Japanese American internment facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Japanese American Internment
Manzanar internment camp for Japanese Americans
Operation
Period	February 1942 – June 30, 1946
Location	United States
Cause	Attack on Pearl Harbor; racism; war hysteria
Victims
Total	Over 110,000 Japanese Americans, including over 66,000 U.S. citizens, forced into internment camps
Deaths	1,862 from disease in camps

Japanese American internment happened during World War II, when the United States government forced about 110,000 Japanese Americans to leave their homes and live in internment camps. These were like prisons. Many of the people who were sent to internment camps had been born in the United States.

Background

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and declared war on the United States. Many Americans were angry, and some blamed all Japanese people for what had happened at Pearl Harbor. They spread rumors that some Japanese people knew about the attack ahead of time and had helped the Japanese military. The FBI and other parts of the United States government knew that these rumors were not true, but did not say anything.

Japanese Americans began to feel that other Americans were becoming upset with them. For example, John Hughes, a man who read the news on the radio in Los Angeles, California, spent about a month saying bad things about Japanese Americans. There were reports of businesses that had anti-Japanese signs. For example, a barber shop put up a sign saying "Free shaves for Japs" and "not responsible for accidents." A funeral home hung a sign saying "I'd rather do business with a Jap than an American."

Internment begins

Children say the Pledge of Allegiance while at school in an internment camp

In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This order said that people who lived in some parts of the country could be taken out of those areas for any reason. While the order did not use the exact words "Japanese Americans", people knew that those were the people who would be taken out of those areas. The areas included all of California and the western parts of Oregon, Washington, and Arizona. (See the area marked "exclusion zone" on the map on this page.) This was where most Japanese Americans lived at that time.

To keep Japanese Americans from leaving these areas on their own, the government stopped many of them from taking money out of their bank accounts. This made it harder for them to move.

Japanese Americans were given only 48 hours to leave for internment camps in other states. They were only allowed to carry one bag with them, and could not bring radios or cameras.

Who was interned

"Members of the Mochida family awaiting evacuation bus Identification tags are used to aid in keeping the family unit intact during all phases of evacuation

In total, the United States forced over 110,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps.

About 80% of the Japanese-American people who lived in the continental United States were forced to leave their homes and live in internment camps. More than three out of every five of these people were born in the United States, and were United States citizens.

Most of the Japanese Americans who were interned lived in the continental United States. About 160,000 Japanese Americans lived in the state of Hawaii, but only a little over 1,000 of them were interned. Because there were so many Japanese American people living in such a small state, interning them would be almost impossible.

In the camps

Map showing where the Japanese American internment camps were

There were three government agencies that ran camps. Ninety percent of the Japanese Americans were in camps run by the War Relocation Authority (WRA). Only Japanese Americans lived in the WRA camps.

Ten percent of the Japanese Americans were in mixed-race camps. These were either run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) or the United States Army. Many different people were interned in INS and Army camps. These people included:

• German and Italian immigrants
• German Americans and Italian Americans
• Some refugees
• Commercial seamen from Germany and Italy whose ships were taken by the United States Navy, and passengers on those ships

A monument at Manzanar, "to console the souls of the dead" (2002)

WRA camps were surrounded by barbed wire. They were also guarded by soldiers who waited in watchtowers holding guns. Some people were shot. For example, James Wakasa, who stepped outside the barbed wire fence, was shot and killed. The guard who shot him said that Wakasa was trying to escape, but the Japanese Americans in the camp did not believe the guard. Most of the camps were many miles away from the coast, and often in rural areas. Many of the camps were in the desert, which was uncomfortable for many of the Japanese Americans who were not used to that type of climate. This also meant that even if somebody escaped, there would be nowhere for them to go.

In the camps, people had to stand in line to eat or to go to the bathroom.

One famous camp was Manzanar, which was in California. Many Japanese from Los Angeles and San Francisco were sent there. Other camps included Poston in Arizona and Minidoka in Idaho. There were a few camps outside of the western U.S., such as Jerome in Arkansas. Japanese Americans were often crowded into small spaces, such as race tracks, before being sent to the camps.

A grandfather and grandson at Manzanar. The elderly and very young children may have been more likely to get sick from the very hot and cold weather at the camps

The camps tried to provide medical care. Many of the people who worked in the camp hospitals were Japanese American doctors and nurses who lived in the internment camps. However, there were not enough doctors and nurses, and not enough medical supplies. Also, conditions at the camps helped cause some diseases. For example:

• Because the camps were so crowded, infectious diseases spread easily. These diseases included typhoid fever, smallpox, whooping cough, flu, diphtheria, and tuberculosis. The camps could give vaccines to prevent some of these illnesses, like typhoid fever and smallpox, but not others.
• Bad sanitation caused outbreaks of food poisoning at many camps.
• At camps in the desert, there was so much dust that people with asthma and breathing problems got worse.
• At camps in Arkansas, people got malaria from mosquitoes.

A total of 1,862 people died from medical problems while in the internment camps. About one out of every 10 of these people died from tuberculosis.

