9066. This action by President Franklin Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 was followed by Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1 on March 24, 1942. Together these orders and the actions of military and civilian leaders resulted in the internment of people of Japanese descent in Washington and throughout the West Coast. The memorial commemorates and honors the people involved — both those exiled and their island neighbors — and brings awareness of the powerful capacity of human beings and a nation to heal, forgive and care for one another. 

Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial

On February 19, 1942,&nbsp;President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed the War Department to establish military zones. While this executive order did not specifically authorize the imprisonment of Japanese and Japanese Americans, it was, according to the National Park Service, “intended to apply to them exclusively.”1 During this time, numerous Congressmen and the Secretary of War considered the mass removal of Japanese a valid measure for preventing espionage. However, there never were, and never would be, any convictions of&nbsp;espionage via the Japanese in the United States.Roosevelt’s executive order led to the&nbsp;creation of&nbsp;ten "relocation centers," including Minidoka. The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was established in March 1942 and forced over 100,000&nbsp;Japanese and Japanese&nbsp;Americans&nbsp;to leave their homes and move into makeshift camps that were&nbsp;operated like prison camps. Prior to the actions of Adolf Hitler, relocation camps were referred to as "concentration camps" owing to the large concentration of people that were held inside.&nbsp;There is still debate today over the most appropriate terminology.Minidoka Relocation Center was established in August 1942, covering 950 acres in the Idahoan desert. At its peak population, Minidoka held 9,397 Japanese Americans from Washington State, Oregon, California, and Alaska. Detainees lived in group barracks, ate meals in a mess hall, and shared bathrooms and laundry services. Over time,&nbsp;Minidoka, grew to&nbsp;resemble a city under armed guard&nbsp;with&nbsp;schools, grocery stores, salons, parks, a library, and a&nbsp;fire station. However, these amenities did not change the fact that thousands had been forced from their homes into primitive barracks. Imprisonment was demoralizing and perpetuated the discrimination against Asian Americans. Jobs at the camps were scarce, with the&nbsp;average detainee being paid only a fraction of what they were making prior to the war.&nbsp;Detainees at Minidoka organized strikes, protests, and a labor council called the Fair Play Committee, which demanded better pay for their labor and equal pay to white staff. Conflicts between the detainees and administration slowed or stalled projects such as construction of the gymnasium, which was never finished. Under these oppressive conditions, detainees strived to create a sense of normalcy. Baseball became a popular outlet for detainees at Minidoka seeking community and physical activity.&nbsp;&nbsp;A number of detainees also joined the U.S. military, partly to&nbsp;prove their loyalty to the United States and partly as a way to escape the relocation centers. A number of Japanese Americans applied to serve in the military at the outbreak of war; some were accepted while some were denied due to their ethnicity. Some joined the famed&nbsp;442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit composed of men from the relocation centers. This segregated unit saw heavy action in&nbsp;France and Italy. Two soldiers from the&nbsp;Minidoka camp were awarded the&nbsp;Medal of Honor for their valor. Minidoka, along with almost all of the camps, had an Honor Roll that recognized military service, including women of the Women’s Army Corps and the Red Cross.&nbsp;The camp operated from August 10, 1942 until October 28, 1945. The War Relocation Authority was transferred to the Department of the Interior, led by Secretary Harold Ickes, who disapproved of internment and began dismantling the camps. With Japan’s weakening and eventual surrender on August 15, 1945, the United States military could no longer enforce internment. Closure of Minidoka and the other centers was still a difficult process for detainees as they awaited freedom, struggling to find food and other amenities as camp buildings closed around them. Most detainees returned to their hometowns on the West Coast. Though the war was over and the centers were closed, prejudice and violence towards Japanese in the United States persisted, making it hard for the freed detainees to find housing and work as they rebuilt their lives.&nbsp;&nbsp;In the following decades, freed detainees and their descendants have advocated for restitution from the federal and state governments. In 1988, President Reagan publicly apologized to the Japanese Americans for their maltreatment and signed the&nbsp;Civil Liberties Act, which provided limited&nbsp;financial redress to the detainees and their families.&nbsp;Furthermore, sites like Minidoka gained more widespread recognition as historically significant places worthy of preservation.&nbsp;&nbsp;Minidoka was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, which federally recognized its significance but did not legally protect it from destruction. In 2001, President George W. Bush declared Minidoka a National Monument via executive order, which protected the site more quickly than other historical designations that must pass through Congress. Yet the National Monument designation covered only part of the historic site, with the rest threatened by agricultural developers. Citizens of Jerome County and others continued to&nbsp;petitioned to protect the site. These threats received national attention when Minidoka was named one of eleven Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2007. In May 2008, President Bush’s Consolidated Natural Resources Act converted Minidoka from a National Monument to a National Historic Site, which encompassed more land and further recognized its historical significance.&nbsp;Through the efforts of the National Park Service, the Friends of Minidoka nonprofit, and dedicated volunteers, Minidoka is being preserved and interpreted for the public so that all visitors can learn about this moment in history. Reconstructing an original baseball field, complete with a scoreboard, benches,&nbsp;bleachers, and exhibit signs,&nbsp;is not only preserving history but inviting&nbsp;visitors and communities to connect with this&nbsp;history on a personal level. Minidoka&nbsp;&nbsp;has also&nbsp;become a site of annual pilgrimages among former detainees and their loved ones.&nbsp;To learn more about the effort to preserve this site, please visit&nbsp;National Park Service and Friends of Minidoka websites below.&nbsp;

