Japanese: Internment Camps

AT THE BEGINNING

This picture is of japanese men and women in the internment camps. It was not the same as a nazi concentration camp they're not forced to work. They just have very close living conditions.

"An H-shaped building in the middle of the block that contained a laundry room, separate bathrooms for males and females. All shower and toilet stalls were without doors or curtains. Our sleeping quarters consisted of two large rooms (approximately 20' x 25'); metal cots, and army blankets. In the beginning, guards with questionable intelligence manned the towers around the fenced camp. However, even if one could escape there was no place to go in the desert, in Utah, on foot, with an Asian face. Eventually, the guards were gone but no one tried to escape. A person could legitimately leave the camp if a person relocated to any place but the West Coast."

Quoted by Reiko Oshima Komoto. This quote was taken by a young girl who was in the Internment Camp. It is about what it looked like while they were in the camps. This is a primary source because it is her actual account about what it was like. http://http//www.uwec.edu/Geography/Ivogeler/w188/life.htm

"President Roosevelt himself called the 10 facilities "concentration camps." " http://http//www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html

The above quote was given by President Franklin Roosevelt. This is a secondary source because it was put together after WWII. From this quote we can learn that the camps were not as good as people think they are.

http://http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/canadianhistory/camps/graphics/japannot.gif

The above picture is of the notice that was sent out to all japanese and japanese american people saying that they are permitted to go to certain areas and it lists the areas they are not allowed to be at. This is a primary source because it is a actual sign that was sent out to notify them. This document was created for the japanese and japanese americans.

This is a picture of some kids stuck behind the fence of an internment camp. This is a primary source because it was a picture taken at the time in the place that it happened.

The names of the 10 Internment Camps and where they were located are:

Amache (Granada), COOpened: August 24, 1942.Closed: October 15, 1945.Peak population: 7,318.
Gila River, AZ Opened July 20, 1942. Closed November 10, 1945.Peak Population 13,348.
Heart Mountain, WY Opened August 12, 1942.Closed November 10, 1945.Peak population 10,767.
Jerome, AR Opened October 6, 1942.Closed June 30, 1944.Peak population 8,497.
Manzanar, CA Opened March 21, 1942.Closed November 21, 1945.Peak population 10,046.
Minidoka, ID Opened August 10, 1942. Closed October 28, 1945.Peak population 9,397.
Poston (Colorado River), AZ Opened May 8, 1942. Closed November 28, 1945.Peak population 17,814.
Rohwer, AR Opened September 18, 1942. Closed November 30, 1945.Peak population 8,475.
Topaz (Central Utah), UT Opened September 11, 1942. Closed October 31, 1945.Peak population 8,130.
Tule Lake, CA Opened May 27, 1942. Closed March 20, 1946.Peak population 18,789. http://http//www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/camps.html

The above list is of the Internment Camps during WWII. This is a secondary source because it was put together after the war. This document was made probably for researchers or anybody that is interested in the topic. This is a reliable source because its a list and we can go find it in other places to back it up. From this list we learned that most of the Internment camps were in the Western half of the U.S. There were also a few in Arkansas. This might have been because there were lots of Japanese in that area or on the east coast.

IN THE END


Japanese Internment camps were very different from nazi concentration camps but still were not great. Though they were not worked to death and starved they didn't have an amazing time either. They were still able to go to school and hang out with friends but their freedoms, privacy, personal life, and everything else that used to be theirs was taken from them in the goverments attempt to stop them from doing something that was never even planned to do in the first place.

Almost 50 years later, through the efforts of leaders and advocates of the Japanese American community, Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Popularly known as the Japanese American Redress Bill, this act acknowledged that "a grave injustice was done" and mandated Congress to pay each victim of internment $20,000 in reparations. The reparations were sent with a signed apology from the President of the United States on behalf of the American people. The period for reparations ended in August of 1998.

This was after the war was over and the goverment felt bad about sending the japanese to the Internment Camps. They realized that they were not up to no good. So they wrote and apology that was personally signed by President Bill clinton. They also paid them money because after they were released they were in a bad financial state. This is a secondary source because it was not written at the time it happened. It is reliable though because there are pictures of it and place wher you can find it to back up the information. http://http//www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html

This is a picture of an apology letter from the goverment and signed by President Bill Clinton. It was apologizing to the japanese for what had happened to them. It was sent about 50 years after WWII. http://https//coreycr0708.wikispaces.com/file/view/letter.gif

Questions:

1- What are 3 places that the japanese were sent to for internment camps?

2- Why did the goverment put the japanese into internment camps?

3- How were the Japanese internment camps different from nazi concentration camps?