The End of Internment

U.S. President Reagan signs a law apologizing for internment and promising money to survivors (1988)

By 1943, the government allowed some Japanese Americans to leave the camps to work or go to school. However, the government would not let them return to the West Coast. Some Japanese Americans were even allowed to serve as soldiers in the U.S. Army, and many served with honor in Europe.

In 1944, the United States government said that it would stop putting Japanese Americans in internment camps. The people who were placed in the camps were given $25 and a bus ticket home. However, it would take more than 40 years for the government to apologize to Japanese Americans for what had happened. In 1988, the government said it was sorry and paid $20,000 to people who had been sent to internment camps. Canada paid $21,000.

Images for kids

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  A per-state population map of the Japanese American population, with California leading with 93,717, from Final Report, Japanese Evacuation From the West Coast 1942

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  The San Francisco Examiner, April 1942

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  Tatsuro Masuda, a Japanese American, unfurled this banner in Oakland, California the day after the Pearl Harbor attack. This Dorothea Lange photograph was taken in March 1942, just prior to the man's internment.

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  A child is "Tagged for evacuation", Salinas, California, May 1942. Photo by Russell Lee.

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  A Japanese American shop, Asahi Dye Works, closing. The notice on the front is a reference to Owens Valley being the first and one of the largest Japanese American detention centers.

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  The baggage of Japanese Americans from the West Coast, at a makeshift reception center located at a racetrack

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  Dressed in uniform marking his service in World War I, a U.S. Navy veteran from San Pedro enters Santa Anita Assembly Center (April 1942)

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  Children wave from the window of a special train as it leaves Seattle with Bainbridge Island internees, March 30, 1942

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  1942 editorial propaganda cartoon in the New York newspaper PM by Dr. Seuss depicting Japanese Americans in California, Oregon, and Washington–states with the largest population of Japanese Americans–as prepared to conduct sabotage against the U.S.

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  Official notice of exclusion and removal

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  Fred Korematsu (left), Minoru Yasui (middle) and Gordon Hirabayashi (right) in 1986

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  Hayward, California. "Members of the Mochida family awaiting evacuation bus. Identification tags are used to aid in keeping the family unit intact during all phases of evacuation. Mochida operated a nursery and five greenhouses on a two-acre site in Eden Township. He raised snapdragons and sweet peas."

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  Dillon S. Myer with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visiting the Gila River Relocation Center on April 23, 1943

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  Former California artist Allen Hagio preparing a sign at the Rohwer Relocation Center

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  Heart Mountain Relocation Center, January 10, 1943

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  Ruins of the buildings in the Gila River War Relocation Center of Camp Butte

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  Harvesting spinach, Tule Lake Relocation Center, September 8, 1942

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  Nurse tending four orphaned babies at the Manzanar Children's Village

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  Manzanar Children's Village superintendent Harry Matsumoto with several orphan children

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  Japanese Americans in front of posters with internment orders

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  Trudging through the mud during rainy weather at the Jerome Relocation Center

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  Dust storm at the Manzanar War Relocation Center

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  Lt. Eugene Bogard, commanding officer of the Army Registration team, explains the purpose of registration to a group of Japanese Americans at Manzanar (February 11, 1943). All inmates between the ages of 18 and 38 were compelled to register.

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  The 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was composed primarily of Japanese Americans, served with uncommon distinction in the European Theatre of World War II. Many of the soldiers from the continental U.S. serving in the units had families who were held in concentration camps in the United States while they fought abroad.

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  Graveyard at the Granada Relocation Center in Amache, Colorado

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  Japanese American Memorial (Eugene, Oregon)

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  The cedar "story wall" at the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial

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  Rohwer Memorial Cemetery, declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992

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  Monument to the men of the 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team, Rohwer Memorial Cemetery

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  Painting by Don Troiani depicting soldiers of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team fighting in the Vosges

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  Two color guards and color bearers of the Japanese-American 442nd Combat Team stand at attention while their citations are read. They are standing on the ground of Bruyeres, France, where many of their comrades fell.

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  Remains of Dalton Wells, a National Register of Historic Places listing in Utah

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  Grandfather and grandson at Manzanar, July 2, 1942

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  Gordon Hirabayashi's Medal of Freedom and certificate

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  Teacher Lily Namimoto and her second grade class

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  Fourth grade class in barracks 3-4-B at Rohwer

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  General office in the high school at Rohwer

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  Senior physics class in barracks 11-F at the temporary high school quarters

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  A part of the brass section of the high school band

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  A baseball game at Manzanar. Picture by Ansel Adams, c. 1943.

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  Smithsonian photo of softball from the Heart Mountain Relocation Center

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  A basketball game at the Rohwer Relocation Center

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  A group of girls around a puppy at a football game

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  A tense moment in a football game between the Stockton and Santa Anita teams

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  A judo class at Rohwer. Classes were held every afternoon and evening.

See also

In Spanish: Campos de concentración para japoneses en los Estados Unidos para niños