Minidoka National Historical Site marks the location of one of ten "relocation centers" in the country that were built to imprison Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. Minidoka was the largest of the forced relocation centers in America, holding approximately 13,000 people over the course of three years. The site, threatened by development, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, became a National Monument in 2001, and then a National Historic Site in 2008, which federally acknowledges its historical significance.  Today, the site includes a 1.6 mile interpretive trail with signs that point out some of the ruins of the relocation center and its history. One of the buildings is used as a visitor center where it is possible to pick up brochures and maps of the site.

Minidoka National Historic Site

Located within the Sevier Desert, the terrain of the former Topaz prison camp is a flat, desolate place 
with temperatures ranging from 106°F to below zero.&nbsp; After the United States entry into World War II, farmers in the Delta knew that a labor shortage would result with all the young
 men going to war. A proposal was made to bring Japanese Americans to work re-farming fields that had been abandoned in the 1920s. The federal government acquired 9,560 acres from one 
individual and 8,840 acres from Millard County, for approximately $1 per acre. Construction of Topaz began in June 1942, but the camp was not completed at the time it opened in September 1942. Construction was completed by the first 214 prisoners who had volunteered to help finish the camp. Topaz was designed to 
house 9,000 prisoners in forty-two blocks laid out in checkerboard 
fashion. Each residential block had twelve 
barracks. A 
fence consisting of four strands of barbed wire enclosed the entire 
19,000 acres of the camp, which covered one-square mile 
(640 acres). Buildings were not sufficiently insulated for the extreme heat or cold at Topaz, and ill health was common.James Hatsuki Wakasa, 63, was shot and killed by a guard at Topaz, for walking too
 close to the fence on April 11, 1943. On the night of the shooting, Wakasa's body was quickly removed 
from the scene by camp officials who also placed guards on alert, further alarming those confined at Topaz. The order was removed two days later. A large crowd of 1,700 gathered inside the camp to hold a 
funeral for Wakasa. Unrest over the killing of Wakasa led to massive 
work stoppages. In response, regulations were changed 
regarding the number of guards and use of weapons at Topaz. Camp administration also allowed people to go outside of the geographically remote camp. Entire blocks 
went on picnics out in the desert and used Antelope Springs as a camping
 spot, complete with tents and a swimming hole. Topaz is noted for a large arts community. Chiura Obata,
 an instructor of art at the University of California at Berkeley, had organized an art school at the Tanforan Detention Center in northern California. He believed that art had the 
power to heal the human spirit. Obata joined with fellow prisoners Miné Okubo, Hisako Hibi, George Matsusaburo Hibi, and others to organize an art school at Topaz with 16 instructors. Over 600 students enrolled in 23 classes in graphic arts, anatomy, oil painting, and drafting. Topaz had two elementary schools and 
one high school, which, despite few resources, provided sports, student clubs, a 
school newspaper, a yearbook, and dances. The two
 elementary schools enrolled 675 students and the high school enrolled 
1,037, and were staffed by Caucasian and Japanese American teachers. After Topaz was closed in October 1945, the land was sold and most of the buildings were auctioned off and removed from the site. The pipes used to provide water to the camp were sold, and the trenches remain following their removal years ago. Many of the buildings from the camp are used as farm buildings throughout central Utah and an alert observer will see several of them during the drive to and from the camp site. One of the barracks has been moved to Delta, for the Topaz Museum. In 1976, chapters of the Japanese American Citizens League in Salt Lake City purchased an acre of land at the former prison camp for a 
monument. In 1982, Delta High School teacher Jane Beckwith began 
studying Topaz with her journalism classes. People in Delta who had 
worked at Topaz or who had made friends there brought the class 
artifacts that they had saved since the war. Several years later, 
Beckwith began a nonprofit group, the Topaz Museum Board, to preserve 
the Topaz site and create a museum. The Topaz Museum Board, a non-profit, volunteer organization, now owns 634 acres of the former Topaz camp. The Topaz Museum opened in 2015 at 55 West Main in Delta and is now open to the public, Monday through Saturday.

The Central Utah Relocation Center, known as Topaz, was a prison camp where Americans of Japanese descent were confined during World War II.  

Located 16 miles northwest of Delta in central Utah, on the lip of the Great Basin, Topaz was one of the smaller of the ten War Relocation Authority camps. The structures of the camp were moved or demolished after the camp closed in 1945, however the camp location can be viewed. A total of 11,212 people were incarcerated at Topaz during its operation from September 11, 1942 to October 31, 1945.

The nearby Topaz Museum in Delta, Utah, exhibits the history of Topaz and provides displays about the camp and camp life.


Topaz (Central Utah Relocation Center)

The Colorado River Relocation Center was referred to as Poston, after Charles D. Poston, who was the first Superintendent for Indian Affairs in Arizona. Poston was extremely hot, with temperatures well over 100 degrees in the summer. In the winter, nighttime temperatures sometimes dropped to freezing and below. The heat and constant wind which blew sand into the barracks prompted those incarcerated at Poston to refer to it as Roasten, Toastin, and Dustin.The Colorado River is located approximately three miles from Poston, which was established on the Colorado River Indian Reservation, against the wishes of the Tribal Council. The Tribal Council was overruled by the Office of Indian Affairs and the army. Today, the Colorado River Indian Tribes is comprised of four tribes, the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi, and Navajo. Poston included three separate camps and had a peak population of 17,814, the majority U.S. citizens from Southern California. It was Arizona's third largest city at the time and the second largest confinement center of the war. A single fence surrounded the entire camp, with a separate area outside the fence for army guards' barracks. The barracks that served as living quarters had no cooling systems, the dark tar paper walls only absorbing more heat. As people arrived in the desert in May 1942, the temperatures were well above 100 degrees. There were fatalities due to heat stroke and lack of health facilities.After traveling for a day or more by bus to Poston, each adult was required to answer questions about their occupation, proceed to fingerprinting, then off to another barrack to stand in line for a housing assignment, and after that a physical examination. Only after all this, were families loaded into trucks and driven to their barrack.The space allotted to each family in a barrack was a 20 by 25-foot barren room, with four family "apartments" in each barrack divided by hanging cloth partitions. For each person, there was one Army cot, one blanket, and one piece of cloth for a mattress, which they had to fill with hay. The Poston Elementary School complex included 13 adobe school buildings constructed in 1943 and designed by Yoshisaku Hirose, a Japanese-born architect. The school contained a wood shop, an auditorium, a craft and supply building, a school office, a library, eight classroom buildings, and a network of concrete sidewalks with canopies.The majority of the 1,900 camp structures were removed after Poston closed in November 1945 and the land was returned to the Colorado River Indian Tribes. Today, most of the land around the relocation center is irrigated farm fields. The Poston Memorial Monument was built in 1992, on tribal land with tribal support.Restoration of specific camp features by the Poston Restoration Project is ongoing, with a stated mission to restore the Camp 1 school auditorium, classrooms and barracks as living museums to exhibit the personal stories and archival items for visitors and researchers. A pilgrimage of families incarcerated at Poston was held in April 2018, with an official welcome by the Colorado River Indian Tribes.

The Colorado River Relocation Center, known as Poston, was a War Relocation Authority prison camp during World War II where Americans of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated. Poston was the largest of the ten concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2012. At its peak, the complex house more than 17,000 people. The remaining structures of the Poston school complex are the only extant example of an elementary school complex built within a War Relocation Authority confinement site. The Poston Memorial Monument was built in 1992 on tribal land and with tribal support, and still stands. 

Colorado River Relocation Center

This
location was one of ten ordered to isolate 120,000 Japanese Americans that, for
the most part, came from the West Coast states.&nbsp;
In order to control the removal and confinement of a group of people of
this magnitude, an agency called the War Relocation Administration (WRA) was
made.&nbsp; Ten locations for relocation
facilities were chosen by April 1942; California, Arizona, and Arkansas were
all home to 2 of these locations, and Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming all
had one of these locations.&nbsp; Several
people in Wyoming were not too fond of the idea of this center being in the
state and instead saw it as a patriotic burden to protect the country.

The
first Japanese came to Heart Mountain on 12 August 1942.&nbsp; The center had 450 barracks, all of which had
6 living quarters; the biggest of these being 24 feet by 20 feet single dorms.&nbsp; The most noticeable characteristic of the
barracks were the tarpaper covers.&nbsp; Every
barrack had a potbellied stove but not a single one had restrooms and therefore
the Japanese had to share restrooms.&nbsp; Not
one living quarter had a kitchen, and the Japanese had to eat their food in
mess halls.

When
the Japanese first came to the center the barbed-wire fence meant to go around
the center was not finished.&nbsp; The
internees fought against the building of the fence leading to its building to
be slowed down more; in November of 1942 they sent a petition that had 3,000
signatures to WRA Director Dillion Meyer.&nbsp;
Despite this, the fence was allowed to be built and was finished by
December; this caused the feeling of being isolated to be intensified for the
internees.&nbsp; For the children living at
the camp, schools were constructed; a high school was part of this construction
and was finished by the fall of 1943.&nbsp;
The schools were for children from elementary school to high
school.&nbsp; About 1,500 students went to
Heart Mountain High School that was made up of grades 8-12.

The
internees did most of the work that was necessary to keep the camp functioning,
and the WRA administrators controlled its basic operations.&nbsp; The internees were paid from $12 per month to
$19 per month depending on if what they were being paid for was professional or
non-professional work; teachers and doctors were part of this.&nbsp; The internees of this center also were employed
as manual laborers on farms and ranches in Wyoming and other states close by
from Nebraska to Oregon.&nbsp; The WRA administrators
pushed activities that promoted American civics, like scouting and adult
English courses, as a way to achieve an Americanization goal.&nbsp; The internees here also took part in several
events like theatrical and musical events, Christmas celebrations, athletic
events, and festivals.&nbsp; Several of these
activities, especially the ones that had Japanese roots, had to have the
permission of the project director.&nbsp; One
common event was Obon Odori, which was a festival noticed every summer in
several Japanese American neighborhoods.1

Throughout World War II, Japanese from Oregon, Washington, and California were moved to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Park County, Wyoming.  This act was in response to an executive order issued by President Franklin Roosevelt.  The Japanese here stayed from the 12 August 1942 to 10 November 1945, two months following the closing of WWII with Japan.  When the camp reached its peak, it was home to over 10,000 people.

Heart Mountain Relocation Center

The Granada War Relocation Center was a Japanese American internment camp located in southeast Colorado. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the forced relocation of Japanese Americans with Executive Order 9066. Over the spring of 1942, some 120,000 Japanese Americans were "evacuated" and placed in isolated "relocation centers" like Granada. Granada was only one of ten such camps and the smallest. Granada opened August 27, 1942, and reached a peak population of 7,318 persons by February 1943. Nearly all of the camp's original internees came from California. Each person was only allowed to bring one bag. Therefore, many people were forced to sell what they could or give away their possessions.

Although relations with the residents of Granada and other nearby communities were largely positive, many Coloradans protested the construction of Amache High School in 1943. The high school was completed in June 1943, but plans to construct two additional schools for elementary and junior high students were abandoned; middle schoolers shared the Amache High building with older students, while elementary school classes continued in a barracks.

Adults in camp had several opportunities for employment, which included the police department, fire department, teaching and the hospital. Most of the work in Granada was directed at agricultural production, however. The land surrounding the residential areas were devoted to farming and raising livestock. The WRA budget restricted the per-inmate food allotment to 45 cents a day; the camp was intended to be mostly self-sufficient in its food production. These efforts proved successful at Granada, where internee laborers produced enough to feed the entire camp population and send the surplus to other camps

Today the camp is a lonely, desolate place on the high prairie, covered by scrubby vegetation and small cacti. All but one of the buildings were removed. The sole remaining structure from the camp is a pumphouse beside the main water tank; both are still in use. Cement foundations of most of the buildings remain.&nbsp;In the southwest corner of the camp is a small cemetery and memorial dedicated to the Japanese Americans from there who volunteered to fight in Europe in World War II. &nbsp;A large stone memorial with men's names engraved in it sits in the cemetery in memory of those who died defending the U.S. in the 442nd. The graves at the cemetery are only of children who died while at the camp. The camp was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 18, 1994, and designated a National Historic Landmark on February 10, 2006. On December 21, 2006, President George W. Bush signed H.R. 1492 into law guaranteeing $38,000,000 in federal money to restore the Granada relocation center and nine other former internment camps.

Granada War Relocation Center was one of 10 "relocation centers" operated by the War Relocation Authority during WWII. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt authorized the forced relocation of Japanese Americans with Executive Order 9066. During the spring of 1942, around 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their communities and placed in internment camps known as "relocation centers" like Granada. The site of the former camp was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 18, 1994.

Granada War Relocation Center; Camp Amache

War hysteria, racial prejudice, and failure of political leadership led 
to the forced removal of 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast 
following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.&nbsp; Two-thirds of those incarcerated were American-born citizens, most under 21 years old. 
&nbsp;These Americans were imprisoned in 10 camps across the United States, including Rohwer and Jerome in Desha County, Arkansas.The World War II Japanese-American Internment Museum opened in 2013 inside the railroad depot. Since its opening, thousands of visitors from all 50 states and from 44 countries have toured the Museum. In 1945, two large concrete monuments were erected in the Rohwer Memorial
 Cemetery. The first monument 
was dedicated to all those who died while incarcerated at Rohwer. The 
second monument commemorates the young men who fought and lost their lives while serving in Europe in the United States Army’s "Go For Broke" 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team.Restoration work at the Rohwer Japanese American Relocation Center Cemetery was recognized in 2015 by the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas for Excellence in Preservation Through Restoration. Little remains of the Jerome and Rohwer prison camps, which now are surrounded by farmland and some portions on private land, however their locations can be viewed. The Rohwer Relocation Center Memorial Cemetery&nbsp;can&nbsp;be&nbsp;viewed&nbsp;during&nbsp;daylight&nbsp;hours,&nbsp;with parking on the gravel road into the cemetery.

The WWII Japanese American Internment Museum opened in April 2013 and is housed in the renovated McGehee Railroad Depot. The Museum shares the history of the 17,147 Americans of Japanese descent who were imprisoned at nearby Jerome and Rohwer during World War II.

The Museum is a good place to learn about the history, before visiting the former prison camp sites at Rohwer and Jerome. The Missouri Pacific Railroad Depot-McGehee was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

Japanese American Internment Sites 1942-1946

Gila River War Relocation Memorial

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources