National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

National Historic Landmarks Program

JAPANESE AMERICANS

IN WORLD WAR II

National Historic Landmarks Theme Study
Cover photo

Farm families of Japanese ancestry wait for a bus that will take them to the Tanforan Assembly 

Center, along with 595 others removed from the area near Centerville, California, under 

Civilian Exclusion Order No. 34. WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, May 9, 1942, courtesy of the 

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
JAPANESE AMERICANS

IN WORLD WAR II

A National Historic Landmarks Theme Study

Edited by

Barbara Wyatt

National Historic Landmarks Program

Based in part on Confinement and Ethnicity

by

Jeffery F. Burton

Mary M. Farrell

Florence B. Lord

Richard W. Lord

NPS Western Archeological and Conservation Center

Tucson, Arizona, 1999

With Contributions from

S. Curtis Breckenridge

Marilyn Harper

Produced by the

National Historic Landmarks Program

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Washington, DC

August 2012
ii
iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD................................................................................................................................. 1

PART 1, INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 3

Table 1. Wartime Properties Identified in Public Law 102-248................................................ 7

PART 2. HISTORIC CONTEXT............................................................................................... 9

THE PRELUDE TO RELOCATION......................................................................................... 9

REMOVAL............................................................................................................................... 22

CONFINEMENT...................................................................................................................... 34

ALTERNATIVES TO CONFINEMENT................................................................................. 43

RESISTANCE AND LEGAL CHALLENGES ....................................................................... 50

FREEDOM RESTORED.......................................................................................................... 56

RETROSPECTIVE................................................................................................................... 58

PART 3. ASSOCIATED PROPERTY TYPES....................................................................... 61

WCCA ASSEMBLY CENTERS ............................................................................................. 61

WRA RELOCATION CENTERS............................................................................................ 61

INTERNMENT/DETENTION FACILITIES .......................................................................... 68

U.S. ARMY FACILITIES ........................................................................................................ 70

JAPANESE AMERICAN WARTIME COMMUNITIES ....................................................... 71

OTHER PROPERTY TYPES .................................................................................................. 74

PART 4. SURVEY METHODOLOGY................................................................................... 77

Table 2. Wartime Properties not Specified in Public Law 102-248 ........................................ 79

PART 5. REGISTRATION GUIDELINES 

FOR NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS ....................................................................... 81

EVALUATION CHALLENGES ............................................................................................. 81

NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION ........................... 87

NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK EXCEPTIONS......................................................... 89

APPLYING THE CRITERIA................................................................................................... 90

APPLYING CRITERION 1 ..................................................................................................... 96

APPLYING CRITERION 2 ................................................................................................... 101

APPLYING CRITERION 4 ................................................................................................... 101

APPLYING CRITERION 5 ................................................................................................... 102

APPLYING CRITERION 6 ................................................................................................... 102

APPLYING THE EXCEPTIONS........................................................................................... 103

EVALUATING ABOVEGROUND INTEGRITY ................................................................ 105

EVALUATING ARCHEOLOGICAL INTEGRITY ............................................................. 108

PART 6. SURVEY RESULTS................................................................................................ 109

WCCA ASSEMBLY CENTERS ........................................................................................... 110

Fresno Assembly Center................................................................................................. 111

Marysville Assembly Center (Arboga Assembly Center) .............................................. 111

Mayer Assembly Center ................................................................................................. 112
iv

Merced Assembly Center................................................................................................ 113

Pinedale Assembly Center.............................................................................................. 114

Pomona Assembly Center............................................................................................... 115

Portland Assembly Center .............................................................................................. 116

Puyallup Assembly Center.............................................................................................. 118

Sacramento Assembly Center (Walerga Assembly Center)........................................... 118

Salinas Assembly Center ................................................................................................ 119

Stockton Assembly Center.............................................................................................. 123

Tulare Assembly Center ................................................................................................. 124

Turlock Assembly Center ............................................................................................... 125

WAR RELOCATION AUTHORITY RELOCATION CENTERS ....................................... 126

Relocation Centers Designated National Historic Landmarks ........................................... 128

Granada Relocation Center (Camp Amache) ................................................................. 128

Heart Mountain Relocation Center................................................................................. 131

Manzanar Relocation Center........................................................................................... 134

Rohwer Relocation Center and Memorial Cemetery...................................................... 137

Topaz Relocation Center (Central Utah Relocation Center) .......................................... 140

Tule Lake Relocation Center/Tule Lake Segregation Center......................................... 142

Other WRA Relocation Centers.......................................................................................... 146

Gila River Relocation Center.......................................................................................... 146

Jerome Relocation Center............................................................................................... 149

Minidoka Relocation Center........................................................................................... 152

Poston Relocation Center (Colorado River Relocation Center)/

 Parker Dam Reception Center ...................................................................................... 154

Ancillary Relocation Center Facilities (WRA)................................................................... 158

Antelope Springs............................................................................................................. 158

Cow Creek Camp............................................................................................................ 158

INTERNMENT/DETENTION FACILITIES ........................................................................ 159

Department of Justice Facilities.......................................................................................... 160

Catalina Prison Camp (BOP facility).............................................................................. 160

Crystal City Internment Camp (INS facility).................................................................. 162

Fort Lincoln Internment Camp (INS facility)................................................................. 164

Fort Missoula Internment Camp (INS facility)............................................................... 165

Fort Stanton Internment Camp (INS facility)................................................................. 166

Kenedy Internment Camp (INS facility)......................................................................... 166

Kooskia Internment Camp (INS facility)........................................................................ 167

Old Raton Ranch Camp (INS facility)............................................................................ 168

Santa Fe Internment Camp (INS facility) ....................................................................... 168

Seagoville Internment Camp (INS facility).................................................................... 169

Sharp Park Detention Facility (INS facility) .................................................................. 170

U.S. Federal Penitentiary, Leavenworth (BOP facility) ................................................. 170

U.S. Federal Penitentiary, McNeil Island (BOP facility) ............................................... 171

U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island (INS facility)...................................................... 172

U.S. Immigration Station, Oahu (INS facility)............................................................... 172
v

War Relocation Authority Detention Facilities .................................................................. 173

Leupp Isolation Camp..................................................................................................... 173

Moab Isolation Center..................................................................................................... 173

Camp Tulelake ................................................................................................................ 174

Other Internment/Detention Facilities ................................................................................ 175

Wailua County Jail.......................................................................................................... 175

Wailuku County Jail ....................................................................................................... 176

U.S. ARMY FACILITIES ...................................................................................................... 176

U.S. Army Facilities used for Training and Administration............................................... 176

Camp McCoy/Fort McCoy ............................................................................................. 176

Camp Savage .................................................................................................................. 177

Camp Shelby................................................................................................................... 178

Fort Snelling.................................................................................................................... 179

The Presidio of San Francisco, Buildings 35 and 640.................................................... 180

U.S. Army Internment/Detention Facilities........................................................................ 181

Camp Florence ................................................................................................................ 181

Camp Forrest................................................................................................................... 181

Camp Livingston............................................................................................................. 182

Camp Lordsburg ............................................................................................................. 182

Fort Bliss......................................................................................................................... 183

Fort George G. Meade .................................................................................................... 184

Fort Richardson............................................................................................................... 185

Fort Sam Houston ........................................................................................................... 185

Fort Sill Internment Camp .............................................................................................. 185

Haiku Camp .................................................................................................................... 186

Honouliuli Internment Camp .......................................................................................... 187

Kalaheo Stockade............................................................................................................ 188

Kilauea Military Camp ................................................................................................... 188

Sand Island Detention Camp .......................................................................................... 188

Stringtown Internment Camp.......................................................................................... 189

U.S. Immigration Station, Angel Island.......................................................................... 190

JAPANESE AMERICAN WARTIME COMMUNITIES ..................................................... 191

Eagledale Ferry Dock ..................................................................................................... 192

Seabrook Farms .............................................................................................................. 193

Terminal Island School................................................................................................... 194

PART 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 195

PART 8. APPENDIX............................................................................................................... 213

Table 3. Summary of Known Recognition Initiatives, July 2011 

 Japanese American Wartime Properties Identified in Public Law 102-248............. 213

Table 4. Summary of Known Recognition Initiatives, July 2011

 Additional Wartime Properties Associated with Japanese Americans 

 in World War II........................................................................................................ 216

Table 5. Locations of Some WCCA Civil Control Stations.................................................. 218
vi

Let It Not Happen Again

“Nidoto Nai Yoni
Part 1, Introduction

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 1

FOREWORD

The words below, written by Harold L. Ickes, were used as an introduction to Ansel Adams’ 

book about Japanese American internment, Born Free and Equal, Photographs of the Loyal 

Japanese-Americans at Manzanar Relocation Center, Inyo County, California.

1

 Harold Ickes, 

the Secretary of the Interior when the War Relocation Authority was transferred to the 

Department of the Interior in February 1944, ably and sensitively administered the restoration of 

Japanese Americans rights.

The words of Harold Ickes are as relevant today as they were in 1944 when Adams’ book was 

published. Today, Ickes’ thoughts serve as a reminder that the American people have been 

capable of using egregious measures to quell fundamental principles of democracy. 

Commemorating sites related to Japanese Americans’ wartime experience should foster the 

preservation of these sites. Their preservation will make them viable tools for public education 

and on-going reminders of a shared remorse over the treatment of a group of American citizens. 

As eligible properties are designated National Historic Landmarks, they will be commemorated 

as tangible reminders that government initiatives—even those taken in the guise of public 

safety—can be extreme, discriminatory, contrary to basic freedoms we embrace, and a violation 

of individual rights.

 

1 Ansel Adams, Born Free and Equal, Photographs of the Loyal Japanese-Americans at Manzanar Relocation 

Center, Inyo County, California (New York: U.S. Camera, 1944), 7.

It has long been my belief that the greatness of America has risen in large part out 

of the diversity of her peoples. Before the war, peoples of Japanese ancestry were 

a small but valuable element in our population. Their record of law-abiding, 

industrious citizenship was surpassed by no other group. Their contributions to the 

arts, agriculture, and science were indisputable evidence that the majority of them 

believed in America and were growing with America.

Then the war came with the nation of their parental origin. The ensuing two and a 

half years have brought heartaches to many in our population. Among the 

casualties of war has been America’s Japanese minority. It is my hope that the 

wounds which it has received in the great uprooting will heal. It is my prayer that 

other Americans will fully realize that to condone the whittling away of the rights 

of any one minority group is to pave the way for us all to lose the guarantees of the 

Constitution.

As the President has said, “Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; 

Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry.”

Harold L. Ickes

Secretary of the Interior

July 1944
Part 1, Introduction

2 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The owners of this store in Oakland, California, announce their 

American loyalty the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, March 13, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Part 1, Introduction

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 3

PART 1

INTRODUCTION

In 1941, nearly 113,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American citizens, were 

living on the West Coast, in California, Washington, and Oregon. On December 7, Japan 

attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, and the United States declared war on 

Japan. Two months later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066 

empowering the U.S. Army to designate areas from which people could be excluded. Although 

the Executive Order did not identify who was to be excluded, the Army enforced its provisions 

only against Japanese Americans. No person of Japanese ancestry living in the United States 

was ever convicted of any serious act of espionage or sabotage during the war, yet the entire 

West Coast population of people of Japanese descent was forcibly removed from their homes 

and placed in relocation centers, many for the duration of the war.2

Responding to demands for redress and reparations made by the Japanese American community, 

the Federal government finally took steps to publically apologize to Japanese Americans for their 

wartime treatment. In 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, 

which provided financial redress to former detainees. The Federal government also took steps to 

commemorate this period of history and educate the public about the abrogation of Japanese 

Americans’ constitutional rights during the war years. Title II of Public Law 102-248, enacted by 

Congress on March 3, 1992, authorized and directed the Secretary of the Interior to prepare a 

Japanese American National Historic Landmark (NHL) Theme Study, so that related sites could 

be evaluated for NHL designation. Specifically, this law defined the purpose of the study to:

. . . identify the key sites in Japanese American History that illustrate the period in 

American history when personal justice was denied Japanese Americans. The Theme 

Study shall identify, evaluate, and nominate as national historic landmarks those sites, 

buildings, and structures that best illustrate or commemorate the period in American 

history from 1941 to 1946 when Japanese Americans were ordered to be detained, 

relocated, or excluded pursuant to Executive Order Number 9066, and other actions.3

This theme study, therefore, encompasses the 1941 to 1946 period assigned to the study by 

Public Law 102-248. An overriding purpose of the theme study was to determine the sites that 

are potentially eligible for designation as National Historic Landmarks, and establish priorities

for designation. In response to this directive, two important documents preceded this theme 

study. In 1999, Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American 

Relocation Sites, by Jeffery F. Burton, Mary M. Farrell, Florence B. Lord, and Richard W. Lord, 

was published by the Western Archeological and Conservation Center of the National Park 

Service (NPS). 4

 The publication presented the research and field work of the team of 

archeologists, historians, and photographers.

 2 Note: The term “Japanese Americans,” as used in this theme study, refers both to immigrants from Japan, who 

were prohibited by law from becoming U.S. citizens, and the descendents of those immigrants who were born in the 

United States.

3 Public Law 102-248, 3-3-92. 4 The publication Confinement and Ethnicity can be found on the National Park Service website at www.nps. 

Gov/history/online_books/anthropology74/. The University of Washington also published Confinement and 
Part 1, Introduction

4 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The second significant document was the “Report to the President: Japanese-American

Interment Sites Preservation.”5 This report, issued in 2001 by the Department of the Interior, 

presented recommendations for the interpretation and recognition of the ten relocation centers, 

including priorities for NHL designation.

Recognition of the historical significance of the Japanese American confinement sites had begun 

prior to passage of Public Law 102-248, but recognition initiatives increased after passage of the 

act in 1992. Several properties associated with the Japanese American wartime experience have

been declared National Historic Sites or National Monuments, designated National Historic 

Landmarks, or listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Manzanar Relocation 

Center in Inyo County, California, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 

and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. It became a unit of the National Park

System when it was declared a National Historic Site in 1992. Part of the Minidoka Relocation 

Center in Jerome County, Idaho, was listed in the National Register in 1979 and declared a 

National Historic Site in 2008. The Nidoto Nai Yoni Memorial on Bainbridge Island, 

Washington, is an NPS unit of Minidoka. The Rohwer Relocation Center in Desha County, 

Arkansas, was listed in the National Register in 1974, and the Rohwer Memorial Cemetery at the 

relocation center site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992. More recent NHL 

designations include the Granada Relocation Center (2006), the Heart Mountain Relocation 

Center (2006), the Tule Lake Relocation Center (2006), and the Topaz Relocation Center (2007). 

A number of other properties related to this theme study have been listed in the National 

Register.

Sites related to the theme continue to be discovered, and research and testing will reveal their 

significance and potential eligibility for National Historic Landmark designation. Several sites 

in Hawaii, in addition to the Hawaiian sites mentioned in this report, are the subject of on-going 

study. Other sites related to the internment or confinement of Japanese Americans also will be 

identified. This report deliberately excludes sites associated with Japanese Prisoners of War, 

unless such sites also are associated with Japanese Americans.

In 2006, the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program was established with passage 

of the Preservation of Japanese American Confinement Sites Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-441). Grants 

are awarded to identify, research, evaluate, interpret, protect, restore, repair, and acquire sites 

where Japanese Americans were confined during World War II. Up to $38 million in grants was 

authorized. The first grants were awarded in fiscal year 2009, with $970,000 million awarded to 

19 projects representing a range of research, planning, and educational initiatives. In FY2010, 

$2.9 million was awarded for 23 grant requests. The same amount was awarded in FY2011 for 

24 requests.

Memorials have been built at several confinement sites and plaques have been placed at others. 

Each memorial and plaque contributes to the national recognition that the period of Japanese 

American confinement was a regrettable chapter in United States history. It will take many 

 

Ethnicity, by Jeffery F. Burton, Mary M. Farrell, Florence B. Lord, and Richard W. Lord (Seattle: University of 

Washington Press, 2002).

5 U.S. Department of the Interior, “Report to the President: Japanese-American Internment Sites Preservation” 

(Washington, DC: National Park Service, January 2001).
Part 1, Introduction

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 5

Various types of sites are associated with Japanese American relocation during 

World War II. Several sites were located in Hawaii and a few were in Alaska.

Adapted from Confinement and Ethnicity

memorials in many places to inform all citizens of this lapse in the nation’s dedication to civil 

liberties. On November 9, 2000, the National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During 

World War II was dedicated in Washington, DC, to honor Japanese Americans who served in the 

military and those whose patriotism sustained them on the home front, even through years of 

confinement. This theme study is another effort to increase public understanding of the Japanese 

American experience during World War II and the places where those experiences unfolded.

Confinement Sites in the Mainland United States
Part 1, Introduction

6 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Confinement and Ethnicity

Parts of this theme study borrowed heavily from the publication Confinement and Ethnicity, 

particularly the historic context and survey results sections, with modifications and updates made 

by the National Historic Landmarks staff. Most maps are taken from Confinement and Ethnicity.

A Note on Terminology

Various terms have been use to represent the Japanese American sites of wartime confinement, 

the process of assembling Japanese Americans to send to these sites, and the state of confinement 

during World War II. The debate over the appropriateness of terms continues today. Over time, 

the war-era terms “relocation” and “evacuation” have seemed too euphemistic to portray the 

impact of the situation. “Concentration camp,” at times used during the war and today to 

describe facilities operated by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), is considered by some to be 

too strongly associated with the Nazi Holocaust. “Internment” is frequently used to describe 

confinement at the sites operated by the WRA, but by definition this term should only apply to 

the imprisonment of enemy aliens and others whose loyalty was questioned. During World War 

II such prisons were operated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Army.

Individuals and organizations have attempted to clarify the terminology or have taken positions 

on the use of certain terms. In the preparation of this theme study, various perspectives have 

been considered, as have the key publication and legislation that influenced the study’s 

preparation. Terminology used in this theme study reflects the terms used in Confinement and 

Ethnicity, the basis of this theme study, and in the Japanese American National Historic 

Landmark Theme Study Act. 6

Terms incorporated from Confinement and Ethnicity and the Theme Study Act include 

“relocation center” and “assembly center.” The terms “reception center” and “civil control 

station” were borrowed from Confinement and Ethnicity. All four of these place terms appear in 

documents from the war period, including captions written by WRA photographers, posters, or 

memoranda from the War Relocation Authority.

Other terms used in this theme study include "forced removal" and "removal" to describe the 

action of requiring West Coast Japanese Americans to leave their homes and businesses. Their 

detention at the assembly centers and relocation centers is considered “confinement” and those 

confined are called “detainees.” Those interned at DOJ or Army facilities are called “internees.” 

“Confinement sites” is used to describe the range of facilities that held Japanese Americans 

during the war years, 1942 to 1946. 

 6 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity.
Part 1, Introduction

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 7

Table 1. Wartime Properties Identified in Public Law 102-248

NAME OF PROPERTY LOCATION DATES OF OPERATION ORIGINAL USE

WCCA Assembly Centers

Fresno Assembly Center Fresno County, CA 5-6-42 to 10-30-42 Fresno County Fairgrounds

Marysville Assembly Center, aka 

Arboga Assembly Center Yuba County, CA 5-8-42 to 6-29-42 Migrant worker camp

Mayer Assembly Center Yavapai County, AZ 5-7-42 to 6-2-42 CCC camp

Merced Assembly Center Merced County, CA 5-6-42 to 9-15-42 Merced County Fairgrounds

Pinedale Assembly Center Fresno County, CA 5-7-42 to 7-23-42 Lumber mill

Pomona Assembly Center Los Angeles County, CA 5-7-42 to 8-24-42 Los Angeles County 

Fairgrounds

Portland Assembly Center Multnomah County, OR 5-2-42 to 9-10-42 Pacific International 

Livestock Exposition

Puyallup Assembly Center, aka Camp 

Harmony Pierce County, WA 4-28-42 to 9-12-42 Western Washington State 

Fairgrounds

Sacramento Assembly Center, aka 

Walerga Assembly Center Sacramento County, CA 5-6-42 to 6-26-42 Migrant worker camp

Salinas Assembly Center Monterey County, CA 4-27-42 to 7-4-42 California Rodeo Grounds

Santa Anita Assembly Center Los Angeles County, CA 3-27-42 to 10-27-42 Santa Anita Racetrack

Stockton Assembly Center San Joaquin County, CA 5-10-42 to 10-17-42 San Joaquin County 

Fairgrounds

Tanforan Assembly Center San Bruno, San Mateo 

County, CA 4-28-42 to 10-13-42 Tanforan Racetrack

Tulare Assembly Center Tulare County, CA 4-20-42 to 9-4-42 Tulare County Fairgrounds

Turlock Assembly Center Stanislaus County, CA 4-30-42 to 8-12-42 Stanislaus County 

Fairgrounds

WRA Relocation Centers

Gila River Relocation Center:

Butte Camp and Canal Camp Pinal County, AZ 7-10-42 to 11-10-45 Gila River Indian reservation

Granada Relocation Center, aka 

Amache Prowers County, CO 8-27-42 to 1-27-46 Privately owned farmland 

purchased by Army

Heart Mountain Relocation Center Park County, WY 8-11-42 to 11-10-45 Bureau of Reclamation land

Jerome Relocation Center Chicot and Drew counties, 

AR 10-6-42 to 6-30-44 Farm Security Administration land

Manzanar Relocation Center, 

originally Owens Valley 

Reception/Assembly Center 

Inyo County, CA 6-1-42 to 11-21-45

(reception center opened 3-22-42)

Land owned by City of Los 

Angeles for water rights

Minidoka Relocation Center Jerome County, ID 8-10-42 to 10-28-45 Bureau of Reclamation 

(undeveloped land) 
Part 1, Introduction

8 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

NAME OF PROPERTY LOCATION DATES OF OPERATION ORIGINAL USE

Poston Relocation Center:

Poston I, II, and III; aka Colorado 

River Relocation Center; originally 

Parker Dam Reception Center

La Paz County, AZ 5-8-42 to 11-18-45

(reception center opened 3-42)

Colorado River Indian 

Tribes’ land

Rohwer Relocation Center and 

Memorial Cemetery Desha County, AR 9-18-42 to 11-30-45

Privately owned farmland 

and Farm Security Admin. 

land

Topaz Relocation Center, aka Central 

Utah or Abraham Relocation Center Millard County, UT 9-11-42 to 10-31-45 Millard County land and 

privately owned land

Tule Lake Relocation Center Modoc County, CA 5-25-42 to 3-20-46 Bureau of Reclamation land

Dept. of Justice Internment Camps

Crystal City Internment Camp Zavala County, TX 11-2-42 to11-1-47 Farm Security Admin/

Migrant labor camp

Fort Lincoln Internment Camp Burleigh County, ND

Germans and Italians, 1941

Issei, 1942 (briefly)

Germans, 1942 to postwar

Japanese, 2-45 to postwar

Former Army base and 

CCC state headquarters

Fort Missoula Internment Camp Missoula County, MT 12-41 to 7-1-44 Former Army base and 

CCC regional headquarters

Kenedy Internment Camp Karnes County, TX 4-21-42 to 10-1-44 Former CCC camp

Seagoville Internment Camp Dallas County, TX 4-1-42 to 6-45 Seagoville Federal 

Reformatory for Women

U.S. Army Facilities

Angel Island, North Garrison of Fort 

McDowell (INS and U.S. Army) Marin County, CA

Intake and transfer station for 

Japanese/German POW by U.S. 

Army, 1941 to 1946

Immigration Station, port of 

entry for many Japanese, 

1910-1940

Camp McCoy Monroe County, WI 1942 to 1943 Military installation

and former CCC camp

Camp Savage Scott County, MN Military Intelligence Service 

Language School, 1942 to 1944 Military installation

Camp Shelby Forrest and Perry Counties, 

MS

100th Infantry Battalion, 2-43 to 8-43

442nd Reg. Combat Team, c.6-43 to 

5-1-44

Military installation

Fort Snelling Hennepin County, MN 1944 to 1946 Military installation

Japanese American Communities

Bainbridge Island/Eagledale Ferry 

Dock Kitsap County, WA Residents removed, 3-30-42

Residents were first to be 

evacuated under Civilian 

Exclusion Order No. 1.

Terminal Island School Los Angeles County, CA Residents removed, 3-21-42 Japanese language school
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 9

PART 2

HISTORIC CONTEXT

THE PRELUDE TO RELOCATION

In February 1942, the United States government began a concerted effort to forcibly remove and

incarcerate people of Japanese ancestry from several western states. Never before had the 

government cast aside core principles of American democracy, in the spirit of protecting the 

people, land, and war effort from the perceived threats posed by people of a certain nationality. 

Caving to public pressure and political machinations, the government implemented a program 

that still weighs on the public conscience 70 years later.

Several factors contributed to the decision by the United States government to remove people of 

Japanese ancestry from the West Coast states, but an underlying and pervasive factor was the 

racial prejudice that had been inflicted on Japanese Americans—and Asians in general—from 

their earliest arrival in the United States.

7

 The precipitating factor that led the U.S. government 

to take extreme measures toward Japanese Americans was the long-deteriorating relationship 

between the Japanese and U.S. governments, culminating in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the 

declaration of war. This generated incalculable public fear that was fueled by misconceptions 

regarding the loyalties of Japanese Americans.8 Although draft resistance and other acts of civil 

disobedience in response to the government‟s curtailment of civil and constitutional rights were 

only exhibited by a small minority of Japanese Americans, such acts were used to generalize the 

attitude of the entire Japanese American population.

Such suspicions had long been an aspect of white American attitudes toward Asian Americans. 

Anti-Asian prejudices, especially in California, were initiated with the immigration of the 

Chinese to the U.S. at about the time of the California gold rush in 1849. During the initial 

phases of the economic boom that accompanied the gold rush, Chinese labor was needed and 

welcomed, but white workingmen soon began to consider the Chinese, comprising about 10% of

California's population, as competitors. This economic competition increased after completion 

of the transcontinental Union Pacific-Central Pacific Railroad in 1869, which had employed 

about 10,000 Chinese laborers. American workers‟ resentment over cheap Chinese labor was

transposed into an ideology of Asian racial inferiority. Discrimination became legislated at both 

the state and federal levels.

The experiences of Chinese immigrants foreshadowed those of Japanese immigrants, who began 

arriving about the same time the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act suspended labor immigration from 

China for ten years. Japanese immigrants were called Issei. Their children, the American-born 

 

7 Roger Daniels, Concentration Camps: North America, Japanese in the United States and Canada During World 

War II (Malabar, FL: Robert E. Krieger, 1989), 2-25. Roger Daniels‟ discussion of the cultural and economic 

forces that led to general discrimination against all Asian groups, and specifically the Japanese, are summarized 

in this chapter.

8 Daniel S. Davis, Behind Barbed Wire: The Imprisonment of Japanese Americans During World War II (New 

York: E. P. Dutton, 1982), 27; U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Personal 

Justice Denied (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982); Lane Ryo Hirabayashi and James 

Hirabayashi, “A Reconsideration of the United States Military‟s Role in the Violation of Japanese-American 

Citizenship Rights,” in Ethnicity and War, Winston A. Van Horne, ed. (Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin, 

American Ethnic Studies Coordinating Committee, 1984), 87-110. 
Part 2, Historic Context

10 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

second generation, were Nisei, and third generation Japanese Americans were Sansei. Nisei and 

Sansei who were educated in Japan were called Kibei. The Issei mostly came from the Japanese 

countryside, and they generally arrived in Hawaii or to the mainland West Coast with very little 

money. Approximately half became farmers; others went to the coastal urban centers and 

worked in small commercial establishments, usually for themselves or for other Issei.

Anti-Japanese movements began shortly after Japanese immigration began, but became 

particularly widespread around 1905, due to increasing immigration and the Japanese victory 

over Russia, the first defeat of a western nation by an Asian nation in modern times. Both Japan 

and Japanese immigrants began to be perceived as threats. Discrimination was exhibited in the 

formation of anti-Japanese organizations, such as the Asiatic Exclusion League, attempts at 

school segregation (which eventually affected Nisei under the doctrine of “separate but equal”), 

and a growing number of violent attacks on individuals and businesses.

The Japanese government protested this treatment of its citizens and their families. To maintain 

the friendship between Japan and America, President Theodore Roosevelt initiated several 

conciliatory gestures. He helped convince the San Francisco school board to revoke the 

segregation order, discouraged the California Legislature from passing more anti-Japanese 

legislation, and negotiated what was known as the “Gentlemen's Agreement” with the Japanese 

government in 1907. By this, the Japanese government agreed to limit emigration to the 

continental United States to laborers who had already been to the United States and to the 

parents, wives, and children of laborers already in the U.S.

Thus, opportunities to achieve American citizenship were limited for Japanese immigrants, 

which affected their ability to acquire land. The Naturalization Law of 1870 extended 

naturalization laws to aliens of African nativity and to others of African descent. Because people 

of Asian descent were not mentioned in the law, it was interpreted to imply that naturalization 

was not extended to people of Asian descent. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act explicitly barred 

Chinese immigrants from naturalization, and included other measures to control Chinese 

immigration. The Naturalization Act passed in 1906 established the Bureau of Immigration and 

Naturalization and standardized rules regarding the naturalization process. The Immigration Act 

of 1917 restricted the immigration of Asian people, but the Immigration Act of 1924 (the 

Johnson-Reed Act) was the first law to specifically target the Japanese. Based on the 

Naturalization Law of 1870, which seemingly prohibited people of Asian descent from becoming 

naturalized citizens, the 1924 Act essentially closed the door to immigration to those who could 

not be eligible for citizenship.

The states passed legislation that influenced the ability of Asian-born immigrants and their 

descendents to acquire land. Known as “alien land laws,” the state laws were linked to the 

inability of the Japanese and other Asians to become naturalized citizens, due to the various 

federal laws that explicitly or by interpretation prohibited naturalization.9 In 1913, California 

passed the Alien Land Law, which prohibited ownership of agricultural land and other real 

property by aliens ineligible for citizenship, meaning aliens of Asian descent. To circumvent the 

law, immigrants from Japan often had their children‟s names recorded on property titles. Their 

children were citizens because of their birth in the United States. In 1920, California passed a 

 

9

In recent years, the word “alien” is often replaced by terms such as “lawful permanent resident” or “legal 

resident.” In this historic context, “alien” is not considered pejorative and, in fact, has long been an accepted 

term for immigrants who are not citizens.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 11

stronger alien land act that prohibited children born in the United States to Japanese parents from 

holding titles to land. This law was amended in 1923 to prohibit leasing and sharecropping by 

Japanese Americans as well. In the early 1920s, several other western states enacted alien land 

laws similar to California‟s laws, and by the end of World War II most western states had passed 

such laws.10 

The prohibitions against Asian naturalization were upheld by the Supreme Court in 1922. Takao 

Ozawa, a Japanese resident alien, attempted to achieve citizenship with the argument that Asians 

are, in fact, “white” and, therefore, eligible for citizenship under Section 2169 of the Revised 

Statutes of the United States. The unanimous ruling, however, determined that only Caucasians 

are considered white and that Ozawa was of a race that was not Caucasian. He was denied 

citizenship.11

Against this backdrop of limitations and discrimination experienced by Japanese Americans, at 

7:45 a.m. on December 7, 1941, a wave of Japanese bombers launched the first of two attacks on 

the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The situation for Japanese Americans could only 

deteriorate.

Pearl Harbor

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, came as a shock to most Americans, 

but the U.S. government had already considered possible actions to take in case of war with 

Japan. For years, Japanese Americans and their parents who were not citizens had speculated on 

the personal repercussions of war with Japan. Some Nisei in particular emphasized their loyalty 

and Americanism, leading to generational conflicts with their Issei parents. The Japanese 

American Citizens League (JACL), an influential all-Nisei organization, represented this 

pro-American attitude in its creed. The JACL creed, an optimistic, patriotic expression written 

by Mike Masaoka in 1940, was published in the Congressional Record for May 9, 1941:

I am proud that I am an American citizen of Japanese ancestry, for my very background 

makes me appreciate more fully the wonderful advantages of this nation. I believe in her 

institutions, ideals and traditions; I glory in her heritage; I boast of her history; I trust in 

her future. She has granted me liberties and opportunities such as no individual enjoys in 

this world today. She has given me an education befitting kings. She has entrusted me 

with the responsibilities of the franchise. She has permitted me to build a home, to earn a 

livelihood, to worship, think, speak and act as I please—as a free man equal to every 

other man.

Although some individuals may discriminate against me, I shall never become bitter or

lose faith, for I know that such persons are not representative of the majority of the 

American people. True, I shall do all in my power to discourage such practices, but I 

shall do it in the American way—above board, in the open, through courts of law, by 

education, by proving myself to be worthy of equal treatment and consideration. I am 

 

10 Angelo N. Ancheta, Race, Rights, and the Asian American Experience (Trenton: Rutgers University Press, 2006), 

29; Jeffrey D. Schultz, Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics: African Americans and Asian Americans 

(Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000), 242.

11 Takao Ozawa v. US, 260 U.S. 178 (1922), at http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol= 

260&invol=178, accessed on August 23, 2010, 1-4.
Part 2, Historic Context

12 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

firm in my belief that American sportsmanship and attitude of fair play will judge 

citizenship and patriotism on the basis of action and achievement, and not on the basis of 

physical characteristics. Because I believe in America, and I trust she believes in me, and 

because I have received innumerable benefits from her, I pledge myself to do honor to 

her at all times and in all places; to support her constitution; to obey her laws; to respect 

her flag; to defend her against all enemies, foreign and domestic; to actively assume my 

duties and obligations as a citizen, cheerfully and without any reservations whatsoever, in 

the hope that I may become a better American in a greater America.12

Even as the JACL creed was being written, the United States government was preparing for a 

potential war with Japan. Soon it would begin questioning the loyalty of Japanese Americans, 

including members of the JACL. Several key members of the Roosevelt administration 

contributed to the development of policies regarding the treatment of Japanese Americans and 

Japanese alien residents. These individuals included military leaders, Cabinet members, 

government officials, and special appointees. Key military leaders included Lt. Gen. John L. 

DeWitt, commander of the Western Defense Command from 1939 to1943, and Lt. Gen. Delos C. 

Emmons, commanding general of the Hawaiian Department from December 1941 to June 1943. 

Lieutenant General Emmons also was commanding general of the Western Defense Command at 

the Presidio in San Francisco from June 1943 to June 1944 (replacing Lieutenant General 

DeWitt) and commanding general of the Alaska Department at Fort Richardson from June 1944 

to June 1946. William Franklin Knox, Secretary of the Navy, also was involved in key 

decisions. He was appointed by President Roosevelt in 1940 and served as Secretary of the 

Navy until his death in 1944.

Cabinet members who were particularly involved in decisions regarding Japanese Americans 

included Francis Biddle, Attorney General of the United States from 1941 to 1945 (and head of 

the Department of Justice), and Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior from 1933 to 1946. The 

War Relocation Authority was placed in the Department of the Interior in 1944, where it 

remained until the office closed in 1946. Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War, also was 

influential. Appointed by President Roosevelt in 1940, Stimson served until September 1945.13

Government officials who advised the president on the treatment of Japanese Americans during 

the war included J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1924 to 

1972. Other individuals were handpicked by President Roosevelt to assume responsibility for 

specials tasks or programs. John Franklin Carter was the head of Roosevelt‟s private, secret 

intelligence unit, which initially investigated the Japanese American situation on the West Coast 

and in Hawaii. Dillon S. Myer was Director of the War Relocation Authority, from 1942 to 1946 

after Milton S. Eisenhower resigned. General Andrew W. Gullion was Provost Marshal General 

of the U.S. Army from July 1941 to April 1944. The position of Provost Marshal General was 

activated at critical times in U. S. history, and Gullion was appointed in response to events in 

Europe and Asia. Initially he was assigned control of enemy aliens.

14

 President Roosevelt 

appointed Owen Roberts, Supreme Court Justice from 1930 to 1945, to lead a commission of 

 

12 Ibid., 24-25.

13 The position of Secretary of the Army was not established until 1947 when the Department of War became the 

Department of the Army, a branch of the Department of Defense.

14 Ronald Craig, “After the Shooting Stopped: US Military Police after the Armistice of World War I” in Military 

Police (U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center, April 1, 2005) at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IBW/ 

is_1_4/ai_n6124024?tag=rel.res1, accessed on December 4, 2008.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 13

inquiry about the events at Pearl Harbor. The resulting report, known as the “Roberts Report,” 

was dated January 23, 1942.

Months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the federal government took steps to safeguard the 

United States and its citizens from attack and terrorism through legislation and the establishment 

of various programs. The Alien Registration Act of 1940 required the registration and 

fingerprinting of all aliens over fourteen years of age. Acknowledging the increased implications 

of the alien presence, President Roosevelt transferred the Immigration and Naturalization Service 

from the Labor Department to the Justice Department. By early 1941, the Federal Bureau of 

Investigation (FBI) had compiled a list of “dangerous” or “subversive” German, Italian, and 

Japanese aliens who were to be arrested at the outbreak of war with their country. This list was 

combined with similar lists compiled by the navy and army to create a list of some 2,000 Issei, as 

well as German and Italian aliens, from the mainland and Hawaii who were considered 

potentially dangerous. The list was expanded with names from the Japanese consulate in Los 

Angeles. This expanded list, maintained by the Justice Department, was known as the “ABC 

list,” with the letters reflecting degrees of danger. People on the “A” list were considered 

“immediately dangerous,” the “B” list identified people who were “potentially dangerous,” and 

the “C” list included people whose views may have been pro-Japan.15 In Hawaii, the army 

maintained a list of Issei and Nisei to be arrested and held if martial law was declared in Hawaii.

In November 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt received an intelligence report that assessed the 

loyalty of Japanese Americans on the West Coast. The so-called “Munson Report” was written 

by Curtis B. Munson, a Chicago businessman who was a member of John Franklin Carter‟s team 

of espionage agents. President Roosevelt had asked Carter to establish a network of agents to 

gather intelligence on various fronts.

16

 In his report, Munson concluded that most Japanese 

Americans were loyal to the United States, but he noted that the West Coast might be vulnerable 

to sabotage, because dams, bridges, harbors, and power stations were unguarded.17 Such 

sabotage, he noted, would be “financed by Japan and executed largely by imported agents.” His 

overwhelming perception was that “There is no Japanese problem on the Coast.” Instead, “there 

is far more danger from Communists and people of the Bridges type on the Coast than there is 

from Japanese. The Japanese here is almost exclusively a farmer, a fisherman or a small 

businessman. He has no entrée to plants or intricate machinery.”18 Army Intelligence may have 

used the Munson Report as the basis for its conclusion that “widespread sabotage by Japanese is 

not expected . . . identification of dangerous Japanese on the West Coast is reasonably 

complete.”19 A Navy report by Lt. Cdr. Kenneth D. Ringle, issued in early February 1942, was

in agreement on this point: few persons of Japanese ancestry were expected to be disloyal to the 

United States.20 

 

15 Greg Robinson, By Order of the President (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), 64-65.

16 U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), Personal Justice Denied

(Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982), 52.

17 Curtis B. Munson, “Report on Japanese on the West Coast of the United States” (Washington, DC: U.S. State 

Department, November 7, 1941).

18 Daniels, Concentration Camps: North America, 28. Note: The reference to the “Bridges type” probably refers to 

the leader of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), Harry Bridges. He was a thorn 

in the side of the Roosevelt Administration for many years, but became a surprising wartime advocate for urging a 

no strike pledge.

19 Daniels, Concentration Camps, 28.

20 Stetson Conn et al., “Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast” in United States Army in World War II: The 

Western Hemisphere, Guarding the United States and Its Outposts (Washington, DC: U.S Army, Office of the 
Part 2, Historic Context

14 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The USS Shaw explodes during the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor.

Department of the Navy photo, December 7, 1941

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Despite the official reports indicating a lack of threats from Japanese Americans on the West 

Coast, Roosevelt was not convinced. In his book By Order of the President, Greg Robinson 

noted that Roosevelt did not relax his scrutiny of Japanese Americans, even with official reports 

denying the existence of a problem. Instead, Roosevelt maintained a suspicious distrust of the 

entire Japanese American community, despite a lack of firm evidence of disloyalty and tangible 

evidence of loyalty. No other group of American citizens received the same treatment, according 

to Robinson, who concludes that Roosevelt‟s actions suggest “an implacable belief” that 

Japanese Americans were particularly dangerous.21 As events would prove, Roosevelt‟s attitude 

was not unusual.

Part of Roosevelt‟s reasoning may have been based on widespread public distrust of Japanese 

Americans, particularly on the West Coast. Wilma Tullett James, daughter of the Piedmont Fire 

Department captain (who was also a leader in the local civil defense program), was 15 years old 

when the attack on Pearl Harbor struck fear in the San Francisco Bay area. She recalls that Bay 

Area residents were certain that a Japanese invasion was imminent and that it would be assisted 

by Japanese American sympathizers. Mrs. James, like many Bay area residents, had Japanese 

American friends and acquaintances, but accounts of Japanese American treachery, enlistments 

in the Japanese Army, blackout drills, and offshore incidents of aggression all fueled the fears 

that had been prompted by Pearl Harbor.22

 

Chief of Military History, 1964), 148 and footnote 41.

21 Robinson, By Order of the President, 72.

22 Ronald M. James, personal communication to Barbara Wyatt, December 30, 2009.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 15

President Roosevelt signs the declaration of war against Japan on December 8, 1941.

White House photograph by Abbie Rowe

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, bolstered Roosevelt‟s suspicions 

about the loyalty of Japanese Americans. The U.S. Navy had been glaringly unprepared for the 

attack, even though outbursts of Japanese aggression in the Pacific had been on going. After the 

attack, the government acted swiftly. Later that day, President Roosevelt issued Presidential 

Proclamation 2525, which specified that Japanese aliens living in the United States were “liable 

to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies.”23 The next day, 

December 8, the President issued proclamations 2526 and 2527, which directed the same 

treatment for German and Italian aliens, respectively. On December 8, 1941, Roosevelt gave his 

famous “Day of Infamy” speech to a joint session of Congress—appealing for a declaration of 

war with Japan. The Senate complied, with a unanimous vote supporting war. Roosevelt began 

his speech, which was broadcast to the public via radio, with these words:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of 

America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire 

of Japan.24

 

23 Theodore Roosevelt, “Presidential Proclamation: Aliens. No. 2525, Alien Enemies—Japanese,” at 

http://home.comcast.net/-eo9066/1941/41-12/PP2525.html, accessed on December 2, 2008.

24 Theodore Roosevelt, “Call to War Against Japan,” at www.newgenevacenter.org/14_HistoricalDocuments/1941_FDR‟s-„Infamy‟-speech, accessed on December 2, 2008.
Part 2, Historic Context

16 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The Aftermath of Pearl Harbor—Mainland U.S.

The proclamations issued on December 7 and 8, 1941, authorized the FBI to arrest any aliens on 

the continental U.S. it considered dangerous to “public peace or safety,” and over the next few 

days some 2,000 Issei whose names appeared on the Justice Department‟s ABC list were 

arrested.25 Evidence of involvement in actual subversive activities was not a prerequisite for 

arrest. The prisoners included community leaders involved in Japanese organizations and 

religious groups. At the same time, the bank accounts of all enemy aliens and all accounts in 

American branches of Japanese banks were frozen. These two actions paralyzed the Japanese 

American community by depriving it of both its leadership and its financial assets.

In late December, the Department of Justice issued regulations requiring enemy aliens living in 

the jurisdiction of the Western Defense Command to surrender weapons, ammunition, radio 

transmitters, short-wave radio receivers, and certain types of cameras by January 5, 1942.26 In 

his final report, DeWitt described the items seized by the FBI between February and May 1942 

as “hidden caches of contraband,” even though most of the weapons seized were from two 

legitimate sporting goods stores.27

The attack on Pearl Harbor caused widespread hysteria and paranoia. Statements from 

government officials contributed to the public‟s anxiety. For example, Frank Knox, the 

Secretary of the Navy, blamed Pearl Harbor on “the most effective fifth column work that's come 

out of this war, except in Norway” (referring to the Nazi sympathizers in Norway who facilitated 

Hitler‟s occupation in that country in 1940).28 This opened the door to sensationalist newspaper

headlines about sabotage, fifth column activities, and imminent invasion, and fed the growing 

suspicions about Japanese Americans.29 (In this case, “fifth column” refers to people of Japanese 

descent engaged in sabotage or espionage within U.S. borders.) John Franklin Carter, who led 

Roosevelt‟s investigation of espionage activities, disputed Knox‟s statement about the danger of 

fifth column activities by Japanese Americans, and encouraged President Roosevelt to issue a 

statement of reassurance regarding Japanese American loyalty. This was not forthcoming.

Curtis Munson of Carter‟s staff stood by his November reports regarding the loyalty of Japanese 

Americans, and refuted claims by Knox questioning their loyalty. Carter and his staff devised 

the so-called “Munson-Ringle” plan in late December (referring to Lieutenant Commander 

Ringle) for implementation of Roosevelt‟s executive orders. The plan invested the Nisei with 

patriotic duties and gave them some authority over the property of the non-citizen Issei. 

Roosevelt did not express disapproval of the plan, but neither did he publicly support it or take 

action to implement it. Without encouragement from his superiors, Lieutenant General DeWitt 

took no action on the Munson-Ringle plan in the area encompassed by the Western Defense 

Command. Instead, other plans were brewing in a climate of conflicting opinions between the 

 

25 Robinson, By Order of the President, 75.

26 Conn et al., United States Army in World War II: Western Hemisphere, 118.

27 John Hersey, “A Mistake of Terrifically Horrible Proportions,” in Manzanar (New York: Times Books, 

1988), 22.

28 Daniels, Concentration Camps, 35.

29 Japanese American Curriculum Project, “Wartime Hysteria: The Role of the Press in the Removal of 110,000 

Persons of Japanese Ancestry During World War II, a Gathering of Actual Newspaper and Magazine Clippings” 

(San Mateo, CA: Japanese American Curriculum Project, 1973).
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 17

Harry Konda, an officer with the Japanese American Citizens League in 

Centreville, California, is arranging for the transfer of a washing 

machine to a Mexican American farm laborer’s wife.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, April 9, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

War Department and the Justice Department regarding the threat of Japanese Americans and 

Japanese aliens and the appropriate actions to take.

Meanwhile, people of Japanese ancestry, particularly the Nisei, were trying to establish their 

loyalty by becoming air raid wardens and joining the army (when they were allowed). With many 

Issei leaders imprisoned during the initial arrests, Nisei organizations, especially the JACL, 

assumed leadership roles and gained influence in the Japanese American community. The 

JACL's policy of cooperation was embraced by some Japanese Americans, but vilified by others.

At first, there was no consistent treatment of Nisei who tried to enlist in the U.S. military or who 

were drafted. Most Selective Service boards rejected them, classifying them as 4-F or 4-C 

(unsuitable for service because of race or ancestry), but they were accepted at others. The War 

Department prohibited further Nisei induction after March 31, 1942, “except as may be 

specifically authorized in exceptional cases.” The exceptions were bilingual Nisei and Kibei 

who served as language instructors and interpreters.30 All registrants of Japanese ancestry were 

officially classified as 4-C after September 14, 1942.

While the military debated restrictions on Japanese Americans and limited their involvement in 

the war, on the West Coast public support for confining all persons of Japanese ancestry was 

growing.31 The anti-Japanese American sentiment in the media was typified by comments such 

as the following from a columnist for the Los Angeles Times: “A viper is nonetheless a viper 

 

30 U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Klamath Project, Annual History for 1945, Volume 

34 (Klamath Falls, OR: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, 1946).

31 Japanese American Curriculum Project, “Wartime Hysteria.”
Part 2, Historic Context

18 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

wherever the egg is hatched—so a Japanese American, born of Japanese parents—grows up to 

be a Japanese, not an American.”32

In early January 1942, representatives of the War Department, the Justice Department, and the 

Provost Marshal General‟s office met with Lieutenant General DeWitt of the Western Defense 

Command in San Francisco to determine how to implement the presidential proclamations issued 

immediately following Pearl Harbor. It was agreed that several steps would be taken to address 

the proclamation. Alien Japanese residents would be registered, the FBI would be allowed to 

search any house where an enemy alien lived if there was suspicion of contraband on the 

premises, and strategic areas from which enemy aliens could be barred would be designated by 

the Attorney General, including areas recommended to the Attorney General by the army (e.g. 

DeWitt).33

With encouragement from Col. Karl Bendetson, the head of the Aliens Division of the Provost 

Marshal General‟s office, on January 21, 1942, Lieutenant General DeWitt recommended to 

Secretary of War Henry Stimson the establishment of small “prohibited zones” around strategic 

areas from which enemy aliens and their native-born children would be removed, as well as 

some larger “restricted zones” where they would be kept under close surveillance. Secretary 

Stimson and Attorney General Francis Biddle agreed, although Biddle was determined not to do 

anything to violate Japanese Americans' constitutional rights.

In a short time, it became clear that the alien exclusion program would not satisfy the 

increasingly anxious state of the public and elected officials in western states. The late January 

publication of the Roberts Report about the attack on Pearl Harbor fueled the public‟s 

perceptions of the dangers presented by both citizens and aliens of Japanese ancestry. Although 

the report was vague in terms of subversive activities by Japanese Americans in Hawaii before 

Pearl Harbor, it attracted national attention—in the press and among elected officials.34 The 

public responded accordingly, and anti-Japanese sentiments reached a fever pitch.

Military Necessity

In mid-February 1942, Congressional committee hearings headed by California congressman 

John Tolan were held on the West Coast to assess the need for the forcible removal of persons of 

Japanese ancestry. The overwhelming majority of witnesses supported the removal of all 

Japanese aliens and Japanese American citizens from the coast. California Governor Culbert L. 

Olson and State Attorney General Earl Warren supported the removal of all people of Japanese 

heritage from coastal areas, stating that it was impossible to tell which ones were loyal.35 As de 

facto spokesmen for Japanese Americans, JACL leaders argued against mass removal, but to 

prove their loyalty pledged their readiness to cooperate if it was deemed a military necessity.

After weeks of waffling, Lieutenant General DeWitt stated in no uncertain terms that Japanese 

American citizens and Japanese aliens needed to be moved from the coast. Attorney General 

Biddle disagreed with mass removal, although he issued policies regarding the removal of 

 

32 Hersey, Mistake, 38.

33 Conn et al., Guarding the United States and its Outposts, 119.

34 Robinson, By Order of the President, 95.

35 Richard Drinnon, Keeper of Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Myer and American Racism (Berkeley: 

University of California Press, 1987), 31-32.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 19

Mr. and Mrs. K. Iseri closed their drugstore in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles 

in preparation for the removal of Japanese Americans.

WRA photo by Clem Albers, April 11, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Japanese aliens from certain coastal zones in late January. He remained stalwartly opposed to 

the wholesale removal of Japanese Americans; however, he admitted that racially motivated 

removal of citizens could be considered constitutional, if carried out by the army in case of 

military necessity.36 Biddle was not interested in Justice Department involvement in the 

removal, and the responsibility was given to the army.

Another voice against the removal of Japanese Americans was General Mark Clark of General 

Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He was convinced that such removal was counteractive to 

military necessity and would use far too many soldiers, who could otherwise be fighting. 

Instead, he recommended protecting critical installations by using pass and permit systems and 

selective arrests as necessary.

In contrast, War Secretary Stimson came to the conclusion that the removal of Japanese aliens 

and citizens of Japanese ancestry was necessary due to the real threat of a Japanese invasion of 

the West Coast. President Roosevelt, responding to pressure from many directions, did not deny

the need for removal. In a telephone conversation on February 11, Stimson was given

permission by the President to do what he thought best, “but it has got to be dictated by military 

necessity.”37 On February 14, Lieutenant General DeWitt‟s final report was sent to the President, 

 

34 Robinson, By Order of the President, 103. 

37 Ibid., 106.
Part 2, Historic Context

20 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

encouraging removal of the “enemy race” from the West Coast as a military necessity, and 

supporting the president‟s final decision.

As soon as the president conveyed to Attorney General Biddle that he supported the removal, 

Biddle fell in step with the administration. A joint Executive Order was drafted by the Justice 

and War departments and on February 19, 1942, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, 

authorizing the Secretary of War to:

. . . prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate 

Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, 

and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be 

subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military 

Commander may impose in his discretion. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to 

provide for residents of any such area who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, 

food, shelter, and other accommodations as may be necessary in the judgment of the 

Secretary of War or said Military Commander.38

Although the Executive Order did not specifically mention Japanese Americans, it was intended 

to apply to them exclusively.

Roosevelt may have been mislead about potential threats posed by people of Japanese ancestory

on the West Coast, but historian Greg Robinson suggests that he also found credence in 

unsubstantiated reports and did not accept FBI findings that negated a Japanese American 

threat.39 Roosevelt‟s decision to sign Executive Order 9066, ostensibly an act of military 

judgment, also was a response to public agitation and political pressure. Robinson emphasizes 

the President‟s lack of concern for the consequences of confinement, which sprang, in part, from 

his prejudice toward the Japanese people. In fact, “his paramount concern was leading the 

country to victory in a conflict of global proportions and unprecedented destructiveness. The 

rights of American citizens, especially those of Japanese ancestry, paled in comparison.”40 

Milton S. Eisenhower, first director of the War Relocation Authority, wrote in his memoirs, “The 

President‟s final decision was influenced by a variety of factors—by events over which he had 

little control, by inaccurate or incomplete information, by bad counsel, by strong political 

pressures, and by his own training, background, and personality.”41

Although many were complicit in the decision to confine Japanese Americans and aliens, no one 

who personally opposed the measure—neither Carter, Munson, nor Biddle—spoke strongly 

enough to dissuade Roosevelt from the course of action he was following. As the sad business of 

orchestrating the removal of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast 

states began in the spring of 1942, the nexus of control shifted to the Western Defense Command 

in San Francisco, headed by Lieutenant General DeWitt.42

 

38 “Executive Order 9066, Authorizing the Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas. Signed: February 19, 

1942” (Federal Register, February 25, 1942), at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5154, accessed on December 2, 

2008.

39 Robinson, By Order of the President, 114-115.

40 Ibid., 123-124.

41 Ibid., 112.

42 Ibid., 4.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 21

On February 17, 1942, Roosevelt gave jurisdiction of the strategic Terminal Island in the Los 

Angeles Harbor to the U.S. Navy. The Japanese Americans on the island—mostly fishermen—

were ordered to leave by March 14, 1942, a deadline shortly moved to February 27. In fact,

practically all family heads and community leaders had already been arrested and forcibly 

removed by the FBI.43 Those left on the island became the first casualties of the emerging 

exclusion policy.

Viewed in the context of the Japanese success in the Pacific, the U.S. had reason to fear its Asian 

enemy. With the U.S. fleet crippled by Pearl Harbor and growing Japanese power, the West 

Coast seemed vulnerable. The American loss in the Philippines and the fall of British Singapore 

on February 15, 1942, made the Japanese seem unstoppable. As noted by H. W. Brands, “By

April 1942 the Japanese empire covered an enormous swath of the earth‟s surface, from the 

International Date Line in the east almost to India in the west, and from the North Pole nearly to 

Australia. Against Japan, the American and British were failing miserably.”44

Other events in California contributed to the tense atmosphere. On February 23, a Japanese 

submarine shelled an oil field on the California coast near Santa Barbara—just four days after 

Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. It caused no serious damage or injuries, but raised fears

of further enemy action along the coast. On February 25, the “Battle of Los Angeles” took place. 

In response to an unidentified radar echo, the military called for a blackout and fired over 1,400 

anti-aircraft shells. Twenty individuals of Japanese ancestry were arrested for allegedly 

signaling the invaders, but the radar echo was determined to be a loose weather balloon.

 

43 Michi Weglyn, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps (New York: Morrow 

Quill, 1976), 301.

44 Brands, H. W. Traitor to his Class, The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt 

(New York: Doubleday Publishing, 2008), 661.

Exclusion orders are posted on April 1, 1942, The order, issued by Lt. Gen. John L. 

DeWitt, directs the removal of people of Japanese ancestry by noon on April 7, 1942.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, April 11, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Part 2, Historic Context

22 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Saturday afternoon shoppers read removal orders posted at 

a vacant store on Grant Avenue in San Francisco

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, April 17, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

REMOVAL

Even after Executive Order 9066 was issued in February 1942, no one was quite sure who would 

be excluded or where they would be sent. It was assumed that the Executive Order would 

encourage voluntary departure, but this was not the case. Lieutenant General DeWitt originally 

wanted to remove all Japanese, German, and Italian aliens; however, he only obtained approval 

to remove Japanese Americans.45 Public opinion, in fact, was in favor of relocating everyone of 

Japanese ancestry, citizens and aliens alike, with some outspoken dissention. For example, The 

Nation was highly critical of the West Coast push for removal of Japanese Americans in two 

articles published in February 1942.46 Public opinion did not support the mass removal of 

German and Italian aliens, much less second generation Germans and Italians. Provost Marshal 

General Gullion, who consistently supported relocation of the Japanese Americans and aliens, 

had suggested removing only males over the age of fourteen—about 46,000 from the West Coast 

and 40,000 from Hawaii.

As the military and federal government negotiated responses to Executive Order 9066, the 

Japanese American community, although deeply disturbed by the course of events, was generally 

compliant with government orders. Most followed the lead of the JACL and cooperated with the 

removal as a means to prove their loyalty. A few were vocally opposed to the removal and later 

took legal action that eventually reached the Supreme Court.

 

45 Robinson, By Order of the President, 128.

46 Ibid., 102.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 23

Lieutenant General DeWitt issued several public proclamations concerning the removal in an 

attempt to establish and enforce regulations and procedures. On March 2, 1942, Public 

Proclamation No. 1 established “Military Areas” and stipulated that certain residents may have to 

leave these areas if situations warranted their exclusion. Military Area No. 1 encompassed

western Washington, western Oregon, western California, and southern Arizona. It was subdivided into a “prohibited zone” along the coast and an adjacent “restricted zone.” Ninety-eight 

smaller areas also were labeled prohibited, presumably the locations of strategic military sites. 

Military Area No. 2 encompassed the eastern half of California. The public proclamation was 

aimed at “Japanese, German, or Italian” aliens and “any person of Japanese ancestry,” but it did 

not specifically order anyone to leave. However, an accompanying press release predicted that 

all people of Japanese ancestry would eventually be excluded from Military Area No. 1, but 

probably not from Military Area No. 2.47 It was assumed that the targeted groups would 

voluntarily leave rather than wait for a forced removal; however, voluntary relocation was not 

practical for many Japanese Americans, due to constraints regarding their jobs, finances, and 

possessions, and their lack of sponsors in other parts of the country. Most Issei assets had been 

frozen at the beginning of the war; thus, most families lacked the resources to move.

Several thousand Japanese Americans, however, did relocate voluntarily. More than 9,000 

persons voluntarily moved out of Military Area No. 1; of these, over half moved into Military 

Area No. 2 in eastern California, where Public Proclamation No. 1 implied that no restrictions or 

prohibitions were contemplated. Later, of course, they would be forcefully removed from

Military Area No. 2. Somewhat more fortunate were those who moved farther into the interior 

of the country: 1,963 moved to Colorado, 1,519 moved to Utah, 305 to Idaho, 208 to eastern

Washington, 115 to eastern Oregon, 105 to northern Arizona, 83 to Wyoming, 72 to Illinois, 69 

 

47 Daniels, Concentration Camps, 84.

This sign noting a boundary of the prohibited zone is located near 

the Colorado River Indian Reservation in Arizona.

WRA photo by Francis Stewart, April 9, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Part 2, Historic Context

24 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

A man of Japanese ancestry confers with a representative of 

the Federal Reserve Bank at a civil control station to 

arrange his financial affairs before removal.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, April 4, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

to Nebraska, and 366 to other states.48 Many attempting to leave the West Coast discovered that

the inland states were unwilling to accept them. The perception inland was that California was 

dumping its “undesirables,” and many refugees were turned back at state borders, had difficulty 

buying gasoline, or were greeted with “No Japs Wanted” signs.

WCCA and WRA

On March 11, 1942, the San Francisco-based U.S. Army Western Defense Command established 

the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) to organize and carry out the removal of 

people of Japanese heritage in Military Area No. 1. Col. Karl Bendetsen was appointed its 

director. Public Proclamation No. 2, issued by Lieutenant General DeWitt on March 16, 1942, 

designated four more military areas in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Utah, as well as 933 

additional prohibited areas. Although Lieutenant General DeWitt envisioned complete removal 

of people of Japanese ancestry from the military areas, a more limited removal ensued.

Public Law 503, approved by Congress on March 21, 1942, made violating restrictions in a 

military area a misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum fine of $5,000 or not more than a year in 

jail (or both).49 Lieutenant General DeWitt issued Public Proclamation No. 3, effective March

 

48 DeWitt, John L. Final Report, Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942 (Washington, DC: U.S. 

Government Printing Office, 1943), 107-111.

49 “Public Law 503, Law establishing penalties for violations under E.O. 9066,” March 21, 1942, at 

http://internmentarchives.com/archimg/d00104p001.png, accessed on December 28, 2009.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 25

Farm families of Japanese ancestry wait for 

buses in Centerville, California.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, May 9, 1942

Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration

27, instituting an 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew in Military Area No. 1 and listed prohibited areas 

for all enemy aliens and “persons of Japanese ancestry.” Public Proclamation No. 3 also 

confined people to their homes or places of employment, or traveling between them, but not 

more than five miles from their homes.

Roosevelt and his advisors recognized that soldiers could not be diverted from the army to 

manage the detainees or their facilities after the removal. On March 18, 1942, responsibility for 

administering the relocation program was transferred to the War Relocation Authority (WRA), 

created in the Office for Emergency Management by Executive Order 9102. Milton S. 

Eisenhower, an official with the Department of Agriculture, was appointed director of the WRA. 

Eisenhower initially hoped that many of those detained, especially citizens, could be resettled 

quickly. He expected them to return to civilian life outside the military areas, or to be sent to 

small unguarded subsistence farms.

After meeting with governors and other officials from 10 western states on April 7, 1942, in Salt 

Lake City, Eisenhower realized the extent to which anti-Japanese sentiments were ingrained in 

the western states. Governor Ralph Carr of Colorado was the only governor who did not protest

the resettlement of Japanese Americans to his state. The other governors did not want people of

Japanese ancestry moved to their states, but if it proved to be necessary, they wanted them kept 

under guard. A common feeling was expressed by one of the governors: “If these people are 

dangerous on the Pacific coast they will be dangerous here!”50 Their chief concern was that the 

 

50 Roger Daniels, Prisoners without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II, (New York: Hill and Wang, 
Part 2, Historic Context

26 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Dillion S. Myer, director of the WRA, is photographed later 

in the war at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.

WRA photo by Henry Ushioka, March 15, 1945

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Japanese would settle in their states and not leave when the war was over. However, at a 

meeting Eisenhower had with local sugar beet growers on the same day, a practical view 

prevailed. Desperate for labor, S. J. Boyer of the Utah Farm Bureau said that farmers “don't love 

the Japanese, but we intend to work them, if possible.”51

In short order, Eisenhower was forced to accept the idea that all Japanese Americans would be 

held for the duration of the war. Nevertheless, the incarceration of innocent people bothered him 

greatly. He resigned in June 1942 to head the Office of War Information, recommending Dillon 

S. Myer to succeed him, but advised Myer to take the position only “if you can do the job and 

sleep at night.”52

Voluntary departure from Military Area No. 1 ended on March 29, 1942, when Lieutenant 

General DeWitt‟s Public Proclamation No. 4 prohibited all Japanese from leaving Military Area 

No.1 until ordered. The WCCA designated two reception centers, which were intended to house 

the detainees temporarily until they could be resettled into established communities or 

communities developed specifically to hold people of Japanese ancestry during the war. Such 

resettlement proved to be untenable.

 

1993), 57.

51 Daniels, Concentration Camps, 94.

52 Dillon S. Myer, Uprooted Americans: The Japanese Americans and the War Relocation Authority During

World War II (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1971), 3.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 27

Two soldiers from Florin, California, are granted furloughs to help their 

families move. Because soldiers are permitted in restricted 

areas, the community depends on their help.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, May 10, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Further instructions established reception or assembly centers as transitional facilities and 

forbade moves, except to approved locations outside of Military Area No. 1. On March 23, 

1942, Lieutenant General DeWitt issued the first “Civilian Exclusion Order,” which required all

people of Japanese ancestry—citizens and aliens—to vacate Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, by 

March 30. A major Navy radio communication facility, including the navy‟s largest radio 

transmitter, was located on Bainbridge Island, which was home to 227 people of Japanese 

ancestry, mostly U.S. citizens. The detainees were sent to Manzanar, the reception center north 

of Los Angeles (which later became one of ten relocation centers). Such removals were repeated 

all along the West Coast, as Lieutenant General DeWitt issued a total of 108 Civilian Exclusion 

Orders, each designed to affect about 1,000 people.

After initial notification, those to be removed were given six days to dispose of nearly all their 

possessions, packing only what could be carried by the family or the individual, including 

bedding, toilet articles, clothing, and eating utensils. The government was willing to store or 

ship some possessions at the risk of owners, but many did not trust that option. Most families 

sold their property and possessions for ridiculously small sums, while others trusted friends and 

neighbors to look after their property. Those who lived in the exclusion zone were instructed to 

report to a nearby civil control station to begin the relocation process. First, they would be sent 

to an assembly center to wait the completion of the relocation centers. Their final destination 

would be one of the 10 relocation centers being developed by the WRA.
Part 2, Historic Context

28 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

By June 2, 1942, all 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry in Military Area No. 1, except for a 

few who remained in hospitals, were in army custody. Many accepted removal with little overt 

resistance. Perhaps their resignation was bolstered by the Japanese philosophy of shigata ga nai

(“it can't be helped”), combined with a strong sense of American patriotism and remorse over the 

Japanese attack. Others‟ indignation and sense of discrimination and illegality spurred them to 

resistance. Some particularly notable cases are discussed later in this chapter.

The justification for the removal was ostensibly to thwart espionage and sabotage, but babies, 

young children, the elderly, the infirm, children from orphanages, and even children adopted by 

Caucasian parents were not exempt from removal. In all, over 17,000 children under 10 years 

old, 2,000 persons over 65 years old, and 1,000 handicapped or infirm persons were removed.53

Japanese Americans in Hawaii

The experiences of Japanese Americans in Alaska and Hawaii were profoundly affected by the 

fact that these territories, which they were at the time, were the sites of active combat. Hawaii, 

of course, due to the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into the war, and 

Alaska, due to the Japanese occupation of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands.54 Citizens of 

the territories of Hawaii and Alaska also were citizens of the United States. Unlike Alaska, 

Hawaii was not bound by Executive Order 9066, because it was not within the jurisdiction of the 

Western Defense Command. Martial law was declared in Hawaii immediately after the attack on 

Pearl Harbor and continued in force until October 1944. All civilians were subject to travel, 

security, and curfew restrictions.

In terms of concepts of national security, Hawaii posed a real dilemma for the United States 

government. Positioned to serve as a pivotal staging area for the war in the Pacific, people of 

Japanese ancestry were, by far, the largest ethnic group in the islands, and many of them were 

United States citizens. According to the Census of 1940, over 150,000 Japanese Americans were 

living in the islands, more than a third of the total population. There were not enough soldiers to 

guard them, nor enough ships to send them to the mainland. More importantly, their labor was 

crucial to the economy. In the end, most Japanese stayed on the islands, although they were 

under strict control and surveillance.55

The treatment of people of Japanese ancestry in Hawaii contrasts sharply with their treatment on 

the American mainland, although a decision on their removal or confinement was the subject of 

extensive discussions by the President and his advisors. After the Pearl Harbor attack, options 

that were seriously considered included: the establishment of a “concentration camp” on one of 

the Hawaiian Islands for some 20,000 “dangerous” citizens and aliens of Japanese ancestry;

deportation of the same group to a mainland confinement center; and deportation and 

incarceration of all people of Japanese ancestry living in Hawaii.

 

53 Clifford I. Uyeda, Due Process: Americans of Japanese Ancestry and the United States Constitution (San 

Francisco: National Japanese American Historical Society, 1995), 32.

54 Properties in both areas associated with wartime military operations were designated as National Historic 

Landmarks in the 1980s under the “War in the Pacific” National Historic Landmark theme study. 

55 Daniels, Prisoners Without Trial, 48; Dennis M. Ogawa and Evarts C. Fox, Jr., “Japanese Internment and 

Relocation: The Hawaii Experience,” in Roger Daniels, Sandra C. Taylor, and Harry H. L. Kitano, Japanese 

Americans, From Relocation to Redress, rev. ed. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991), 135-138.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 29

This family of Japanese ancestry, newly arrived from Hawaii, is photographed 

in their new barrack home at the Topaz Relocation Center in Utah.

WRA photo by Francis Stewart, March 14, 1943

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The liberties of Japanese people who were not American citizens in Hawaii were curtailed after 

the Pearl Harbor attack. For example, they could not engage in fishing, and the Japanese fishing 

fleet was impounded. In the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, Secretary of the Navy Frank 

Knox called for the removal of Hawaiian Japanese Americans. Secretary Knox wrote in a letter 

to the President dated February 23, 1942, that Japanese Americans in Hawaii had 

“predominantly enemy sympathies and affiliations” and, therefore, their removal was essential to 

national security.56

Roosevelt also championed the mass relocation of people of Japanese ancestry living in Hawaii; 

however, on March 13, 1942, he approved a list of recommendations regarding the treatment of 

Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry that reflected a more practical approach. Drafted by the Joint 

Chiefs of Staff, it included transporting the 20,000 most dangerous people of Japanese ancestry

to the mainland for incarceration. Lieutenant General Emmons, who was appointed Hawaii‟s 

military governor after the Pearl Harbor attack, recognized the overwhelming loyalty of the 

people of Japanese ancestry living in Hawaii. He believed, at most, 1,500 people posed dangers, 

not including the 70 or so who had been apprehended shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack and 

were sent to the Sand Island Detention Camp in Honolulu Harbor.

Lieutenant General Emmons recommended the voluntary departure of some 5,000 Issei and their 

Nisei relatives to War Relocation Authority relocation centers on the mainland. The Joint Chiefs 

of Staff agreed with this strategy and on July 17, 1941, Roosevelt authorized the removal of no 

more than 15,000 Japanese Americans, who may threaten national security, and their families. 

 

56 Robinson, By Order of the President, 149-150.
Part 2, Historic Context

30 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The first volunteers left early in 1942; however, an invasion of Hawaii by Japan already seemed 

unlikely, so by January 1943, “the idea of mass evacuation in Hawaii was dead.”57 Only 1,037 

people of Japanese ancestry left Hawaii. Most were citizens, and they had volunteered to join 

family members already confined. In the end, they were victims of the disagreement among the 

country‟s top leadership on the question of the treatment of Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry.

Of the approximately 10,000 people in Hawaii investigated as possible security risks during the 

period of martial law, 1,569 were apprehended; some 93% were of Japanese ancestry. Those 

named on the existing FBI list were arrested early in the war, in some cases with the help of local 

police. The Japanese Americans in Hawaii who were targeted for investigation were often 

community leaders, including Shinto and Buddhist priests, language schoolteachers and 

administrators, and members of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce. Thus, the impact on 

Hawaii‟s Japanese American community was greater than the relatively small numbers might 

suggest. The apprehended were taken to county jails on Kauai and Maui, to the Kilauea Military 

Camp on Hawaii, and to the Honolulu Immigration Station on Oahu. Many of these prisoners 

were soon taken to the Sand Island Detention Camp in Honolulu Harbor, which opened on 

December 8, 1941, and operated until March 1, 1943. Of these, several hundred were taken to 

alien internment camps on the mainland, usually after a brief stay at Angel Island. Nine hundred 

family members volunteered to join them.

In the spring of 1943, a new prison facility was opened at Honouliuli on Oahu. Honouliuli, a 

permanent facility ringed with barbed wire and guard towers, also housed prisoners of war and a 

small number of German and Italian non-citizens. Some of the 117 Japanese Americans 

remaining in the Honouliuli Camp in October 1944 were transferred to the Tule Lake 

Segregation Center; others were gradually released on parole.58 

A small number of Japanese Americans was confined at other military camps in Hawaii,

including the Kalaheo Stockade on the island of Kauai and the Haiku Camp on the island of 

Maui. In all, approximately 1,500 Japanese Americans were confined in Hawaii for the duration 

of the war.59

Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Governor Poindexter formed the Hawaii Territorial 

Guard (HTG) to be deployed immediately in the field to protect the Hawaiian citizenry. By the 

evening of December 7, 1941, they were in the field, in uniforms and armed.60 The HTG 

guarded a number of utilities and facilities, such as bridges, reservoirs, courthouses, and several 

state, federal, and industrial offices.61 It included several hundred men of Japanese heritage, 

whose contributions to the HTG were questioned within a climate of the disarmament of other 

Japanese Americans. The HTG was disbanded by Lieutenant General Emmons on January 21, 

1942, just a few weeks after its formation, due to concerns about the armed Nisei. It was 

immediately reformed with the exclusion of Japanese Americans.

 

57 Ibid., 155.

58 Ogawa and Fox, “Japanese Internment and Relocation: The Hawaii Experience,” in Daniels et al., Japanese 

Americans, From Relocation to Redress, 135-138.

59 Ibid., 155.

60 Franklin Odo, No Sword to Bury (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004), 121.

61 Ibid., 122.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 31

On Sand Island, confined Japanese Americans are housed in tents.

Photo courtesy of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’i

The removal of Japanese Americans from the HTG demonstrated the alignment of the military 

government in Hawaii with the racial politics of the mainland United States.62 Lieutenant 

General Emmons, however, was not in favor of widespread removal, realizing the extraordinary 

contribution to the Hawaiian workforce made by Japanese Americans and the general lack of 

evidence of disloyalty. Both J. Edgar Hoover and Curtis Munson believed that such removal

was unnecessary. Lieutenant General Emmons did order the removal of 1,875 people of 

Japanese ancestry and, as on the mainland, specific charges of espionage or criminal acts were 

generally absent.63 He did not immediately follow the directive of the War Department to 

suspend all civilians of Japanese ancestry employed by the army, understanding the crippling 

effect this action would have on the army‟s considerable construction activity. 64

Early in 1942, Lieutenant General Emmons approved the formation of the Corps of Engineers 

Auxiliary as a means of including Japanese Americans in the war effort. Nicknamed the Varsity 

Victory Volunteers and commonly known as the VVV, the auxiliary was composed mostly of 

college men, whose status was 4C, as “aliens ineligible to serve.” They were attached to the 

Thirty-fourth Combat Engineers Regiment in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. The 169 men 

who ultimately served with the VVV were mostly involved in construction projects. On 

February 25, 1942, they were sent to Schofield Barracks at Wahiawa, Oahu. The VVV was 

considered a highly successful initiative and “a metaphor for exemplary behavior for any 

victimized minority.” Throughout the war, the VVV provided young men of Japanese ancestry 

with an opportunity to contribute to the war effort. Their work was considered outstanding. 65

 

62 Ibid., 126.

63 Ibid., 143-144.

64 Ibid., 149.

65 Ibid., 182.
Part 2, Historic Context

32 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Japanese Americans in Alaska

Most Alaskan Issei were apprehended by the Department of Justice shortly after the attack on 

Pearl Harbor; many of them were later transferred to relocation centers. Their families were held 

for a short time at Fort Richardson Army post, near Anchorage, before being transferred to the 

Puyallup Assembly Center in Washington. Most were later sent to the Minidoka Relocation 

Center. Of the 151 Japanese Americans removed from Alaska under Executive Order 9066, 

about 50 were seal and whale hunters who were half-Eskimo or half-Aleut.66 

The only mass relocations in Alaska involved native Aleuts, whose homeland is the Aleutian, 

Pribilof, and Shumagin islands. They are ethnically related to the Eskimo people. The only 

battle fought on U.S. soil in World War II was on Attu Island, a western Aleutian island 

(National Historic Landmark, February 4, 1985). In the aftermath of the Japanese attacks in 

June1942, U.S. authorities removed 800 men, women, and children from the Aleutian Islands, 

and about 500 from the Pribilof Islands and confined them in isolated “duration villages” in 

southeast Alaska. Conditions were primitive in abandoned canneries and gold mines, and about 

75 people died. Under the terms of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (Public Law 100-383), the 

surviving relocated Aleuts from the Pribilof Islands and the Aleutian Islands west of Unimak 

Island were given restitution, along with relocated Japanese Americans and permanent resident 

aliens of Japanese ancestry.

67

 The Aleuts are not related to this historic context, but they are 

briefly mentioned because of their similar treatment during World War II.

Japanese Americans in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada

The mass removals from the West Coast, and the more limited removals from Hawaii and 

Alaska, were only part of the removals undertaken throughout much of the Western Hemisphere. 

At the outbreak of World War II, some 600,000 ethnic Japanese lived in the Americas.68 The 

U.S. pressured many Central and South American countries, even those not at war with Japan, to 

turn over Japanese immigrants and nationals to U.S. authorities for removal to U.S. detention 

camps.69 The government cited the safety of the Panama Canal as the rationale for this removal, 

but the possible exchange of Japanese civilians for U.S. civilians held in Japan was also a 

consideration. During the early part of the war, some 7,000 U.S. citizens had been captured by 

Japanese forces in the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, and China.70

A total of 2,264 Japanese were sent to the U.S. from Latin American and Caribbean countries; 

more than 1,000 were from Peru.71 The first transfer to the U.S. occurred in April 1942. Most of 

the Japanese sent to the U.S. from Latin America were confined at Crystal City, Texas, a facility 

operated by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service for families.

 

66 Weglyn, Years of Infamy, 57.

67 “Aleut Internment” and “Aleut Restitution,” on the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area website at 

www.nps.gov/aleu/AleutInternmentAndRestitution, accessed on January 21, 2005; M. Richard Zacharof, 

“Pribilof Aleut Internment Historic District,” draft National Register nomination, 2001.

68 Daniels, “Introduction,” in Daniels et al., Japanese Americans, From Relocation to Redress, 132.

69 Weglyn, Years of Infamy, 57.

70 Ibid., 59-62.

71 C. Harvey Gardiner, “The Latin American Japanese and World War II,” in Daniels et al., Japanese Americans, 

From Relocation to Redress, 139-141.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 33

During the war, the Swedish ship M.S. Gripsholm made two voyages to Japan to facilitate the 

exchange of 2,840 Japanese civilians for U.S. civilians. Nearly half of those exchanged by the 

U.S. were from Latin America. Disturbed by the mass relocation of people of Japanese ancestry 

from Latin America, and with the exchange of citizens with Japan at a standstill, the Department 

of Justice ended the deportations to the U.S. in early 1943.72 After the war, many of the 

deportees were denied reentry to their home country and, as a result, many returned to Japan or 

stayed in the U.S. In August 1946, hundreds of Peruvian Japanese, who had been held at the 

facility in Crystal City, Texas, were sent to Seabrook Farms, New Jersey, to work in the 

vegetable packing plants.73 According to Ellen Levine, several hundred Japanese Peruvians were 

still in the United States at the end of the war. They became eligible for permanent residency 

and citizenship in June 1952.74

Many of the governments in the Americas instituted relocation programs similar to the United 

States program. In Mexico, people of Japanese ancestry along the Pacific Coast and the U.S. 

border were required by the Mexican government to liquidate property and move inland to 

resettlement camps.75 They were eventually required to resettle in Mexico City or Guadalajara.76

Cuba incarcerated all adult male Japanese Cubans. Brazil's 300,000 Japanese Brazilians, the 

largest population of people of Japanese heritage in the western hemisphere outside of Hawaii, 

were left largely alone, as were people of Japanese ancestry in Chile and Argentina.77

Canada, already at war with Germany and Italy, declared war on Japan within hours of the 

attacks on Pearl Harbor and British Hong Kong. Of the 23,000 people of Japanese ancestry in 

Canada, 75% were Canadian citizens. In the beginning, only Japanese aliens were arrested, but 

more than 1,200 Japanese Canadian fishing vessels, all owned by citizens, were impounded and 

later sold to finance the relocation effort.

78

By January 14, 1942, all Japanese alien males over 16 years of age had been removed from 

Canadian Pacific coastal areas. When British Columbia politicians learned of the U.S. decision

to remove all people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, including citizens, they 

demanded the Canadian government do the same.79 A total removal was ordered on February 

24, 1942, with exceptions made for those married to non-Asians.80 On March 16, eight days 

before the first removal was carried out by the U.S. Army, the removal of all Japanese Canadians 

in British Columbia began. Over 21,000 were sent through the Hastings Park clearing station, 

the Canadian equivalent of an assembly center. From Hastings Park, half of the Japanese 

Canadians were sent to six interior housing centers located at abandoned mining towns. The rest 

were relocated to sugar beet farms, lumber camps, road construction camps, and other work 

camps in the interior of Canada. After the war, Japanese Canadians remained excluded from 

British Columbia for a few years; they were finally allowed to return in April 1949.

 

72 Ibid., 63-64.

73 Ibid., 145.

74 Ellen Levine, A Fence Away from Freedom (New York: G. P. Putnam‟s Sons, 1995), 113.

75 Ibid., 57.

76 Daniels et al, Japanese American, From Relocation to Redress, 132.

77 Ibid., 132.

78 Daniels, Concentration Camps, 182-184.

79 Gordon K. Hirabayashi, “The Japanese Canadians and World War II,” in Daniels et al., Japanese Americans, 

From Relocation to Redress, 139-141.

80 Daniels, Concentration Camps, 185.
Part 2, Historic Context

34 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

CONFINEMENT

The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was formed as an independent agency to move people of 

Japanese heritage out of the Military Areas designated on the West Coast. Initially, it assisted

the U.S. Army Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA), but eventually the new agency 

replaced it. The removal process began under the WCCA with the posting of the exclusion 

orders, including the identification of a nearby location to which heads of families were to report 

for a physical exam and administrative processing. This response to the exclusion orders was 

carried out in existing buildings, such as schools and armories, which were called “civil control 

stations.” The appendix of this report includes a list of known civil control stations.

With WRA involvement, a standard removal procedure was quickly implemented, involving at 

least two moves. After reporting to collection points (civil control stations) near their homes, 

people from a given district were transported by the army to hastily contrived assembly centers. 

From there, eventually they were taken to one of the relocation centers administered by the 

WRA. In the early weeks of the removal, the WCCA operated two reception centers that had 

been established to process the relocation of those who voluntarily left. The reception center at 

Owens Valley near Los Angeles became an assembly center and, later, the Manzanar Relocation 

Center. The one at Parker Dam, Arizona, became the Poston Relocation Center.

A father and son talk to a military police officer before leaving 

for the assembly center at Arcadia, California.

WRA photo by Clem Albers, April 5, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 35

A Japanese American family arrives at the assembly 

center at the Tanforan Race Track.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, April 29, 1942

Courtesy of the US National Archives and Records Administration

Assembly Centers

One assembly center was established in Washington State, another in Oregon, and a third in 

Arizona. The others were located in California. Little time was available for the large-scale 

construction of new facilities, so existing facilities were converted into temporary assembly 

centers. Ten of the assembly centers were at racetracks or fairgrounds. Others were at facilities 

of a similar scale: for example, the Pacific International Livestock Exposition facilities (Portland, 

Oregon), a former lumber mill site (Pinedale, California), migrant worker camps (Marysville and

Sacramento, California), and an abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp (Mayer, 

Arizona).81 

Two additional assembly centers were partially readied before the decision was made to take 

detainees elsewhere. Toppenish, in eastern Washington, ultimately was not used because of 

unsuitable sanitation facilities and because there was enough room in the California assembly 

centers for the detainees. A refurbished CCC camp at Cave Creek, Arizona, was not needed due 

to considerable voluntary migration from the southern part of the state.82

Living conditions at the assembly centers were chaotic and squalid. The existing buildings were 

supplemented with temporary theater of operations-type army barracks: 20 x 100-foot buildings 

 

81 Dorothy Swaine Thomas, The Salvage: Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement (Berkeley: 

University of California Press, 1952), 84.

82 DeWitt, Final Report, 152.
Part 2, Historic Context

36 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Barracks are being constructed at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds at Pomona.

WRA photo by Clem Albers, April 8, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

divided into five rooms. These barracks were originally designed for temporary use by combat 

soldiers, not families that may include two or three generations.83

At the racetracks, stables had been hastily cleaned before they were designated living quarters, 

but the stench remained. Still, the converted stables were described as “somewhat better shelter 

than the newly constructed mass-fabricated houses.”84 At the Santa Anita Assembly Center in 

southern California, 8,500 of the total population of more than 18,000 lived in stables. At the 

Portland Assembly Center, more than 3,000 detainees were housed under one roof in a livestock 

pavilion that was subdivided into apartments.85

The atmosphere in the assembly centers was tense. Many of the detainees were demoralized;

convinced they would never be accepted as full-fledged Americans. Some Nisei who had been 

very patriotic became very bitter and some expressed allegiance to Japan. Most tried to make 

living conditions better, by organizing newsletters and dances and planting Victory Gardens. 

Jobs were available in the assembly centers, but the decision was made to pay the detainees no 

more than an army private (which was then $21 per month) to combat charges of coddling. 

Initially, unskilled laborers were paid $8 per month, skilled laborers $12, and professionals $16. 

The monthly wages were later raised to $12, $16, and $19 per month, respectively. Detainees 

worked as cooks, mechanics, teachers, doctors, clerks, and police. At the Santa Anita and 

Manzanar assembly centers, camouflage net factories were established and managed by a private 

company under military contract. Only citizens could be employed in this war-related work.

 

83 U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Klamath Project.

84 Carey McWilliams, “Moving the West Coast Japanese,” in Harpers Magazine, 1942, 185:361.

85 DeWitt, Final Report, 183.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 37

Detainees use lumber scraps to build furniture at the Santa Anita Assembly Center.

WRA photo by Clem Albers, April 6, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Privacy at the assembly centers was next to non-existent, with communal lavatories and mess 

halls and thin walls in the barracks. Families were crowded into small apartments, usually 20 

feet square. The detainees improved their new homes as best as they could, using salvaged 

lumber and other found supplies, in an attempt to make them more livable. Generally, people 

stayed in assembly centers for three or four months, before they were moved to a relocation 

center.

86

Shortages of food and other materials and deplorable sanitation were common at many of the 

centers. The 800 Nisei working at the net factory at Santa Anita conducted a sit-down strike to

complain about weakness due to lack of food, as well as low pay and unfair production quotas.87

For the most part, however, detainees took their hardships in stride, but on August 4, 1942, 

violence erupted at the Santa Anita Assembly Center over a routine search for contraband 

(including Japanese language books and phonograph records) and an unannounced confiscation 

of hot plates. Rumors and complaints spread as crowds gathered. The internal police and 

suspected informers were harassed and one suspected informer was severely beaten. Ultimately, 

200 military police were called to control the 2,000 protesters.88 That night, the detainees were 

confined to their barracks and no meals were served. The military patrolled inside the center for 

three days.89

 

86 Levine, A Fence Away from Freedom, 46.

87 Weglyn, Years of Infamy, 80-82.

88 Davis, Behind Barbed Wire, 79.

89Anthony L. Lehman, Birthright of Barbed Wire: The Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese (Los 

Angeles: Westernlore, 1970).
Part 2, Historic Context

38 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

This early view of the Minidoka Relocation Center, showing the partially completed

barracks, was taken from the top of the water tower at the east end of the center.

WRA photo by Francis Stewart, August 18, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Relocation Centers

The relocation centers were designed for longer-term occupancy by confined Japanese 

Americans. Sites for the relocation centers were selected by the WRA, but acquisition was left 

to the War Department. Over 300 possible sites were reviewed; primary consideration was given 

to locations with railroad access and agricultural potential.90 Ten relocation centers were 

developed in seven states, most on unused or underutilized federal lands, but some on private 

land that was acquired for the purpose. All of the relocation centers were in sparsely populated 

areas, making them some of the largest “communities” in their respective states. Most were 

characterized by chilling cold, oppressive heat, and unrelenting wind and dust.

The relocation centers at Tule Lake in California, at Minidoka in Idaho, and at Heart Mountain in 

Wyoming were located on land that was designated for federal reclamation projects. The Jerome 

and Rohwer relocation centers in Arkansas were partially on land meant for subsistence

homesteads under the Farm Security Administration; the balance of the site at Rohwer was 

bought from local farmers. The Central Utah Relocation Center (Topaz) was developed partly 

on land in the public domain, partly on county owned land, and partly on privately owned land. 

The Granada Relocation Center in Colorado was privately owned land purchased by the army for 

the WRA.

The Colorado River (Poston) and Gila River relocation centers in Arizona were on Indian 

reservations. Both tribal councils opposed the use of their lands on the grounds that their 

participation would inflict injustices similar to those they had suffered. The tribes were 

 

90 Milton Thomas Madden, “A Physical History of the Japanese Relocation Camp Located at Rivers, Arizona”

(Master‟s thesis, University of Tucson, 1969), 23-25.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 39

Newly arrived Japanese Americans are filling mattresses at Poston.

WRA photo by Fred Clark, May 21, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration 

overruled by the army and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). In fact, by verbal agreement,

Eisenhower gave administration of the Colorado River Relocation Center to the BIA; the WRA 

resumed control of the center after Dillon Myer became WRA director.

Those confined at assembly centers that only had pit latrines or that presented fire hazards were 

the first priority for transfer to the relocation centers.91 In theory, they would be sent to a 

relocation center with the climate most similar to their home, and each relocation center would 

have a balance of urban and rural settlers. Detainees were transferred from the assembly centers 

to the relocation centers by train, with their movement carefully choreographed to avoid 

interrupting major troop movements. The transfer process lasted from early June to October 30, 

1942.

During the relocation process, the army ordered the removal of all persons of Japanese ancestry 

from the remainder of California. The eastern portion of California had been designated Military 

Area No. 2, and was not supposed to be as sensitive as Military Area No. 1, but Lieutenant 

General DeWitt reported that this area was indeed sensitive due to vital military installations,

important forests, and two population concentrations immediately adjacent to Military Area No. 

1.92 More than 9,000 people were moved directly from this area to the Tule Lake, Poston, and 

Gila River relocation centers between July 4 and August 11, 1942, including many who had 

voluntarily moved out of Military Area No. 1 (prior to Public Proclamation No. 4, which 

prohibited voluntary removal from this area), believing they would not be forced to relocation 

centers.

 

91 DeWitt, Final Report, 280.

92 Ibid., 360.
Part 2, Historic Context

40 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The barracks at Poston II are photographed from the 

top of the water tower, facing southeast.

WRA photo by Fred Clark, June 1, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Life in the Relocation Centers

The physical environment of the relocation centers had a profound effect on everyday life. 

When the detainees arrived at the centers, they found identical blocks of identical flimsy 

barracks. They quickly improved and personalized their new lodgings, first to make them 

habitable, and later to make them homes. The physical changes the detainees made in their 

environment—to both buildings and landscape—were important means of assuming some 

control over their lives and normalizing family life. Such changes helped relieve the monotony 

of row after row of barracks.

The relocation centers had built-in reminders of the freedom that had been lost. The guard 

towers and barbed wire fencing lent a prison-like atmosphere and served as a barrier between the 

outside world and the world in the center: freedom vs. confinement. Even a WRA report

admitted, “the contrast between the barbed wire, and the confinement within Manzanar and the 

observable freedom and motion for those immediately outside, is galling to a good many 

residents.”93

The weather greatly affected the detainees' lives. Both contemporary and later accounts stress 

dust, mud, and extremes in temperature that came as great shocks to West Coast residents 

accustomed to much more temperate climates. The dust, caused by the massive disturbance of 

the soil from the construction of hundreds of buildings at once, eventually settled, but at some 

centers the harshness of the climate was a persistent burden.

 

93 War Relocation Authority, “Records 1942-1946,” (Los Angeles: University of California Special Collections, 

1943), quoted in Jeffery Burton et al, Confinement and Ethnicity, 45.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 41

The first truss is installed for the high school at the Topaz Relocation Center.

WRA photo by R. Bankson, July1943

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Privacy was virtually non-existent at the relocation centers and family life—a mainstay of 

Japanese American culture—was greatly disrupted. Stress, boredom, and loneliness dogged 

many of the confined people, and self-esteem suffered as loyal Americans saw themselves 

perceived as traitors and prisoners. Living in relatively primitive and often dirty surroundings 

took its toll. The salvation for many was the daily activity that bore some resemblance to their 

former lives: school for the children, gardening, church, and social activities. The centers were 

designed to accommodate schools, places for worship, and community centers. Detainees

attempted to beautify the barren landscapes by planting trees and gardens, building pools, and 

planting victory gardens. Recreation was encouraged and helped normalize life for children. 

Baseball was very popular at all the centers and swimming opportunities were available at most.

The WRA gave the detainees a very limited amount of self-governance. The centers were built 

on a grid system that was divided into blocks of barracks separated by firebreaks. Groups of 12 

to 14 residential barracks typically constituted a “block,” a designation that was useful for 

various administrative and organizational purposes. Originally, “block leaders” were appointed 

by the relocation center director, but eventually the WRA decided that detainees should 

participate in governing their communities as much as possible. The WRA policy called for a 

community council, with one elected representative from each block, an executive committee, 

and a judicial committee. Issei were not eligible to hold elective offices. Manzanar was the only

center that never elected a council. Instead, it relied on elected block leaders who served as an 

advisory group for the center director.94

Conflicts at the centers were not unusual. Some were caused by the circumstances of the 

confinement, while others surfaced under the stressful conditions. Many detainees had supported 

the United States and were loyal and patriotic until the government exhibited its distrust of 

 

94 Myer, Uprooted Americans, 39-40; Smith, Democracy on Trial, 253.
Part 2, Historic Context

42 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Detainees at the Topaz Relocation Center hold a community council meeting.

WRA photo by Francis Stewart, March 11, 1943

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Japanese Americans. In extreme cases, feelings of betrayal caused formerly loyal citizens to 

renounce their citizenship or sympathize with the Japanese government.

Inter-generational tension was a major problem in the relocation centers, especially since Issei 

and Nisei were very distinct generations. Because they more commonly had established farms or 

businesses, the Issei often lost more property and stature in the course of the arrests and 

confinement. During confinement, a shift in the balance of power from the Issei to the Nisei was 

often evident. The majority of the Issei leadership had been arrested and detained after Pearl 

Harbor; thus the Nisei gained influence, both within families and in general. Once the relocation 

centers were established, many of the Issei were released from detention centers or prisons to 

join their families in the relocation centers; however, their more limited command of English 

was a handicap. Use of the Japanese language was very restricted by the WRA. All meetings 

had to be conducted in English, and all newsletters and other publications had to be written in 

English.

Ellen Levine‟s book, A Fence Away From Freedom, includes personal accounts of people who 

were children or young adults in the centers.

95 These poignant reminiscences paint a startling 

glimpse of relocation center life—the disruption, angst, and heartbreak that accompanied most of 

the detainees, adults and children. The lucky ones had the resilience to find ways to have fun 

and remain engaged in life; the unlucky ones suffered deep depression and found life terribly 

difficult. 

 

95 Levine, A Fence Away From Freedom.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 43

ALTERNATIVES TO CONFINEMENT

A goal of the relocation program was to spread the Japanese American population to other parts 

of the country to live as free Americans. For many reasons, this was only minimally successful, 

but sometimes opportunities to leave for school, military service, or work became available. 

About 4,300 students were released from the assembly and relocation centers to attend school.96 

The war had created a massive labor shortage, so seasonal agricultural leave was allowed for 

those deemed loyal. Over 1,000 detainees were granted temporary leave from the relocation 

centers to harvest cotton, potatoes, and sugar beets. Some people were relocated to the Midwest 

or East Coast for more permanent jobs, such as those at the food processing plant in Seabrook, 

New Jersey. Others enlisted or were drafted into the military. However, removal from the 

relocation centers was all but impossible if there was any suspicion a detainee was disloyal.

A Question of Loyalty: Indefinite Leave Clearance

One of the goals of the WRA was to determine which detainees were actually loyal to the United 

States, and then find places for them to work and settle away from the West Coast, outside of the 

relocation centers. At first, each case was investigated individually, which often took months 

because each person had to find a job and a place to live, while convincing the government that 

they were not a threat. Eventually, to streamline the process every adult detainee was given an 

“Application for Indefinite Leave Clearance,” whether or not they were attempting to leave. The 

questionnaire had been designed to determine the loyalty of possible draftees, and it was not 

modified for all detainees, including women and Japanese citizens. Responses to questions 27 

and 28 proved to ignite suspicion about the loyalty of many respondents. These questions were:

No. 27: Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, 

wherever ordered?

No. 28: Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and 

faithfully defend the United States from any and all attack by foreign or domestic forces, 

and foreswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese Emperor, or any other 

foreign government, power, or organization?

The first question was unusual for women and the elderly, but otherwise relatively straightforward. However, the second question was troubling for Issei, who were not allowed to become 

American citizens; answering “yes” effectively left them without a country. On the other hand, 

some of those who already felt loyal to the United States considered it to be a trick question. No 

one was sure what the consequences would be, but each family debated how to answer these 

questions. Many of the relocation center directors saw the dilemma in the wording of the two 

questions, and got permission from the Washington Office to make changes. At Manzanar the 

wording of question 28 was changed to, “Are you sympathetic to the United States and do you

agree faithfully to defend the United States from any attack by foreign or domestic forces?” 

With this change, many Issei at Manzanar answered in the affirmative.97

 

96 Daniels, Concentration Camps, 99-101.

97 Smith, Democracy on Trial, 292-293.
Part 2, Historic Context

44 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Even with the changed wording, controversy remained, although generally those who answered 

“no” to both questions, called the “no-no boys,” were considered disloyal. In truth, some 

answered in the negative as a means of protesting the injustice of the entire relocation, not to 

show loyalty to Japan. Others simply gave answers they thought would keep their family 

together. Speculating that certain answers might imply they wanted to leave, they hoped to give 

answers that would allow them to stay settled in the relocation centers—considered by some to 

be safe havens compared to unknown locations.

The questionnaire was one of the most divisive events of the entire relocation. Those who 

answered “yes” to the loyalty questions were eligible to leave the relocation centers on an 

indefinite leave basis, if they found a sponsor. One of the largest single sponsors was also one of 

the largest producers of frozen vegetables in the country. Seabrook Farms, experiencing a labor 

shortage due to the war, had a history of hiring minorities and housing them in ethnically 

segregated villages. About 2,300 detainees went to the Seabrook Farms New Jersey plant. They 

worked 12-hour days, at 35 cents to 50 cents an hour, with one day off every two weeks. The 

workers lived in concrete block buildings, not much better than the relocation center barracks, 

and had to provide their own food and cooking.98

The Seabrook-based company actively recruited at the relocation centers. The first Nisei 

workers to arrive at Seabrook Farms were some dozen detainees from the Granada Relocation 

Center. In April 1944, three detainees from the Jerome Relocation Center visited Seabrook 

Farms to assess the opportunities available. From there, they traveled to Washington, DC, where 

they met with Dillon Myer, Director of the WRA. He assured them the WRA would cooperate 

with the relocation to Seabrook. Ultimately, more than 2,300 Japanese Americans moved to 

Seabrook from the relocation centers at Jerome and Rohwer, plus Poston, Gila River, Granada, 

Topaz, Heart Mountain, and Manzanar. A pivotal moment occurred several years after the war, 

on June 29, 1953, when “citizenship was conferred on 126 alien Japanese at Seabrook, the 

largest single group of Issei ever to be naturalized in the U.S.”99

Seabrook was not the only destination for Japanese Americans who wanted to leave the 

relocation centers to work. In a number of East Coast and Midwest cities, hostels were 

organized to provide a destination for Japanese Americans who wanted to leave the centers via 

the indefinite leave program. The Quakers‟ American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) was 

instrumental in establishing the hostels and familiarizing Japanese American newcomers to the 

communities. According to Theodore Wilbur, more than 3,500 left the centers for Chicago, with 

smaller numbers resettling in Salt Lake City, Denver, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. Others went to 

New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. 

On June 30, 1944, the Jerome Relocation Center was converted to a POW camp for Germans, 

after the 5,000 residents remaining were transferred to other centers. This closure not only saved 

administrative costs, but also was used to show that the relocation program was working. Over 

18,000 detainees moved out of the relocation centers in 1944. By the end of the war, over 

50,000 had relocated to the eastern United States.

 

98 John Seabrook, “The Spinach King,” in The New Yorker (New York: Condé Nast Publications, February 

20 and 27, 1995), 222-235.

99 Balch Institute, “Resettlement in Seabrook, New Jersey” in The Japanese American Experience, at 

http://www2.hsp.org/exhibits/Balch%20exhibits/japanese/seabrook.htm, accessed on April 20, 2010, 2.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 45

Katherine Kageyama and Yori Shimasake have been granted indefinite

work leave and will be leaving the Topaz Relocation Center to 

work in the Washington, DC, office of the War Relocation Authority.

WRA photo by Francis Stewart, Mach 15, 1943

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

National Japanese American Student Relocation Council

With the encouragement of the War Relocation Authority, a private initiative developed a 

program to send Japanese American students to colleges and universities outside of the excluded 

area to finish their studies, in lieu of being confined to relocation centers. The program was only 

open to those of Japanese heritage who were American citizens.

The National Japanese American Student Relocation Council was spearheaded by the American 

Friends Service Committee, although a number of organizations and individuals were actively 

engaged in promoting the program. Milton Eisenhower, the first director of the War Relocation 

Authority, was wholeheartedly behind the private initiative. He notified Clarence Pickett of the 

AFSC that the WRA could not undertake a program of student placements, but requested the 

AFSC, with the help of others, to establish and administer a program to help Japanese American 

students complete their studies.100 

Fund raising efforts were wide-ranging and generally successful, and many universities outside 

of the Western Defense Zone agreed to accept Japanese American students from the centers. 

Due to the approval process required by the War Department, however, the application process 

for students was lengthy. Even so, in the first year of the program, 1,308 students were 

permitted to leave the centers to attend school. Of these, 994 were given various amounts of 

 

100 Theodore Wilbur, “American Friends Service Committee Efforts to Aid Japanese American Citizens During 

World War II” (Master‟s thesis, Boise State University, 2009), 34.
Part 2, Historic Context

46 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

financial assistance.101 More than 500 schools participated in the program, including community 

colleges near some centers, where students were allowed to commute to take classes.

Nisei Men in the Army

Many Japanese Americans wanted to enlist in the army and take part in the war, like others of 

their generation (the navy and U.S. Army Air Forces did not accept Japanese Americans). The 

initial goal of the Application for Indefinite Leave Clearance had been to determine the loyalty 

of draft-age males, before calling for volunteers for the army or reinstating the draft for Japanese 

Americans. On February 1, 1943, President Roosevelt declared, “Americanism is not, and never 

was, a matter of race or ancestry. . . . Every loyal American should be given the opportunity to 

serve this country wherever his skills will make the greatest contribution—whether it be in the 

ranks of our armed forces, war production, agriculture, government service, or other work 

essential to the war effort.”102 Although these words were written by Dillon Myer, director of 

the WRA, to a certain extent they helped Roosevelt explain the shift in policy to allow Japanese 

Americans to serve as soldiers.103 The first call for volunteers from the relocation centers 

resulted in a much smaller group than expected by the government, with approximately 1,200 

Nisei detainees volunteering. All from the mainland, the volunteers were organized into the 

442nd Regimental Combat Team. The government hoped that creating an all-Japanese American 

unit would help impress the general public with Nisei patriotism and bravery, but some Japanese 

Americans refused to volunteer for a segregated unit.

Japanese Americans from Hawaii played a particularly important role in the military. In June 

1942, the Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion was organized. It was comprised of 1,500 

Japanese Americans who had been discharged from the Hawaiian Territorial Guard and 

Hawaiian units of the National Guard in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, but who were anxious to 

serve their country. Transferred to the mainland in secrecy, the new unit was re-designated the

100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) on June 12, and sent to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, for six 

months of basic training. Some of the men who could speak Japanese were transferred to Camp 

Savage, Minnesota, where they taught Japanese to other American soldiers as part of the Military 

Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). In February 1943, the rest of the 100th Battalion 

was transferred to Camp Shelby, Mississippi, for advanced training and maneuvers. Their 

excellent record probably contributed to the decision to create the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental 

Combat Team in that same month. When the military was reopened to Japanese Americans, 

almost 10,000 men from Hawaii volunteered; more than 2,600 of the volunteers were accepted. 

In contrast, there were only 1,250 volunteers from the relocation centers.104 

The 442nd was combined with the 100th Infantry Battalion in 1944. Both units fought in Europe, 

and were responsible for the rescue of the "Lost Battalion" of the 36th Texas Division. The 522nd

Battalion of the 442nd Regiment liberated at least one of the Dachau satellite concentration camps

 

101 Ibid., 40.

102 Commission on Wartime Relocation, Personal Justice Denied (1982), quoted in Burton et al, Confinement 

and Ethnicity, 53.

103

 Robinson, By Order of the President, 173-174.

104 Weglyn, Years of Infamy, 144.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 47

Soldiers of the 442nd Regiment, stationed in Italy, run for cover as a 

German artillery shell is about to land outside the building.

War Department, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, April 4, 1945

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

(smaller camps surrounding the main camp).105 The combined 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental

Combat Team was one of the most decorated units in the U.S. Army, with 18,143 individual 

citations and 9,486 casualties in a unit with an authorized strength of 4,000 men.106 The 

combined unit compiled a distinguished record fighting in the European Theater, earning three 

Presidential Unit Citations and many individual decorations, including a posthumous Medal of 

Honor for Sadao Munemori for “supremely heroic action.”107

More than 6,000 Nisei served in the Pacific and in Asia, performing invaluable and dangerous 

tasks, mainly in intelligence and translation. In addition to the normal risks of combat duty, they 

risked certain death if captured by the Japanese. Nisei women also served with distinction as 

nurses for the Women‟s Army Corps and for the Red Cross.

In the relocation centers, initial opposition to military service turned into pride, partly through 

the efforts of the soldiers' families. Almost every center built “Honor Rolls” listing men who 

were serving in the army and many windows displayed blue or gold star service flags. 

Awareness of the accomplishments of the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regiment outside the 

centers varied, but those who followed military progress closely were impressed by their 

accomplishments. 

 

105 Rick Noguchi, Transforming Barbed Wire: The Incarceration of Japanese Americans in Arizona During 

World War II (Phoenix: Arizona Humanities Council, 1997); Uyeda, Due Process, 75.

106 Frank Chuman, “The Bamboo People: The Law and Japanese Americans” in Guilt by Association: Essays on 

Settlement, Internment, Relocation in the Rocky Mountain West (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1976), 

179; Uyeda, Due Process, 73.

107 U.S. Army Center of Military History website, “100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team,” at 

www.army.mil/cmh-pg/topics/apam/100B, accessed on April 7, 2004.
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48 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented

posthumously to the parents of Sgt. Richard K. Nakasaki in 1946.

Courtesy of the Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center

Nisei Women in Service

Not only Nisei men contributed to the war effort, Nisei women also made significant 

contributions. Some volunteered for the Red Cross; others joined the military or became nurses 

to address the wartime nursing shortage. For many, military service was a means to serve the 

war effort and achieve personal goals of education. For some, serving in the military was a 

means of loosening the grip of traditionally strict parents.

On July 1, 1943, the Women‟s Army Corps (WAC) became a military organization with full 

army status, instead of an auxiliary group.108 Although initially an exclusion policy prohibited 

Japanese American women from serving, in September 1943 the policy was lifted and the army 

became the only branch of the military to enlist Japanese American female recruits.

Approximately 100 Japanese American women served in the Women‟s Army Corps. The army 

developed an active recruitment campaign, even recruiting women from the relocation centers. 

Basic training for most of the Nisei women was at either Fort Des Moines, Iowa, or Fort 

Oglethorpe, Georgia. Unlike Japanese American men, the women were not segregated from 

Caucasian recruits. The WACS held a variety of jobs at various types of military installations 

around the country. Most had jobs such as clerks, typists, drivers, and cooks, but others worked 

in medical fields or were translators. At Camp Ritchie in Maryland, they translated captured 

Japanese documents. A relatively small number was sent overseas.109

Forty-eight Japanese American WACs were assigned to the Military Intelligence Service

Language School (MISLS). In 1944, the first women were sent to Fort Snelling, Minnesota,

where the school had been moved when Camp Savage became too small. They were trained to 

 

108 “Japanese American Women in World War II,” at www.javadc.org/AJA%20women_in_wwII.htm, accessed 

on January 6, 2010, 1.

109 Ibid., 2-3.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 49

Nurse aid, Chiyo Okata, comforts Reiko Masado, convalescing 

at the hospital at the Jerome Relocation Center.

WRA photo by Tom Parker, March 11, 1943

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

translate documents, and most were eventually assigned to the Pacific Military Intelligence 

Research Section at Camp Ritchie, Maryland. Due to the success of the Women‟s Army Corps 

during the war years, it remained a branch of the army after the war. In 1978, women were fully 

assimilated into the army, and the Women‟s Army Corps ceased to exist.110

The national shortage of nurses that became evident in the early years of the war provided 

opportunities for some Japanese American women to serve the war effort. On June 15, 1943, 

President Roosevelt signed the Nurse Training Act, which established the Cadet Nurse Corps to 

train nurses to provide “essential civilian (nursing) services for the duration of the present 

war.”111 An amendment to the original act prohibited discrimination in Corps recruitment; thus 

Native American, African American, and Japanese American women all served.112

The Cadet Nurse Corps was placed in the Public Health Service, which was headed by the 

Surgeon General. The Corps accepted women between the ages of 17 and 35, who had to be 

high school graduates in good health. After a 30-month training program in an accredited

nursing school, the nurses were required to serve for two years in the military or in homefront

hospitals. The program was widely advertised through posters, films, advertisements, and 

articles in magazines. 

 

110 Ibid., 3-4.

111 The Office of the Public Health Service Historian, “The Cadet Nurse Corps, 1943-48,” at 

www.lhncbc.nlm.nih. gov/apdb/phsHistory/resources/cadetnruse/knurse.htm, accessed on January 6, 2010, 1.

112 Kathleen Emerson Britton, “United States Cadet Nurse Corps: 1943-1948,” at www.rochestergeneral.org/

Rochester-general-hospital/about-us/Rochester-medical-museum), accessed on January 6, 2010, 4.
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50 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Some 124,000 nurses were trained through the Cadet Nurse Corps, including about 3,000 

African American women and 200 Japanese American women. Nurses were trained in all parts 

of the country. It is known that seven Japanese American students were placed at two hospitals 

in Rochester, New York, but additional information on the placement of Nisei students was not 

available for this report.113

After the war the program was terminated, and the last class of Cadet Nurse Corps nurses 

graduated in 1948. The program is acknowledged as a highly successful initiative. It addressed 

the shortage of nurses during World War II, provided excellent training opportunities for 

American women, and contributed to an improved standard of nursing education.

RESISTANCE AND LEGAL CHALLENGES

A few cases of active resistance to the removal occurred. Three weeks after he was supposed to

be removed, Kuji Kurokawa was found, too weak to move due to malnutrition, hiding in the 

basement of the house where he had been employed for 10 years. He decided that he would not 

register or be removed; “I am an American citizen,” he explained.114 Hideo Murata, a U.S. 

Army World War I veteran, committed suicide at a local hotel rather than be removed.115

Real acts of sabotage were rare in response to the relocation process. John Hersey cites the 

farmer who asked for an extension to harvest his strawberry crop before reporting to an assembly 

center. His request was denied, so he plowed under the strawberry field. He was arrested for 

sabotage, on the grounds that strawberries were a necessary commodity for the war effort.116 No 

one was allowed to delay removal in order to harvest their crops, and subsequently Californians 

were faced with shortages of fruits and vegetables. Ninety-five percent of the state's strawberries 

and one-third of the state's truck crops were grown by farmers of Japanese heritage.117

Resistance, however, was not uncommon in the relocation centers. Overt resistance was 

exhibited by strikes and protest demonstrations, which were more or less disruptive, depending 

on whether an acceptable compromise could be reached.118 Other resistance was as minor as 

calling a Caucasian nurse an “old maid.”119 Such behavior could result in a detainee being sent 

from the relocation center to a detention center. No formal charges had to be made; transfer was 

purely at the discretion of the relocation center director.120

Strikes and Protests

Disturbances at the Heart Mountain, Manzanar, Minidoka, and Topaz relocation centers showed 

an unusual degree of violence. A summary of the disturbances follows.

In November 1942, Heart Mountain was beset by protests over the installation of a barbed wire 

 

113 Ibid., 5.

114 Japanese American Curriculum Project, “Wartime Hysteria,” 18.

115 Davis, Behind Barbed Wire, 57.

116 Hersey, “A Mistake of Terrifically Horrible Proportions,” 5.

117 Japanese American Curriculum Project, “Wartime Hysteria,” 20-21.

118 Gary Y. Okihiro, “Japanese Resistance in America‟s Concentration Camps,” Amerasia Journal 2 

(Fall 1973), 20-34.

119 Drinnon, Keeper of Concentration Camps, 104.

120 Myer, Uprooted Americans, 65.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 51

fence and the construction of watchtowers around the relocation center. A petition signed by 

over half of the adults in the center stated that the fence was an “insult to any free human being.” 

The fence stayed, but the protests continued.121 That same month, detainees at Poston came 

close to open revolt. When a suspected informant was beaten, administration officials arrested 

two Kibei men. Crowds demanded they be freed, workers went on strike, and the police station 

was picketed. The unity of the strike was shaken by the display of Japanese national symbols, 

and negotiations between protest leaders and the administration resulted in a compromise.122

The most serious disturbance erupted at Manzanar in December 1942, following months of 

tension and gang activity between Japanese American Citizens League supporters of the 

administration and a large group of Kibei. On December 6, a JACL leader was beaten by six 

masked men. Harry Ueno, the leader of the Kitchen Workers Union, was arrested for the beating 

and removed from the center. Irate at his removal, a large number of detainees held a meeting, 

marched to the administration area, and selected a committee of five to negotiate with the 

administration. In exchange for a promise to cease demonstrations, the center director agreed to 

bring Ueno back to the relocation center jail. When Ueno was returned, a disruptive crowd 

formed and the director called in the military police, who used tear gas to disperse the crowd. 

When a truck was pushed toward the jail, the military police fired into the crowd, killing one and 

wounding at least ten others (one later died).

A group of 65 “outspoken patriots” who supported the Manzanar administration were on a 

reported death list, including the JACL leader who had been beaten.123 For their protection, 

these detainees were removed to the Cow Creek Camp in Death Valley, an abandoned CCC 

camp. Fifteen alleged troublemakers, including Ueno, were removed to local jails and then to 

the Moab Isolation Center in Utah, another abandoned CCC camp.

The Minidoka Relocation Center was continually plagued by strikes and protests. The detainees 

organized a labor council, called the “Fair Play Committee,” whose main objections were the 

low wage scale and the difference in wages between the detainees and the Caucasian staff. A 

strike by detainee coal workers was broken by employing other detainees from the center who 

volunteered, and a strike by hospital workers was broken by sending the strike leaders to Leupp. 

Similar conflicts occurred with block maintenance staff, mail carriers, gatekeepers, telephone 

operators, warehouse workers, and other groups. A never-finished gymnasium stood as a 

reminder of an administration-detainee conflict. The construction crew walked out over a 

dispute about work hours, and volunteers could not be found to replace them.124

Even with suspected troublemakers shipped out at a moment's notice, a crisis could erupt at any 

time, as at the Topaz Relocation Center. On Sunday, April 11, 1943, 63-year-old James 

Hatsuaki Wakasa was fatally shot just before sunset by military police. Either distracted or 

unable to hear or understand the sentry's warnings, he was near the perimeter fence about 300 

feet from the watchtower, when he was shot in the chest. The sentry, a disabled veteran of 

Pacific combat, claimed that Wakasa was trying to crawl through the fence and that he warned 

 

121 Daniels, Concentration Camps, 115.

122 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, 219.

123 Myer, Uprooted Americans, 64. 

124 James M. Sakoda, “The „Residue‟: The Unsettled Minidokans, 1943-1945,” in Views from Within: The 

Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study by Yuji Ichioka (Los Angeles: University of California, 

Asian American Studies Center, 1989), 263.
Part 2, Historic Context

52 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

him four times before firing a warning shot. The relocation center residents were shocked and 

outraged by the killing, and a general alert was called by the military in case of trouble. 

However, relative calm prevailed, as both the administration and the Topaz leadership worked to 

avoid a confrontation. After a brief work stoppage, compromises resulted in a burial location 

near the spot of death, and restrictions were imposed on military police regarding their use of 

weapons. In addition, no MPs would be allowed inside the center, and Pacific veterans would be 

withdrawn, with no more assigned to the centers. Nevertheless, a little more than a month later, 

a sentry fired at a couple strolling too close to the fence.125

Draft Resistance

Although many Nisei served in the military as a means to prove their loyalty, others refused to 

volunteer and resisted the draft to protest the relocation. Nationwide, 293 confined Japanese 

Americans were tried for draft resistance.126 The resisters did not oppose the draft itself, but 

hoped their protest would clarify their citizenship status. The best organized resistance was 

carried out by the Fair Play Committee at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, where 54 of 

315 potential draftees did not show up for physical exams.127 Committee leaders Kiyoshi 

Okamota and Paul Nakadate were branded as “disloyal.” Another leader, Isamu Horino, was 

arrested as he tried to walk out the front gate to dramatize his lack of freedom. All three were 

sent to Tule Lake.

The 54 draft resisters and nine additional people who counseled the resisters were arrested. All 

63 were found guilty in the largest mass trial for draft resistance in U.S. history. Seven members 

of the Fair Play Committee were found guilty of conspiracy, as well. However, the verdicts did 

not silence the resistance: 22 more Heart Mountain detainees were later arrested for draft 

evasion. In all, 85 detainees at Heart Mountain were convicted of draft evasion and were sent to 

federal prison. However, more than 700 detainees at Heart Mountain did report for physicals, 

and 385 were inducted. Of these, 63 were killed or wounded in combat.128

Tule Lake Segregation Center

More than any of the relocation centers, Tule Lake is associated with punishment, banishment, 

and isolation. In fact, the center began as a relocation center, but became a “segregation” center 

for those who exhibited “disloyal” inclinations. Tule Lake was a destination for those who were 

branded “disloyal” because they had answered “no” to the loyalty questions on the Application 

for Indefinite Leave Clearance (the “no-no” boys). In response to public and congressional 

criticism, the WRA decided to segregate the “disloyals” from the “loyals.” One of the Poston 

areas was originally chosen, but eventually, the “disloyals” were segregated to the relocation 

center at Tule Lake, which already housed the highest number of “disloyals.”

The original detainees at Tule Lake who were considered loyal were supposed to choose another 

relocation center to move to, in order to make room for more “disloyals” at Tule Lake. 

Surprisingly, some 4,000 “loyals” at Tule Lake chose to stay; some did not want to leave 

 

125 Sandra C. Taylor, Jewel of the Desert: Japanese American Internment at Topaz (Berkeley: University of 

California Press, 1993), 141.

126 Daniels, Prisoners without Trial, 64.

127 Daniels, Concentration Camps, 125.

128 Ibid., 128.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 53

California and others were tired of being pushed around, so the “loyal” and “disloyal” remained 

together.129 Tule Lake did not have room to accommodate the 1,800 “disloyals” from Manzanar 

until the spring of 1944, when additional housing was completed.

Ray Best, who had run the isolation centers at Moab and Leupp, was named the new director of 

Tule Lake, and the 71 inmates at Leupp were transferred to Tule Lake.130 Additional troops were 

assigned to Tule Lake, and eight tanks were moved to the center.131 A “manproof” fence around 

the segregation center perimeter and more guard towers were eventually added as well. The Tule 

Lake Segregation Center maintained the same internal democratic political structure as the 

relocation centers, and the new arrivals became active in center politics.

A tragic accident set off a chain of events that fueled dissension at the center, and culminated in 

the army taking over control of the segregation center from the WRA. On October 15, 1943, a 

truck transporting detainees from agricultural fields overturned, killing one detainee. The center 

administration was blamed, because the driver was underage; detainees were outraged that the 

widow's benefits amounted to only two-thirds of $16, the deceased's monthly wage.

A massive public funeral was conducted without administration approval, and ten days later 

agricultural workers decided to go on strike, because they did not want to harvest food destined 

for other centers. They saw themselves as the “loyals,” and those who held pro-U.S. views at the 

other centers as traitors to Japan. The administration brought in 234 detainees from other 

relocation centers to harvest the crops. For their protection, these "loyals" were housed outside 

the center at a nearby former CCC camp. Further inciting the strikers, the strikebreakers were 

paid $1 per hour rather than the standard WRA wage of $16 per month.132

When WRA Director Dillon S. Myer made a routine visit to Tule Lake on November 1, 1943, a 

crowd assembled in the administration area. During the assembly, a doctor was beaten and some 

cars were vandalized. An appointed “Committee of 17" met with Myer, but all of its demands 

were rejected, including the removal of Director Best. Furthermore, future detainee meetings in 

the administration area were forbidden. On November 4, the administration began building a

fence between the administration and detainee areas.

That evening a crowd of about 400 tried to prevent trucks from being used to take food to the 

strikebreakers, and later the mob headed towards the director's residence.133 The Army was 

called to quell the fracas and remained to administer the center. Soldiers arriving with tanks and 

jeeps mounted with machine guns used tear gas to disperse crowds throughout the center. Many 

detainees were arrested and a curfew was established. The next day schools were closed and 

most work was stopped. When an assembly called by the army on November 14 was boycotted, 

more detainees were arrested and martial law was declared. On November 26, a center-wide 

dragnet was conducted to find the leaders, who had been hidden by sympathetic detainees. 

 

129 Myer, Uprooted Americans,77.

130 Ibid.

131 Drinnon, Keeper of Concentration Camps, 110.

132 Weglyn, Years of Infamy, 162.

133 Ibid., 163. 
Part 2, Historic Context

54 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

People confined at the Tule Lake Segregation Center participate in a demonstration.

WRA photo by Robert H. Ross

from “Tulle Lake Segregation Center National Historic Landmark Nomination,” 74

A stockade was built in the administration area to house those arrested. The stockade had 12-

foot-high wooden walls to obstruct views and prevent communication with the rest of the center 

population. By December 1, 1943, the last of the leaders turned themselves in to authorities, in a 

show of solidarity with those already arrested. On January 1, 1944, those incarcerated in the 

stockade initiated the first of three hunger strikes. Within the rest of the center, however, the 

protests waned. On January 11, with over 350 dissident leaders in jail, the center residents voted 

to end the protests. The vote was close (and one block refused to vote), but the moderates had 

re-taken control of Tule Lake and martial law was lifted on January 15. The center 

administration, except for the stockade, was returned to the WRA. The April 18 Tokyo 

Declaration, in which the Japanese government officially protested the treatment of the 

“disloyals,” provided some recognition to those within the stockade. Shortly thereafter, 276 

were released from the stockade and on May 23, 1944, army control of the stockade was given to 

the WRA.

Eventually, over 1,500 Issei were removed from the Tule Lake Segregation Center and sent to 

Justice Department internment camps at Bismarck, North Dakota, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.134

Tensions still ran high, however, and on May 24, 1944, James Okamoto was shot and killed 

during an altercation with a guard. In June, the general manager of the Business Enterprise 

Association, one of the most stable elements in the detainee community, was murdered.

On August 19, 1944, soon after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) demanded a 

meeting with those in the stockade, all were suddenly released and the fence removed. The 

stockade jail was used again for a short period in June 1945, when five teenagers were sentenced 

by the center director to the stockade for blowing bugles and wearing Japanese-style clothing. 

 

134 John J. Culley, “The Santa Fe Internment Camp and the Justice Department Program for Enemy 

Aliens,” in Daniels et al., Japanese Americans: From Relocation to Redress, 57-71; Myer, Uprooted 

Americans, 90.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 55

The troubling incidents at the Tule Lake Segregation Center demonstrate an intensity that was 

uncommon at other centers, but illustrative of the frustration, betrayal, and disgruntlement that 

was evident at all the centers to some degree.

Legal Challenges to the Treatment of Japanese Americans

Several Japanese Americans sought justice through the courts, but only one case was resolved 

during the war years. The others were ultimately decided years later by the Supreme Court. The 

wartime trial, Endo v. United States, had an important impact on citizens held in relocation 

centers near the end of the war. The court unanimously decided that Mitsuye Endo, a loyal U.S. 

citizen, should be released unconditionally, that is, without having to follow the indefinite leave 

procedure established by the WRA to return to California. The court ruled that the WRA did not 

have the authority to subject loyal citizens to the leave procedures. While sidestepping the 

constitutional question of the right of the government to hold citizens without cause in wartime, 

it did, in effect, free all loyal Japanese Americans still held in relocation centers.

Three other Japanese Americans challenged the government's actions in court. Minoru Yasui

had volunteered for military service after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was rejected because of 

his Japanese ancestry. An attorney, he deliberately violated the curfew law of his native 

Portland, Oregon, stating that citizens have the duty to challenge unconstitutional orders. In 

Yasui v. United States, the court upheld the constitutionality of the curfew, but overturned the 

lower court‟s decision that Minoru Yasui had lost his citizenship because he had been employed 

with the Japanese Consul in Chicago prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Yasui spent several 

months in jail, and then was sent to the Minidoka Relocation Center.

Gordon Hirabayashi, a student at the University of Washington, also deliberately violated the 

curfew for persons of Japanese ancestry and disregarded the removal orders, claiming that the 

government was violating the Fifth Amendment by restricting the freedom of innocent 

individuals. On June 21, 1943, in Hirabayashi v. United States, the court avoided the issue of 

the legality of the relocation, but unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the curfew imposed 

on Japanese Americans based on military necessity. Relying on information presented to it by 

the government, the court, essentially, ruled that the judgment of military authorities and 

Congress could not be unilaterally rejected, if it was known that there were disloyal Japanese 

Americans, but they could not be easily identified. Hirabayashi spent time in jail and several 

months at a federal prison in Arizona. 

Fred Korematsu changed his name, altered his facial features, and went into hiding. He was later 

arrested for remaining in a restricted area.135 In court, Korematsu claimed the government could 

not imprison a group of people based solely on ancestry. The case was decided on December 18, 

1944. In Korematsu v. United States, in a split decision, the court upheld the government‟s right 

to exclude people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, again based on military necessity. 

Temporary removal of all people of Japanese ancestry was defended as a military imperative 

and, as in Hirabayashi v. United States; the court could not reject the military opinion. 

Korematsu was sent to the Topaz Relocation Center.

 

135 Myer,Uprooted Americans, 118.
Part 2, Historic Context

56 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Several decades later, all three convictions were overturned, through the filing of petitions for 

Writ of Error Coram Nobis. On November 10, 1983, Fred Korematsu‟s petition was granted, on 

the basis that Executive Order 9066 and the resulting exclusion orders were based on 

“unsubstantiated facts, distortions and representations of at least one military commander, whose 

views were seriously infected by racism.”136 His petition was filed in the Northern District of 

California. In 1986, the government conceded the case filed by Minoru Yasui in Portland, and 

Gordon Hirabayashi‟s convictions were overturned in a Seattle court in 1987.

FREEDOM RESTORED

The incidents of unrest at Tule Lake signified to many in the Roosevelt administration that the 

WRA was being poorly administered by Myer and that the agency would be better administered 

under the umbrella of a permanent cabinet department.137 On February 16, 1944, Roosevelt 

authorized the transfer of the WRA to the Department of the Interior. Secretary Harold Ickes, 

who had objected to the confinement and consistently championed the rights of Japanese 

Americans, was an effective leader in the unraveling of the government‟s wartime policy of 

confinement. Greg Robinson, who considered Roosevelt‟s actions regarding Japanese 

Americans during the war to reflect his prejudice, considered the transfer to Interior and the 

transition of leadership to Harold Ickes to be Roosevelt‟s “most positive action in regard to 

Japanese Americans.”138 Ickes was aided in his efforts to end the exclusion policy and close the 

relocation centers by Undersecretary of the Interior Abe Fortas. Ickes kept Dillon S. Myer at the 

helm of the WRA as its director.

Closing the Relocation Centers

When it became clear that there was no longer a military threat on the West Coast, the 

administration‟s best rationale for maintaining a program of exclusion for Japanese Americans 

ended. Unable to defend the policy on military grounds, one of the biggest obstacles to 

resettlement was the extreme hostility still expressed by West Coast residents, which could erupt 

in retaliatory actions toward Japanese Americans. Also problematic, and without a ready 

solution, was a plan of resettlement that would provide housing and jobs for a people who had, in 

many cases, lost everything as a result of the confinement. 

Anticipating the Supreme Court decisions regarding the Korematsu and Endo cases a day in 

advance, on December 17, 1944, the War Department announced the lifting of the West Coast 

exclusion orders as of January 2, 1945. The WRA immediately began planning for the departure 

of all detainees and the closing of the centers, which it anticipated would be accomplished by the 

end of 1945.139

Initial reactions of the detainees varied; some immediately returned to the West Coast, while 

others were reluctant to leave the centers. The WRA provided only minimum assistance to 

detainees as they left: $25 per person, train fare, and meals en route for those with less than 

$500 in cash. Some of the first to return to the West Coast encountered violence and hostility 

 

136 Dale Minami, “Coram Nobis and Redress” in Daniels et al., Japanese Americans: From Relocation to 

Redress, 201.

137 Greg Robinson, By Order of the President, 204.

138 Ibid., 206.

139 Ibid., 230.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 57

A caravan of trucks loaded with household belongings moves from the Jerome 

Relocation Center enroute to the Rohwer Relocation Center, about 30 miles away.

WRA photo by Charles E. Mace, June 16, 1944

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

and had difficulty finding housing and jobs. Others had more success and encouraged people to 

leave the centers and return. Many who feared returning to the West Coast found refuge in other 

parts of the country, especially Denver, Salt Lake City, and Chicago. However, by the end of the 

war, 50% of those who had been relocated had resettled in the three West Coast states.140

By early summer 1945, most of the centers—stripped of basic amenities—had been emptied of 

nearly all detainees. Those left did not have a place to go, because they had lost their homes and 

businesses, and they lingered in the centers. At the Minidoka Relocation Center, laundries,

latrines, and mess halls were progressively closed until the few remaining people had to search

for food to eat. Detainees were given two-week, three-day, and 30-minute eviction notices. If 

they still did not leave on their own, the WRA packed their belongings and forced them onto 

trains.141

Eventually the relocation centers were emptied, and all were finally closed by the end of 1945. 

The Tule Lake Segregation Center operated until March 20, 1946, until the detainees who had 

renounced their citizenship could be repatriated. Enacted on July 1, 1944, Public Law 504 had

allowed U.S. citizens to renounce their citizenship on U.S. soil during time of war. Of the 5,700 

Japanese Americans requesting renunciation, 95 percent were held at Tule Lake. A third of the 

citizens at Tule Lake applied for repatriation to Japan.142 On February 23, 1946, the first 432 

repatriates set sail for Japan. Over 4,000 would follow, but over the next five years all but 357 

would apply for a return of their U.S. citizenship.143

 

140 Ibid., 231.

141 Sakoda, “The „Residue‟” in Views from Within, xx.

142 Daniels, Concentration Camps, 116.

143 Smith, Democracy on Trial, 444.
Part 2, Historic Context

58 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Shuichi Yamamoto was the last detainee to leave the Granada Relocation Center.

WRA photo by Hikaru Iwasaki, October 15, 1945

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

After the last detainees were released, the Tule Lake facility was placed on standby use during 

the Cold War for potential McCarran Act detainees, but was never used.144 All the other 

relocation centers were abandoned. If the land had been privately owned, the original owners 

were generally given the option to re-purchase the land. Otherwise, the land reverted to the 

control of the previous land-managing agency. Buildings were sold to veterans, auctioned off, or 

given to local schools and hospitals. On May 15, 1946, the last WRA field office was closed and 

on June 30, 1946, the WRA was officially disbanded.

RETROSPECTIVE

The post-war years were often a struggle for Japanese American families and individuals as they 

rebuilt their lives and became reintegrated into U.S. society. Gradually, feelings of hostility and 

distrust toward Japanese Americans abated. Generally, these negative feelings were substituted 

with respect for these honorable Americans who had been treated very badly by both the 

government and the public. The wartime generation and new generations of Americans became 

advocates for restitution.

Restitution took various forms. In 1980, establishment of the Commission on Wartime 

Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) was approved by President Jimmy Carter. 

Ultimately this led to passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, signed into law by President 

Reagan as Public Law 100-383. The law acknowledged the unfair removal and confinement of 

people of Japanese ancestry (and Aleuts) during the war and called for a program of public

 

144 Roger Daniels, personal communication with Curtis Breckenridge, 2000. Note: the Internal Security 

Act of 1950 was passed in response to fears about communism. It included a provision for confining or 

deporting aliens suspected of Communist affiliations. Much of the law was later repealed.
Part 2, Historic Context

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 59

education to inform the public about the wartime relocation. Restitution payments were made to 

those who had been held.

States also enacted legislation and, as already described, unfair convictions were overturned by 

the courts. In 1982, the California legislature passed a bill to provide $5,000 in restitution to 314 

Japanese Americans who were fired from their state jobs in 1942. With the help of evidence 

indicating that exaggerated reports about the potential dangers posed by Japanese Americans had 

been issued by the War and Justice departments, in the mid-1980s federal district courts 

overturned the convictions of Fred Korematsu, Minoru Yasui, and Gordon Hirabayashi.145

With continued pressure from people of Japanese heritage and others, the federal government 

responded with other programs of redress and public education. In 1992, President George H. 

W. Bush signed Public Law 102-248, the Manzanar National Historic Site Act, which 

established a historic site to be administered by the National Park Service at the former 

relocation center. It also called for the preparation of the Japanese American National Historic 

Landmark Theme Study (this study) to enable the NHL designation of sites that reflect the 

Japanese American wartime experience, from 1941 to 1946. Other sites were subsequently 

approved as national historic sites to be administered by the National Park Service: Minidoka 

and Bainbridge Island, Granada, and Tule Lake.

The admissions of wrongdoing, apologies, and restitution by the federal government cannot fully 

redeem the treatment that Japanese Americans received at its hands in the 1940s. However, 

these actions are positive initiatives and reminders to the United States to “let it not happen 

again,” which appears on the Bainbridge Island memorial in Japanese as:

Nidoto Nai Yoni

 

145 Peter Irons, Justice at War: the Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases (New York: Oxford 

University Press, 1983), viii-ix.
Part 2, Historic Context

60 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Young schoolchildren salute the flag at Seabrook Farms in 1944.

Courtesy of the Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center
Part 3, Associated Property Types

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 61

PART 3

ASSOCIATED PROPERTY TYPES

This section is intended to assist in the identification of properties associated with the historic 

context “Japanese Americans in World War II.” Properties associated with the theme are 

categorized by types, in this case generally related to the agency responsible for its construction 

or administration.

Public Law 102-248, which directed the preparation of this theme study, identified 37 specific 

properties for inclusion in the study. These properties represent five broad property types related 

to the World War II experience of Japanese Americans: Wartime Civilian Control 

Administration (WCCA) assembly centers, Wartime Relocation Authority (WRA) relocation 

centers, internment/detention facilities, U.S. Army facilities, and Japanese American wartime 

communities. Other properties associated with Japanese Americans during the war years include 

those associated with court rulings and administration of the program of Japanese American 

confinement. The neighborhood civil control stations, located in existing buildings, have not 

been considered as potential candidates for NHL designation due to their brief use in the removal 

and confinement program.

Each of the property types is described below. Specific descriptions of related properties are 

provided in Part 6, Survey Results.

WCCA ASSEMBLY CENTERS

Beginning on March 24, 1942, when Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1 was issued, temporary 

facilities were needed to house detainees until construction of the relocation centers was 

completed. The WCCA administered these temporary facilities, which included 15 assembly 

centers and two reception centers. The reception centers, initially intended for voluntary

detainees, were located at Parker Dam, Arizona, and Owens Valley, California. Subsequently, 

they became part of the Poston and Manzanar relocation centers.

The assembly centers were located at racetracks, fairgrounds, and various pre-existing facilities. 

Most required additional construction to house and feed the detainees. Twelve of the centers 

were located in California. The other three were in Portland, Oregon; Puyallup, Washington; 

and Mayer, Arizona. When all Japanese Americans removed from the Exclusion Zone were

moved to relocation centers, the need for the assembly centers ceased. Some filled other 

wartime needs; others reverted to their previous use.

WRA RELOCATION CENTERS

The WRA was created on March 19, 1942, as a civilian agency to administer the removal and 

confinement of Japanese Americans. The WRA was attached to the Office of Emergency 

Management, in the Executive branch of the Federal government. The army‟s involvement was 

necessary to establish the legal basis of wartime “military necessity” and to manage the actual 

evacuation.146 Soon after, the army was withdrawn from the business of confining civilians so it 

could devote its resources to waging war on two fronts, and the WRA assumed responsibility.

 

146 Robinson, By Order of the President, 128-129.
Part 3, Associated Property Types

62 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Lumber to be used in construction of barracks is being unloaded 

at Site I at the Colorado River Relocation Center (Poston).

WRA photo by Fred Clark, April 30, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Detainees from the assembly centers began occupying the relocation centers between May 26 

and October 30, 1942. Some who lived in Military Area No. 2 were moved directly to the 

relocation centers. The ten relocation centers were Poston and Gila River in Arizona; Jerome 

and Rohwer in Arkansas; Manzanar and Tule Lake in California; Granada in Colorado; 

Minidoka in Idaho; Topaz in Utah; and Heart Mountain in Wyoming. The relocation centers, 

more than any other property type, were built specifically for the confinement of Japanese 

Americans during World War II. For this reason, some detail about their design and construction 

follows.

Relocation Center Layout and Building Design

General plans for the construction of the relocation centers were developed prior to the 

establishment of the WRA, when the army operated WCCA was beginning to summon Japanese 

Americans from the first Military Areas. Initial facilities were constructed by the War 

Department, which also procured the necessary equipment. Per capita construction costs ranged 

from $376 at Manzanar to $584 at Minidoka. The total construction cost, for all centers, was 

over $56 million.

The relocation centers were designed to be self-contained communities, complete with hospitals, 

post offices, schools, warehouses, offices, factories, and residential areas, all surrounded by 

barbed wire and guard towers. Because centers were supposed to be as self-sufficient as 

possible, typically the residential core was surrounded by a large buffer zone that served as 

farmland. As at the assembly centers, the Military Police (MPs) had a separate living area 

adjacent to the relocation center to reduce fraternization. Civilian employees also had living 

quarters available at the centers, usually supplemented by housing available in nearby towns.

The layout of the relocation centers varied, but certain elements were fairly constant. The 
Part 3, Associated Property Types

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 63

Heart Mountain towers at the end of “F” Street, the main 

thoroughfare at the Wyoming relocation center.

WRA photo by Tom Parker, August 28, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

perimeter usually was defined by guard towers and barbed wire fences. Typically, a main 

entrance road led to the local highway, and auxiliary routes led to farming areas outside the 

central core. Some of the major interior roads were paved, but most were simply dirt roads.

The layout of the two Arizona relocation centers—Poston and Gila River—differed from the 

others. Located on dead-end roads, rather than along major highways, they had no watch towers 

and little or no barbed wire. The Poston Relocation Center consisted of three separate camps at 

three-mile intervals (Poston I, II, and III) and the Gila River Relocation Center consisted of two 

separate camps (Butte Camp and Canal Camp).

Plans of relocation centers were based on a grid system of blocks. Block sizes varied in the 

outlying, non-residential areas, which contained the administrative area, warehouses, and a 

hospital. The central cores were composed of residential blocks separated by open fire breaks. 

Each residential block consisted of 12 to 14 barracks, a mess hall, latrines for men and women, a 

laundry, and a recreation hall. Eventually, large sewage systems were built to handle the waste 

of the highly populated centers. Sometimes these modern facilities aroused the ire and envy of 

local residents, who relied on septic systems or outhouses.

Military precedents for the type of housing needed for families did not exist, so the army adapted 

plans for semi-permanent cantonment-type buildings used to house troops and temporary 

buildings used in theaters of operations. A set of standards and details was developed by the 

army, modifying the theater of operations-type buildings to make them suitable for families, but

meeting the requirements of quick construction, low cost, and restricted use of critical materials.
Part 3, Associated Property Types

64 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Workers of Japanese ancestry are using a ditch-digging machine

to excavate for water pipes and sewer lines at Poston.

WRA photo by Clem Albers, April 9, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Larry Orida watches construction of the hospital at the

Poston Relocation Center, Site I.

WRA photo by Fred Clark, May 12, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

These construction standards and details were available by June 8, 1942, and were intended to 

result in uniform construction after that date. Because Manzanar, Tule Lake, Poston, and Gila 

River were already under construction, buildings there did not mirror the later standards. At the 

remainder of the centers, construction varied somewhat because of different interpretations of the

standards by local engineers responsible for development of the plans and specifications for each 

center.
Part 3, Associated Property Types

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 65

A typical barracks apartment can be seen in this example

at the Jerome Relocation Center.

WRA photo by Tom Parker, November 17, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Local craftsmen were used as builders, but the requirements for skill and experience were not 

always stringent; in Millard County, Utah, near the Topaz Relocation Center, "Topaz carpenter" 

is still a derogatory term. Supplies were difficult to obtain in large quantities during wartime, 

and some suppliers were reluctant to use valuable resources for the Japanese Americans, making 

construction somewhat makeshift at times.

The original barracks at the relocation centers were 20 by 100 feet, with five rooms. This plan

was supplanted by one that featured six variably sized rooms with overall dimensions of 20 by 

120 feet. The barracks had different-sized rooms called “apartments,” designed to accommodate 

different sized families and groups of single people. Each barracks was divided into six

apartments, with two apartments measuring16 by 20 feet, two measuring 20 by 20 feet, and two 

measuring 24 by 20 feet. Partitions between the apartments extended only to the eaves, leaving a

gap between the walls and the roof. Each apartment had a heating unit that utilized coal, wood, 

oil, or natural gas. Furnishings included a single drop light, army cots, blankets, and mattresses. 

The barracks did not include bathrooms or kitchens, although archeological artifacts related to

food preparation and consumption have been found at relocation sites, demonstrating that food 

preparation was in fact carried out in the barracks.

147

The exterior walls and roofs of the barracks generally were boards covered with tarpaper over 

frames of dimension lumber. In the colder climates, wallboard was provided for insulation. The 

raised floors were wooden boards, which quickly shrank and allowed dust and dirt to penetrate

and dirt to penetrate the barracks. Eventually, Mastipave flooring was provided at the Tule Lake, 

 

147 Bonnie Clark, “The Tangible History of Amache, Phase II: Research Design and Methodology for Field 

Investigations,” Summer 2010 (on file University of Denver); and Bonnie Clark, “The Archeology of Gardening 

at Amache: A Synthesis of Results from the University of Denver Field Investigations,” Summer 2008 (on file 

University of Denver).
Part 3, Associated Property Types

66 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

This interior view of a new building at Poston, Site I, 

shows typical barracks construction.

WRA photo by Fred Clark, May 8, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Manzanar, Gila River, and Poston relocation centers to help seal the drafty floors. The window 

configurations varied, but were typically either sliding square windows or double hung windows

with divided lights. The gabled ends of the buildings had rectangular vents—a standard army 

construction detail.

Barracks construction varied substantially only at the Granada Relocation Center in Colorado 

and at the two Arizona centers. At Granada the barracks had weatherized wallboard exterior

walls and continuous concrete foundations instead of the usual piers. The barracks at the 

Arizona centers had double roofs for insulation, and the Gila River Center—considered a 

showplace—had white wallboard exterior sheathing. The Gila River Relocation Center was 

selected for a visit by Eleanor Roosevelt in April 1943.

148

Most other buildings were variations of the barracks. Recreation halls and community buildings 

were basically the same as barracks, but were 20 by 100 feet, without interior partitions. Mess 

halls were 40 by 100 feet and included a kitchen, storeroom, and scullery. Administration 

buildings were similar to the barracks, but they were finished with white clapboard exteriors 

rather than tarpaper. Staff housing, also with clapboard exteriors, was divided into selfcontained apartments with one, two, or three bedrooms, each with its own kitchen and bathroom.

At the earlier constructed relocation centers (Manzanar, Poston, and Gila River), each residential 

block included separate buildings for the men's bathroom, women's bathroom, and laundry 

facilities. These army-type facilities had no toilet partitions or bathtubs and very little hot water. 

A separate ironing room was added after numerous power outages. In each block at Tule Lake,

 

148 Msaji Inoshita, „The Story of One Japanese-American Family: Gila River Japanese Resettlement Camp,‟ 

Arizona Historical Society Spring Lecture Series, “WWII: The Arizona Homefront” (Tucson, 1995).
Part 3, Associated Property Types

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 67

The mess hall in Block 7 at the Jerome Relocation Center

is typical of those at other relocation centers.

WRA photo by Tom Parker, November 16, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

one building combined the laundry and ironing room and another combined the men's and 

women's bathrooms.

After the construction standards for the relocation centers were established in 1942, block latrine 

and laundry facilities were grouped in large centralized H-shaped structures. One side contained

the laundry; the other side contained the men's and women's bathrooms. The hot water heater

was located in the crossbar of the “H.” In addition to the standard toilets, sinks, and communal 

showers, the women's bathrooms were equipped with partitioned toilet stalls and four bathtubs.

Community buildings, such as schools and churches, were allowed to be constructed by the 

detainees, who initially used empty barracks for these functions. At some centers entire blocks 

of barracks were devoted to schools. The recreation halls, originally intended for use by a 

particular block, were usually converted to other general community purposes, such as churches 

or cooperative stores. Buildings that were later designed or built by the detainees were often 

more distinct and built of more permanent materials. For example, school buildings at Poston 

were built of adobe brick made by the detainees. These later buildings tended to be set at angles, 

counter to the uniform grid of the relocation center roads.

Agricultural enterprises at all of the centers provided much of the food, with the surplus sent to 

other relocation centers. Self-sufficiency was limited by the agricultural conditions at the 

centers. For example, rice had to be obtained from other locations. In fact, more than 40 percent 

Agricultural enterprises at all of the centers provided much of the food, with the surplus sent to 

other relocation centers. Self-sufficiency was limited by the agricultural conditions at the 

centers. For example, rice had to be obtained from other locations. In fact, more than 40 percent
Part 3, Associated Property Types

68 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

of the rice produced in the U.S. was sent to the relocation centers.149 Most of the centers also

had hog and chicken farms, and beef or dairy cows were raised at Gila River, Granada, Topaz, 

and Manzanar. A great deal of construction usually preceded effective agriculture, including 

irrigation systems, fences, and outbuildings. Remnants of buildings and landscape features 

related to farming are important components of the relocation center property type.

The relocation centers were subject to the same rationing as the rest of the country. Victory

gardens supplemented the rations and detainee crews recycled fats, metal, and other materials

considered vital to the war effort. The WRA intended to locate industries supporting the war 

effort at the relocation centers, but these plans were thwarted by industries and unions that feared 

unfair competition. The only venture that enjoyed even a modest degree of success was the 

short-lived manufacture of camouflage nets at three of the centers.150 The Manzanar net factory, 

supervised by the Corp of Engineers, was closed following a December 1942 riot. Privately run 

net factories at the Poston and Gila River relocation centers were discontinued in May 1943,

after the completion of their original contracts. Other war-related industries at the relocation 

centers included a model ship factory at Gila River that produced models used in training navy 

pilots and a poster shop at Granada. Other planned industrial projects were put on hold, due to 

outside pressures and to encourage relocation out of the centers.

Industry for internal use included garment factories at Manzanar, Heart Mountain, and Minidoka; 

a cabinet shop at Tule Lake; sawmills at Jerome and Heart Mountain; and a mattress factory at 

Manzanar. Factories for the processing of agricultural products were common at all of the 

centers. For example, at Manzanar the detainees made all of the soy sauce used at the center.

151

Ancillary Relocation Center Facilities

The WRA operated other sites that were affiliated with the relocation centers, but used for 

recreation or temporary housing. For example, Antelope Springs in Utah, a former CCC camp, 

was used as a recreation area for Topaz residents. The Cow Creek Camp, also a former CCC 

camp, was used to temporarily house residents of Manzanar who were considered threatened 

because they had supported the relocation center administration. 

INTERNMENT/DETENTION FACILITIES

Internment camps were facilities developed to confine Japanese Americans considered 

dangerous by the U.S. government. Many existing facilities were used or adapted to imprison 

Japanese Americans considered a threat. The War Relocation Authority operated some detention 

camps, but the Department of Justice was much more dominant in this capacity. Department of 

Justice internment camps were operated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), 

the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Bureau of Prisons. In addition to these 

facilities, which were generally intended for longer term detention, local and state prisons were 

sometimes used for the temporary detention of Japanese Americans. Detention centers also were 

operated by the U.S. Army. 

 

149 Page Smith, Democracy on Trial: The Japanese American Evacuation and Relocation in World War II

(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), 185.

150 Ibid., 176.

151 Ibid., 244.
Part 3, Associated Property Types

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 69

Temporary Detention Stations

Immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Justice Department began arresting 

“dangerous” enemy aliens residing in the United States.152 Approximately 2,000 Issei were held 

in temporary detention stations, operated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) 

from December 7, 1941, until late January 1942. Many of the language teachers, clergy, and 

newspaper editors targeted for arrest were leaders in their communities.

According to the INS, enemy aliens were held at 20 temporary detention facilities leased or 

borrowed from other federal agencies: Tujunga (Tuna Canyon) and Los Angeles (Terminal 

Island), California; Hartford, Connecticut; Tampa and Miami, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; 

Baltimore, Maryland; St. Paul, Minnesota; Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri; Syracuse and 

Niagara Falls, New York; Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio; Portland, Oregon; Pittsburgh and 

Nanticoke, Pennsylvania; Houston, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Eight existing INS detention facilities held what may have been a significant number of enemy 

aliens: San Francisco, San Pedro, and San Ysidro, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Detroit, 

Michigan; Gloucester City, New Jersey; Ellis Island, New York; and Seattle, Washington.153

Because of the short period of time they were used for Japanese American detention, Department 

of Justice temporary detention facilities were not considered for National Historic Landmark 

nomination as part of this study.

Department of Justice Internment Camps

In mid-December 1941, arrested Issei began arriving at Fort Missoula, Montana, to undergo INS 

immigration and loyalty hearings. Fort Missoula was one of several permanent detention 

facilities established for enemy aliens. Another camp was established at Fort Lincoln, near 

Bismarck, North Dakota, as the Fort Missoula camp reached capacity. Additional camps holding 

Japanese aliens were located at Sharp Park, California; Kooskia, Idaho; Fort Stanton, Santa Fe, 

and Old Raton Ranch, New Mexico; and Kenedy, Crystal City, and Seagoville, Texas. Most of 

these facilities also served other purposes, such as the confinement of Latin American Japanese, 

German and Italian enemy aliens, or prisoners of war.154 The camp at Crystal City was intended 

for detained families, while Kooskia served as a work camp for male volunteers. The INS 

internment camps were established at federally owned sites, such as U.S. Bureau of Prisons 

facilities, former Civilian Conservation Corps camps, military bases, or other sites transferred to 

the Department of Justice. 

 

152 All immigrants from Germany, Italy, and Japan, the countries with which the United States was at war, who 

had not become American citizens were classified as enemy aliens. Because immigrants from Japan were 

prohibited from becoming citizens, this category included all Issei, even those who had lived in the United States 

for many years.

153 According to the History, Genealogy, and Education website of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services 

(successor agency to the INS), most INS stations had some detention space for routine use during World War II, 

and districts had standing contracts with local, state, or Federal agencies for the use of additional detention space. 

Any facility could have held an alien classified as an “enemy alien” during World War II. (U.S. Citizenship and 

Immigration Services, “Our History” at http://www.uscis.gov/ graphics/aboutus/history/eacamps, accessed on 

May 3, 2010.)

154 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, 380.
Part 3, Associated Property Types

70 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Federal Prisons and Federal Work Camps

Over 100 Japanese Americans who challenged the policy of confinement were sent to federal 

prisons operated by the Department of Justice. Most were young men who refused to register for 

the draft until their civil rights were restored. Federal prison facilities that held Japanese 

Americans during this period (as well as other draft resisters and conscientious objectors) 

included the Catalina Honor Camp, located at the foot of the Santa Catalina Mountains in Pima 

County, Arizona; the Leavenworth Federal Prison in Leavenworth, Kansas; and the McNeil 

Island Federal Penitentiary in Puget Sound, Washington. McNeil Island is 2.25 miles wide and 3 

miles long and encompasses approximately 4,400 acres. It is situated 2.8 miles across Puget 

Sound from Steilacoom, the nearest town.

Non-federal prisons also were involved in holding those who challenged the relocation or 

resisted the draft. The sole draft resister at the Jerome Relocation Center was sent to an 

unidentified prison in Texas. Gordon Hirabayashi was held at the King County Jail in Seattle, 

Washington, for nine months before being sent to the Catalina Federal Honor Camp in Arizona, 

on charges of violating the exclusion order and curfew.

WRA Isolation Centers

In addition to the relocation centers, the WRA established facilities to isolate troublemakers from 

various relocation centers. The isolation center located at Moab, Utah, was in operation during 

the first few months of 1943. Subsequently it was moved to Leupp, Arizona, where it operated 

for about seven months in 1943. When the Leupp facility closed, the inmates were moved to the 

Tule Lake Segregation Center in California.

U.S. ARMY FACILITIES

U.S. Army facilities can be broadly divided by function. One category of facilities was used for 

training (soldiers, linguists) and another category was used for detention. Both categories 

involved U.S. Army facilities that existed at the outbreak of World War II.

U.S. Army Facilities Used for Training

In the summer of 1941, the Intelligence Division of the War Department began to recruit Nisei 

and Kibei, as well as some Caucasians, to be trained in the Japanese language. The Kibei had 

lived and studied in Japan and some others had studied in Japanese language schools in the U.S., 

but most recruits had minimal experience with the language. By the time of the attack on Pearl 

Harbor, 60 students were training to interpret and translate Japanese at the Military Intelligence 

Service Language School (MISLS) at the Presidio of San Francisco. The school‟s first graduates 

were sent into the Pacific Theater in April 1942; graduates ultimately served in most of the 

campaigns in the Pacific. MISLS graduates used their knowledge to translate enemy documents 

and interrogate Japanese soldiers.

MISLS training facilities were established at three locations between 1941 and 1946. The first 

was Building 640 at Crissy Field at the Presidio of San Francisco. Subsequently, training 

facilities were established at Camp Savage and, later, Fort Snelling, both located in Minnesota.
Part 3, Associated Property Types

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 71

Training soldiers for combat took place at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, with advanced training 

given at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. The segregated Japanese American U.S. Army units formed 

during World War II were the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) and the 442nd Regimental 

Combat Team. The excellent training record of the 100th Battalion led to plans for a mainland 

all-Nisei regiment and re-opening the draft to Japanese Americans. On February 1, 1943, the 

442nd Regimental Combat Team was officially activated by President Roosevelt. Both the 100th

Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team trained at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, and 

Camp Shelby, Mississippi. 

U.S. Army Internment Camps and Prisons

After immigration and loyalty hearings, most of the Issei housed at INS camps were sent to U.S. 

Army detention or internment camps. They remained at these facilities through May of 1943, 

when all enemy aliens seem to have been transferred back to the custody of the INS.155

Most U.S. Army camps were established at existing bases or other facilities administered by the 

army. Camp Lordsburg, New Mexico, was the only facility constructed by the army specifically 

to house enemy aliens. Other camps or temporary facilities used for Japanese American 

internment were at Fort Richardson, Alaska; the Angel Island Immigration Station in California

(identified by the U.S. Army as the North Garrison of Fort McDowell); Camp Livingston, 

Louisiana; Fort Sill and the Oklahoma State Prison at Stringtown, Oklahoma; Camp Forrest, 

Tennessee; Fort Sam Houston and Fort Bliss, Texas; and Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. Fort Meade, 

Maryland, and Camp Florence, Arizona, may have housed Japanese aliens as well.156 The army 

also operated detention camps for suspected enemy aliens in Hawaii, where martial law was in 

effect from December 7, 1941, until October 24, 1944. The main army internment camps in 

Hawaii were Sand Island and Honouliuli; other camps were Haiku Camp, Kalahea, Lanai, and 

Molokai.157 

JAPANESE AMERICAN WARTIME COMMUNITIES

For purposes of this study, Japanese American wartime communities are considered those 

communities established by or for Japanese Americans who were displaced during the war years, 

particularly in places where work was available. Properties associated with such communities 

are places Japanese Americans moved to during the war, to avoid or to be released from the 

relocation centers, and often in response to job offers.

Japantowns

The focus of this theme study is the wartime experience of Japanese Americans and how that 

experience is revealed and explained by the areas they occupied during the war years, 1941-

1946. However, for several decades prior to the war, the Japanese had been establishing farms 

and communities in various parts of the western United States. With Presidential Proclamation 

9066, which resulted in the confinement of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans, entire 

communities built by people of Japanese descent were vacated—some never to be reclaimed. 

 

155 Ibid., 379.

156 Weglyn, Years of Infamy, 176-177.

157 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, 399.
Part 3, Associated Property Types

72 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

This young man is one of the first to arrive at 2020 Van Ness Avenue, 

as part of the first contingent to be evacuated from San Francisco.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, April 6, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Although the communities and farms developed by Japanese immigrants and their descendents 

are not being evaluated as part of this study, they are important cultural resources that should be 

evaluated in the context of Japanese ethnicity and settlement history. 

Japanese immigrants were as varied as other immigrant ethnic groups, representing urban and 

rural backgrounds and various skills and professions, but the greatest number were farmers. 

They settled throughout the western United States, concentrating in areas where their ability to 

acquire or lease land was most promising. Where they settled, they built houses of worship,

commercial establishments, houses, and buildings that reflected distinct aspects of their native 

culture, such as bathhouses and Japanese language schools.

In cities large and small, Japanese sections of towns or cities were called nihonmachi or 

“Japantowns.” Early Japanese immigrants created these communities, where businesses and 

services were established to meet their needs. Large nihonmachi were located in ports of entry, 

such as Los Angeles, Seattle, and Portland. Smaller communities could be found throughout 

California, including Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor or Isleton and Walnut Grove in 

Sacramento County. There also were Japanese American residential enclaves that lacked 

business districts. California was not the only focus of Japanese American settlement. Small 

Japanese American communities were found throughout Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii. Prior 

to World War II, on the U.S. mainland most Issei settled and most Nisei were raised in 

nihonmachi.

In 1941 and 1942, many of the homes, businesses, and personal property that Japanese 

Americans were forced to sacrifice when they were sent to assembly and relocation centers were 
Part 3, Associated Property Types

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 73

located in these communities. The Panama Hotel, located in Seattle‟s Japantown, had served the 

Japanese American community since its opening in 1910. It was, in part, a haven for agricultural 

workers, who stayed at the hotel on weekends to escape the harsh discrimination found in rural 

areas. When Japanese Americans were ordered to leave Seattle at the beginning of the war, 

suitcases full of their belongings were left at the hotel. Today, the Panama Hotel, still open, 

houses the only surviving, original Japanese bathhouse in the U.S. It also keeps the luggage 

abandoned so many years ago. In fact, it is not clear if any of the luggage left at the beginning of 

the war was ever retrieved after the war ended. The hotel was designated a National Historic 

Landmark on March 20, 2006.

All of the nihonmachi within the West Coast military areas were disrupted by the removal of the 

ethnic Japanese population. Japanese American communities outside of the areas where 

exclusion was enforced, such as communities in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, were less 

affected by the exclusion.

When restrictions on West Coast resettlement were lifted late in 1944, some of the former 

residents of the nihonmachi returned, but many did not. Some communities had ceased to exist; 

others were drastically changed. In some cases, these communities and individual properties 

within them still testify to the early decades of Japanese settlement; others more strongly reflect

the effects of wartime relocation and confinement, and their aftermath. Several nihonmachi still 

exist to some degree and are being studied. Those with fewer aboveground remnants are being 

studied archeologically. For example, the Anthropological Studies Center at Sonoma State 

University has conducted several field schools to examine an early Japantown in San Jose, 

California.158

New Wartime Communities

The War Relocation Authority sanctioned and actively promoted the relocation of Japanese 

Americans to cities outside of the exclusion area. Thus, during the war enclaves of Japanese 

Americans were formed in places beyond the areas of original concentration. One such 

community was Seabrook, New Jersey, developed for Japanese American workers (with Federal 

assistance) by Seabrook Farms, a large vegetable processing operation that sponsored the 

resettlement of Japanese Americans to help address its labor shortages. Many Americans of 

Japanese descent still live in the area.

A temporary Japanese American community developed in eastern Oregon, where farmers needed 

help in harvesting the sugar beet crop. With WRA guarantees that the safety of Japanese 

Americans would be assured, the U.S. Employment Service was permitted to recruit for workers 

among Japanese Americans held at the Portland Assembly Center. Some 400 workers stayed 

through the summer of 1942. More than half lived at the former Nyssa CCC camp; others lived 

at individual farms in Malheur County.159

 

158 Site reports are not complete at this time; however the department‟s website includes information about the 

studies and the impact of the relocation on this Japanese American community. See http://www.sonoma.edu/asc/ 

projects/sanjose/SanJose.htm, accessed on May 22, 2011.

159 “Life on the Home Front, Oregon Responds to World War II ” at http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/exhibits/ww2/

threat/labor.htm, accessed on February 3, 2011.
Part 3, Associated Property Types

74 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Japanese American communities developed in urban areas, such as Chicago, Boston, 

Philadelphia, and other large cities where the American Friends Service Committee and others 

sponsored the relocation of Japanese Americans, and helped them find housing, jobs, etc. In 

these areas, individual buildings, historic districts, or archeological sites may have a connection 

to the Japanese American settlement during the war years. Surveys of these cities were not part 

of the research effort for this theme study.

OTHER PROPERTY TYPES 

Other properties exist that do not correspond exactly to the categories identified in this section. 

Those properties are concerned with court rulings, legislation, and administration of the program 

of Japanese American confinement.

Western Defense Command Facilities

Lieutenant General DeWitt, the commander of the Western Defense Command and the U.S. 4th

Army, oversaw the removal of people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. On February 9, 

1942, DeWitt recommended the removal of all people of Japanese heritage, both Americans and 

aliens, and “other subversive persons” from the entire area west of the Sierra Nevada and 

Cascade Mountains, justifying the widespread removal as a “military necessity.” Ten days later, 

on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the 

Secretary of War to establish military areas from which any person could be excluded.

The orders that directed the removal of Japanese Americans were issued by Lieutenant General

DeWitt. Public proclamations created the restricted military areas and prohibited all people of 

Japanese heritage from leaving these areas until ordered. Further instructions issued by DeWitt 

established military reception centers as transitional facilities, and forbade moves except to 

approved locations. DeWitt also issued 108 civilian exclusion orders, each designed to affect 

about 1,000 people. Targeted groups were directed to register at designated civil control stations 

in preparation for removal from the restricted areas.

Lieutenant General DeWitt‟s offices were located in Building 35 of the Presidio of San 

Francisco. He remained there until September 1943, when he was assigned to the Army-Navy 

War College in Washington, D.C., and was replaced by General Emmons, the military governor 

of Hawaii.

Federal Courts

The major legal decisions testing removal and confinement policies under Executive Order 9066 

were rendered in federal courts. In 1943 and 1944, the Korematsu, Yasui, Hirabayashi, and 

Endo cases were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Supreme Court Building in 

Washington, D.C. The mass trial of 63 Heart Mountain Relocation Center draft resisters took 

place in the Federal Courthouse in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Cheyenne courthouse was also the 

venue for the trials of the seven leaders of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee. Significant 

legal decisions in federal district courts in the 1980s overturned the convictions of Korematsu, 

Yasui, and Hirabayashi, but these events are outside the time period of this theme study. 
Part 3, Associated Property Types

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 75

This is a scene at the Civil Control Station at 2020 Van Ness Avenue

in San Francisco as the first group of San Franciscans is evacuated.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, April 6, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Civil Control Stations (or Processing Centers)

Posters that proclaimed the Western Defense Command‟s civilian exclusion orders named one or 

more civil control stations, established by the Wartime Civilian Control Administration, to which 

heads of families were to report. Here, Japanese American families and individuals had physical 

examinations and completed forms that indicated the disposition of their property and business 

interests. The exclusion orders were issued between March 2, 1942 (Proclamation No. 1), and 

June 6, 1942 (Proclamation No. 6). On May 19, 1942, Civilian Restriction Order No. 1 

established the temporary detention centers in eight western states.160

Most civil control stations were in existing buildings, such as schools, gymnasiums, auditoriums, 

churches, and armories. Some of these have survived, but in most cases it is not clear if physical 

features reflect the brief period during which these properties were used by the WCCA, or if they 

can provide nationally significant information about Japanese American relocation during the 

war years. The civil control stations that are known to date are listed in Table 5 in the appendix 

of this report.

 

160

 Imdiversity.com, “Japanese American Internment Timeline” at http://www.imdiversity.com/Villages/ 

asian/history_ heritage/archives/japanese_american, accessed on December 4, 2008, 2-3.
Part 3, Associated Property Types

76 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

This photo shows a portion of the site to be developed as the Tule Lake Relocation Center.

WRA photo by Clem Albers, April 23, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Part 4, Survey Methodology

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 77

PART 4

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

The Japanese American theme study was undertaken as a result of a directive in Public Law 102-

248, signed by President George H. W. Bush on March 3, 1992. In addition to establishing the 

Manzanar National Historic Site, the law included a component titled the “Japanese American 

National Historic Landmark Theme Study Act.” The purpose of the theme study is “to identify 

the key sites in Japanese American History that illustrate the period in American history when 

personal justice was denied Japanese Americans.” The theme study was intended to identify and 

evaluate the sites, buildings, and structures that best illustrate or commemorate the period from 

1941 to 1946, when Japanese Americans were detained pursuant to Executive Order 9066 and 

other directives. The 37 properties listed in Table 1 in the Introduction to this report were 

explicitly named in PL 102-248, although the law indicated that the study should not be limited 

to the sites named in the law.

The initial study of the properties identified in PL 102-248 was undertaken by Jeffery F. Burton, 

Mary M. Farrell, Florence B. Lord, and Richard W. Lord between 1994 and 1999. Jeffery 

Burton, an archeologist with the National Park Service, Western Archeological and Conservation 

Center, in Tucson, Arizona, was the senior author of Confinement and Ethnicity, the publication 

that was a compilation of the team’s study of Japanese American wartime sites. Mary Farrell 

also was an archeologist on the project, and Florence Lord and Richard Lord were the team 

photographers. The goal of the study that resulted in Confinement and Ethnicity was “to provide 

information for the National (Historic) Landmark Theme Study called for in the Manzanar 

National Historic Site enabling legislation . . .and provide preliminary documentation about the 

architectural remnants, the archeological features, and the artifacts remaining at the sites.”

161 The main focus of the team’s work was the relocation centers, but other facilities also were 

considered. Sites were field inspected by the team, which visited all of the facilities operated 

by the Wartime Civilian Control Agency (WCCA) and the War Relocation Authority (WRA), 

including assembly centers, relocation centers, and detention facilities. Several detention 

facilities operated by the Department of Justice and the U.S. Army also were visited. 

The study included archival research and interviews with former detainees. Many primary 

sources were consulted, such as the relocation center newspapers, blueprints, and photographs 

from the National Archives. Material included in special collections at various university 

libraries also was consulted. Other information was obtained from Federal land management 

agencies associated with sites concerned with the relocation, specifically the Bureau of 

Reclamation, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Forest Service. State historic 

preservation offices and National Register of Historic Places nominations were consulted, as was 

inventory data at the California Historic Resources Information System centers. Maps, including 

USGS topographic maps, and relevant archeological reports were useful resources, and a wealth 

of published books and articles, as well as agency reports and unpublished manuscripts, were 

productive avenues of research for the team.

Additional properties were identified by S. Curtis Breckenridge, who initially compiled the 

findings in Confinement and Ethnicity into a National Historic Landmark theme study, Marilyn 

Harper, and Barbara Wyatt, final editor of the study. Published secondary sources and online 

 

161 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, v.
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78 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The Honouliuli Internment Camp is shown in this photo in about 1945.

Courtesy of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i Research Center

resources were helpful, and knowledgeable people were consulted for information, including 

leads on related properties that may have been overlooked. Various NPS studies and National 

Historic Landmark nominations conducted or prepared after the publication of Confinement and 

Ethnicity contributed to the identification and preliminary evaluation of sites in this report. Of 

particular interest were the nominations for the relocation centers at Granada, Colorado, 

(designated 2006), Tule Lake, California, (designated 2006), Heart Mountain, Wyoming, 

(designated 2006), and Topaz, Utah, (designated 2007), which are referenced in Part 6 of this 

report and cited in the bibliography. The draft NHL nomination for Poston (2010) also was 

helpful.

Jeffery F. Burton and Mary M. Farrell’s more recent research and field work concerning 

Japanese American wartime sites in Hawaii was particularly useful in expanding the discussion 

and evaluation of these properties. They provide a comprehensive overview of the Hawaiian 

sites in World War II Japanese American Internment Sites in Hawai’i.162 Other works by Burton 

and Farrell that pertain to the Hawaiian sites are listed in the bibliography (Part 7 of this report) 

and mentioned in site specific sections of Part 6, Survey Results.

Table 2 on the following page identities the properties that were considered as potential 

candidates for National Historic Landmark designation, but which were not specifically 

referenced in Public Law 102-248. These sites were identified by the various people who have 

worked on this project since passage of Public Law 102-248 on March 3, 1992.

 

162 Jeffery F. Burton and Mary M. Farrell, “World War II Japanese American Internment Sites in Hawai’i”

(Tucson: Trans-Sierran Archaeological Research and Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’i Research Center, 

December 2007).
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 79

Table 2. Wartime Properties not Specified in Public Law 102-248

Name of Property Location

Ancillary WRA Facilities

Antelope Springs, recreation area for Topaz Millard County, UT

Cow Creek Camp, camp for Manzanar Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, CA

Internment/Detention Facilities: Department of Justice `

Catalina Prison Camp, BOP Coronado National Forest, AZ

Fort Stanton Internment Camp, INS Lincoln County, NM

Kooskia Internment Camp, INS Clearwater National Forest, Idaho County, ID

Old Raton Ranch Camp, INS Santa Fe County, NM

Santa Fe Internment Camp, INS Santa Fe County, NM

Sharp Park Detention Facility, INS San Mateo County, CA

U.S. Federal Penitentiary, Leavenworth, BOP Leavenworth County, KS

U.S. Federal Penitentiary, McNeil Island, BOP Pierce County, WA

U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island, INS New York Harbor, NY

U.S. Immigration Station, Oahu Honolulu County, HI

Internment/Detention Facilities: WRA

Leupp Isolation Center Coconino County, AZ

Moab Isolation Center Grand County, UT

Camp Tulelake Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Other Internment/Detention Facilities

Wailua County Jail Kauai County, HI

Wailuku County Jail Maui County, HI

U.S. Army: Training/Admin. Facilities

The Presidio, Buildings 35 and 640 Golden Gate NRA, San Francisco, CA

U.S. Army: Internment/Detention Facilities

Camp Florence Pinal County, AZ

Camp Forrest Coffee County, TN

Camp Livingston Rapides Parish, LA

Camp Lordsburg Hidalgo County, NM

Fort Bliss El Paso County, TX

Fort George G. Meade Anne Arundel County, MD

Fort Richardson Anchorage Borough, AK

Fort Sam Houston San Antonio, TX

Fort Sill Internment Camp Comanche County, OK

Haiku Camp Maui County, HI

Honouliuli Internment Camp Honolulu County, HI

Kalaheo Stockade Kauai County, HI

Kilauea Military Camp Hawaii County, HI

Sand Island Detention Camp Honolulu County, HI

Stringtown Internment Camp Atoka County, OK

Japanese American Wartime Communities

Seabrook Farms Seabrook, NJ
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80 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Some of these children, playing at recess, moved to Seabrook 

Farms from the relocation centers.

Courtesy of the Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 81

PART 5

REGISTRATION GUIDELINES

FOR NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS

This section of the theme study reviews the Criteria for National Historic Landmark designation 

and provides guidelines for evaluating the significance and integrity of associated properties. 

Several properties related to this theme already have been designated National Historic 

Landmarks: Granada Relocation Center, Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Manzanar 

Relocation Center, part of the Rohwer Relocation Center, Topaz Relocation Center, and Tule 

Lake Relocation Center. Because of the thorough evaluation these sites received prior to their 

designation, they provide important guidance for evaluating other properties. 

EVALUATION CHALLENGES

The sites associated with the confinement of Japanese Americans during World War II present 

unique evaluation issues. Because of the rush to implement the program of confinement after the 

U.S. declared war on Japan, in early stages of the program facilities that already existed were 

utilized—the fairgrounds, racetracks, etc. that were described in earlier chapters. New facilities 

were needed quickly, however, to house the large number of people who were considered a 

threat to national security by some government officials.

Site selection for the new facilities was a critical concern to Federal planners. They wanted sites 

that were remote to minimize the concerns of the existing population, but accessible enough to 

make the transport of thousands of people and supplies feasible. The locations had to offer 

opportunities for agriculture or light industry. Above all, the land needed to be available.

This combination of factors led to the development of the relocation centers in areas that were 

barren and dry or low and swampy. Some had a backdrop of scenic mountains. Others had a flat 

monotony. All conveyed a sense of remoteness. In short order, these remote places became 

villages and cities. Never intended to be permanent, the construction at the relocation centers 

was cheap, regimented, plain, and rudimentary. Amenities were few. At most of the sites, the 

buildings were removed very soon after the war’s end. The land reverted to previous uses, or 

was given new uses, transferred to other Federal agencies, or sold. Perhaps the Federal 

government wanted to put this unpleasant chapter of civil control behind it and return the land to 

its pre-war appearance; perhaps the sheer number of buildings left vacant presented a staggering 

maintenance prospect. Buildings were sold and moved, dismantled for their materials, or simply 

left vacant. A relatively small number were put to new uses in situ. In most cases, a cursory 

look would indicate the centers have virtually vanished from the landscape. A closer look 

reveals the remnants of foundations, roads, landscaping, archeological deposits, and small 

collections of buildings.

Thus, a dichotomy exists for those who want to commemorate these wartime villages as historic 

sites: the site is there, but the village is gone. What remains, however, is potentially significant: 

the landscape, remnants of the infrastructure, random buildings, and the archeology of the site. 

In some places the desolation is broken by cemeteries, memorials, and landscape features that are 
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82 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The Minidoka Relocation Center is situated in the high desert of the Snake River plain in Idaho.

The center is partially completed in this view from the water tower.

WRA photo by Francis Stewart, August 18, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

reminders of the drive of residents to create homes and beautify their stark surroundings. 

Somber, elegant, and poignant memorials have been built at many sites where Japanese 

Americans spent the war years.

The historical significance of key sites associated with the Japanese American confinement 

during World War II has been established by federal laws, by many historians and archeologists,

and in the historic context of this report. An evaluation of the significance of many of these sites 

must be considerate of their temporary nature and, at the war’s conclusion, the government’s 

drive to quickly close the centers and return the land to its original stewards or convey it to new 

owners. The sites must be evaluated for their ability to convey the sense of remoteness, 

isolation, and desolation that existed, with some imprint or evidence of the intensive 

development that stood for a short number of years, but impacted lives for decades after.

Landscape Characteristics

The sense of remoteness that characterized the relocation centers and some other sites should be 

conveyed for non-archeological sites to be eligible for National Historic Landmark designation. 

Thus, the site itself, as well as the surrounding setting and viewshed, should be devoid of 

development such as subdivisions, shopping malls, industrial complexes, and any other 

development that has resulted in substantial building, ground disturbance, and an encroachment 

on the view of the natural landscape. The most intact landscapes will retain this sense of 

isolation. With lesser integrity, eligibility for designation will be evaluated, in part, by the 

degree of encroachment on the site, with encroachment and intrusions evident in a 360° radius 

constituting the most compromised landscapes.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 83

The Poston Relocation Center, shown in this photograph under development, 

is located on land owned by the Colorado River Indian Tribes.

WRA photo by Clem Albers, April 9, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The immediate landscape of the parts most heavily developed during the period of significance 

should retain the imprint of that development through standing structures and features, ruins, or

archeological deposits and features. Intermediate land that is beyond the developed residential 

complex but generally a functional part of the confinement site, such as farmland, should retain

enough integrity from the wartime period to convey its essential function. Ideally, land that was 

cultivated will still be cultivated, with field patterns or irrigation features evident. Land that was 

grazed will retain the open qualities of rangeland or pastures. In some cases, land that ceased to 

be used for agriculture after the war may exhibit the effects of natural succession, with the prewar vegetation again in place. Such landscapes should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis 

regarding their integrity in terms of the war years.

Extant buildings and structures may tell the story best if NHL criteria 1 through 5 are applied,

but the story can be told by resources with less prominence on the landscape, if integrity of 

location, setting, feeling, and association are intact. In some cases, a certain integrity of design is 

evident in the site plan through the existence of above- and belowground remnants, including

street fabric, building foundations, agricultural field divisions, and landscape features. These 

residual components of the landscape can be remarkably effective in creating the feeling of the 

site during its period of significance or in identifying the location of components of the plan.

Landscape features of particular interest include those that exhibit traditional Japanese gardening 

patterns, motifs, or design principles. Clark described evidence of shakkei that was found at 

Amache.

163 This technique of “borrowing scenery” incorporates a distant view into the 

immediate landscape by creating a frame, usually with plant materials, to focus on a particular 

 

163 Clark, “The Tangible History of Amache, Phase II,” 9, 10.
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84 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Mrs. Fujita and her neighbor inspect the garden planted in an available 

opening in front of their barracks at the Tanforan Assembly Center.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, June 16, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

view. This view becomes an integral part of the designed landscape. Other traditional Japanese 

design strategies may include the use of water features, the placement and design of paths, plant 

composition, and the placement of garden artifacts. More typical American gardening patterns 

may be evident in the placement and alignment of gardens, irrigation strategies, and plant 

selection, although Japanese influences also may be evident. Victory gardens were embraced by 

Japanese Americans with the rest of the nation. The blending of cultural gardening traditions is 

particularly interesting at these sites. Remnants of these features may remain on the surface or 

survive in the archeological record.

The Archeological Record of Confinement

The archeology of institutional sites, including Japanese American confinement sites, has 

flourished for at least the last two decades. This area of study is considered a significant topic 

within mainstream historical archeological work, and has resulted in important contributions to

archeological literature and anthropological perspectives on American culture.164 Japanese 

American confinement as an aspect of institutional research has been studied through 

archeological research and investigation sponsored by a variety of government institutions and 

agencies, including, but not limited to, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the 

Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. These federal archeological studies, which 

have included identification and excavation, have made substantial contributions to cultural 

resource interpretation and management programs. Multi-year projects also have been 

 

164 See Clark, “The Tangible History of Amache, Phase 2,” 4. 
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 85

undertaken by several university departments of anthropology, often as an element of graduate 

research, including the University of Denver, the University of California, Los Angeles,

California State University, the University of Idaho, and the University of Arizona.165

These studies have focused on the landscape, material culture, and everyday life of the confined 

Japanese Americans, to gain an understanding of the appearance of the sites, life at the sites, and 

the people who occupied them. They have revealed building, road, garden, and fence locations, 

as well as the locations of different functional areas, such as administrative centers, residential 

complexes, and industrial sites. Recovered artifacts, some that were forbidden in the camps, 

have revealed the household goods used by Japanese Americans and center staffs, foods eaten, 

and toys available to children.

The recovery of construction materials has confirmed the location and character of buildings and 

structures, and revealed unrecorded modifications to standard military specifications and nontraditional uses of buildings. Graffiti and drawings recorded on walls, rocks, and other surfaces 

have provided insights regarding the state of mind of occupants, emotional stresses, religious 

beliefs, and political leanings.

Information recorded from these sites may contribute to evaluations of significance under NHL 

criteria 1 through 5, particularly where these archeological resources remain highly visible on the 

landscape. Such features are useful in terms of understanding the history and appearance of the 

site, and they have become important elements of the surviving cultural landscape. Archeologists 

have used recovered above- and belowground artifacts and cultural landscape information, in 

 

165 Burton, Three Farewells; Burton, Bergstresser and Tamura, “Minidoka Internment National Monument;” Burton 

and Farrell, This is Minidoka; Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity; Jeffery F. Burton, Jeremy D. Haines, and 

Mary M. Farrell, I Rei To: Archeological Investigations at the Manzanar Relocation Center Cemetery (Tucson: 

Western Archaeological and Conservation Center, 2001); Orit Tamir, Scott C. Russell, Karolyn Jackman Jensen, 

and Shereen Lerner, “Return to Butte Camp: A Japanese American World War II Relocation Center” (Tempe, AZ: 

Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd., 1993); Priscilla Wegars, “A Real He-Man's Job: Japanese Internees and 

the Kooskia Internment Camp, Idaho, 1943-1945” (Salt Lake City: paper presented at the Society for Historic 

Archaeology 32nd Annual Conference, 1999); Priscilla Wegars, Imprisoned in Paradise: Japanese Internee Road 

Workers at the World War II Kooskia Internment Camp (Moscow, ID: Asian American Comparative Collection, 

University of Idaho, 2010); Stacey Lynn Camp, “Kooskia Camp Archaeology Project” (http://www.uidaho. 

edu/class/kicap, accessed on March 13, 2010); Nicole Branton, “Landscape Approaches in Historical Archaeology: 

The Archaeology of Places” in International Handbook of Historic Archaeology (New York: Springer Publishing 

Company, 2009) ; Nicole Branton, “Drawing the Line: Places of Power in the Japanese American Eventscape,” PhD 

dissertation (Tucson: University of Arizona, 2004); Nicole Branton, “Rice Bowls and Resistance: Cultural 

Persistence at the Manzanar War Relocation Center, California, 1942-1945,” Master’s thesis (Tucson: University of 

Arizona, 2000); Eleanor Conlin Casella, The Archaeology of Institutional Confinement (Gainesville: University 

Press of Florida, 2007); Clark, “The Tangible History of Amache, Phase II: Research Design and Methodology for 

Field Investigations, Summer 2010;” Clark, “The Archeology of Gardening at Amache: A Synthesis of Results 

from the Univeristy of Denver Field Investigations, Summer 2008;” Anna C. Noah, “An Archaeological Study of 

the Japanese Gardens of the Manzanar World War II Relocation Center” (Los Angeles: University of California, 

1999); Stephanie Skiles, “Confined Cuisine, An Archeological and Historical Examination of Culinary Practices at 

Amache, Colorado’s WWII Japanese Internment Camp” (Denver: Department of Anthropology, University of 

Denver, 2008); Stephanie Skiles and Bonnie Clark, “When the Foreign is Not Exotic: Ceramics at Colorado’s WWII 

Japanese Internment Camp” in Trade and Exchange: Archaeological Studies from History and Prehistory, edited by 

Carolyn D. Dillian and Carolyn L. White (New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2010); Michelle Ann 

Slaughter, “An Archeological and Ethnographic Examination of the Presence, Acquisition, and Consumption of 

Sake at Camp Amache, a WWII Japanese Internment Camp,” Master’s thesis (Denver: Department of 

Anthropology, University of Denver, 2006).
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86 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

conjunction with oral histories, photographic and geographic information, primary 

documentation, and other documentary records that concern places of confinement, to inform 

major areas of research in historical archeology. Such research has contributed to theories, 

concepts, and ideas in anthropological and historical archeological literature, and lent an 

understanding to these aspects of American culture over time. Evaluations of significance under 

Criterion 6 may be considerate of material cultural and archeological landscape interpretations to 

achieve an understanding of larger cultural issues.

The sites may be significant for their ability to explain how Japanese Americans modified and 

reinterpreted their material world to cope with daily life, burdened by surveillance, lack of 

privacy, and efforts to sublimate their cultural identity. Landscape features and artifacts have 

revealed both an underground and overt movement of solidarity and resistance among detainees. 

Archeological studies have illuminated personal coping strategies and larger group practices that 

flourished in places of confinement. At Minidoka and Manzanar, for example, the excavation of 

trash pits and refuse features from a wide variety of locations uncovered a remarkably high 

presence of Japanese domestic ceramics, including porcelain bowls, Asian candy containers, 

traditional Japanese teacups, serving plates, ornamental figures, and tokens from the traditional 

Asian game Go. The importance of maintaining cultural identity is revealed by the fact that

Japanese Americans took these items to confinement locations, despite restricted luggage 

allowances. Other evidence suggests that confined Japanese Americans maintained traditional 

foodways in their barracks, challenging rules regarding communal meals in mess halls. 

Archeologists who have recorded graffiti at both Manzanar and Tule Lake found evidence of 

ethnic solidarity, resentment, and overt resistance to confinement.

The archeological examination of national, ethnic, and gender identities as they were changed 

and maintained in confinement has yielded significant information that has affected theories, 

concepts, and ideas about American culture from an anthropological perspective. At the 

Japanese American confinement facilities, expressing a shared, often dual, American and ethnic 

identity, and maintaining culturally significant ethnic and gender roles, was an essential means of

coping with confinement and pressing for Japanese American civil rights.

Multi-year studies of the Granada Relocation Center in Colorado by archeology scholars and 

graduate students at the University of Denver exemplify how the study of identity, particularly 

with regard to racial and ethnic groups, contributes to anthropological themes of identity 

formation at confinement sites. Stephanie Skiles’ assessment of culinary practices was linked to 

the study of recovered ceramics. She noted that Japanese Americans may have gone to great 

lengths to possess traditional ceramic items, such as tea bowls and rice bowls, in order to 

maintain traditional practices and rituals of food consumption. Her findings correspond with 

other anthropological studies that concern the significance of cuisine to cultural and group 

identities and social bonding, which is particularly important for people in oppressive situations 

like relocation centers.

166

Dana Ogo Shew examined Japanese women’s identity in public and private spheres at 

confinement sites through a study of artifacts related to domestic roles (such as cooking and 

cleaning), beauty and appearance, and gardening.167 Her studies revealed that aspects of 

 

166 Skiles, “Confined Cuisine.”

167 Dana Ogo Shew, “Feminine Identity Confined: The Archaeology of Japanese Women at Amache, a WWII 
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 87

traditional family systems and cultural values of the Issei were maintained at the sites, together 

with Japanese American feminine identity, despite competing American ideals. Consumer 

products related to health, beauty, and appearance revealed Japanese American women’s 

perceptions of femininity and illuminated aspects of nationality and cultural affiliation. Artifacts 

also revealed that women maintained traditional domestic authority in the barracks and adhered 

to Japanese American cultural and feminine values, even when it required them to defy WRA 

rules and restrictions. At the same time, they were flexible enough to recreate and define new 

ideals of Japanese femininity in order to deal with the challenges of confinement.

Confined Japanese Americans maintained their traditional identities, while simultaneously 

emphasizing a national or “American” identity. Archeological materials recovered at Amache 

represent the attempts of Japanese Americans to lobby for civil rights as American citizens. 

These archeological analyses show that the definition of “American” for Japanese American 

citizens was more idealistically tied to civil rights and citizenship than to ethnic or racial 

designation.168

Bonnie Clark observed, recorded, and collected the remains of children’s toys at Amache. She 

concluded that they are evidence of how and where children played, as well as evidence that 

parents fostered their children’s investment in the war by buying airplanes, ships, and transport 

trucks for children of a range of ages.169 

Clark also studied garden features at Amache, subjecting the locations to ground penetrating 

radar, carefully excavating portions of the ornamental, vegetable, and entry gardens, and 

collecting soil samples to study macrobotancial remains. The planting of victory gardens may be 

physical evidence of the detainees’ support for the war; however, these gardens sometimes were 

uniquely Japanese in their plant remains and layout. Like the gardens at Manzanar, at least one 

garden at Amache was informed by the landscape principle of shakkei, or “borrowed scenery.” 

Plant remains recovered at another garden include Ulmus parvifolius or Chinese Elm, a popular 

choice for bonsai. Clark also noted that where children created entry gardens they employed 

strategies that suggest a generational understanding of “the Japanese dooryard garden tradition, 

of which the entry gardens are an example.”170 Thus, archeological investigations of gardens 

support the concept that Japanese Americans were challenged to be culturally Japanese and 

American, and that their boundaries of identity were fluid, variable, and subject to manipulation.

NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION

The following is taken from the Code of Federal Regulations.

171

The National Historic Landmark criteria are used to evaluate whether properties are 

exceptionally significant for their association with events, people, information, and construction 

 

Internment Camp,” Master’s thesis (Denver: Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Denver, 

2010).

168 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, 34; Branton, “Drawing the Line: Places of Power in the JapaneseAmerican Internment Eventscape,” 45-46.

169 Bonnie Clark, “The Tangible History of Amache,” 5.

170 Clark, “The Archaeology of Gardening at Amache,” 6.

171 Code of Federal Regulations, Title 36, Part 65.4 (a).
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88 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

of national importance. According to the criteria, national significance can be ascribed to 

districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that:

Possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the 

United States in history, architecture, archeology, engineering and culture, and 

Possess a high degree of integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, 

feeling, and association, and meet the one of the following criteria:

The National Historic Landmark program recognizes the quality of national significance in 

districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that possess exceptional value or quality in 

illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States in history, architecture, archeology, 

engineering, and culture, and that possess a high degree of integrity in terms of location, design, 

setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. 

Districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects can be nationally significant if:

Criterion 1 

They are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to, and are 

identified with, or that outstandingly represent, the broad national patterns of United States 

history and from which an understanding and appreciation of those patterns may be gained; 

or

Criterion 2

They are associated importantly with the lives of persons nationally significant in the history 

of the United States; or

Criterion 3

They represent some great idea or ideal of the American people; or

Criterion 4

They embody the distinguishing characteristics or an architectural type specimen 

exceptionally valuable for the study of a period, style, or method of construction, or that 

represent a significant, distinctive, and exceptional entity whose components may lack 

individual distinction; or

Criterion 5

They are composed of integral parts of the environment not sufficiently significant by reason 

of historical association or artistic merit to warrant individual recognition but collectively 

compose an entity of exceptional historical or artistic significance, or outstandingly 

commemorate or illustrate a way of life or culture; or

Criterion 6

They have yielded or may be likely to yield information of major scientific importance by 

revealing new cultures, or by shedding light upon periods of occupation of large areas of the 

United States. Such sites are those which have yielded, or which may reasonably be 

expected to yield, data affecting theories, concepts, and ideas to a major degree.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 89

NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK EXCEPTIONS

The following description of exceptions is taken from the Code of Federal Regulations.172

Properties that usually are ineligible for National Historic Landmark designation can be 

designated if they meet certain conditions. Ordinarily, cemeteries, birthplaces, graves of 

historical figures, properties owned by religious institutions or used for religious purposes, 

structures that have been moved from their original locations, reconstructed historic buildings, 

and properties that have achieved significance within the past fifty years are not eligible for 

designation. If such properties fall within the following categories they may, nevertheless, be 

found eligible for designation:

Exception 1

A religious property deriving its primary national significance from architectural or artistic 

distinction or historical importance; or

Exception 2

A building removed from its original location but which is nationally significant primarily 

for its architectural merit, or for association with persons or events of transcendent 

importance in the nation's history and the association consequential; or

Exception 3

A site of a building or structure no longer standing but the person or event associated with it 

is of transcendent importance in the nation's history and the association consequential; or 

Exception 4

A birthplace, grave or burial if it is of a historical figure of transcendent national significance 

and no other appropriate site, building, or structure directly associated with the productive 

life of that person exists; or

Exception 5

A cemetery that derives its primary national significance from graves of persons of 

transcendent importance, or from an exceptionally distinctive design or an exceptionally 

significant event; or

Exception 6

A reconstructed building or ensemble of buildings of extraordinary national significance 

when accurately executed in a suitable environment and presented in a dignified manner as 

part of a restoration master plan, and when no other buildings or structures with the same 

association have survived; or

Exception 7

A property primarily commemorative in intent if design, age, tradition, or symbolic value has 

invested it with its own national historical significance; or

 

172 Code of Federal Regulations, Title 36, Part 65.4 (b).
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90 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Exception 8

A property achieving national significance within the past 50 years if it is of extraordinary 

national importance.

APPLYING THE CRITERIA

To be considered eligible for designation as a National Historic Landmark, properties associated 

with the Japanese Americans in World War II theme must meet one or more of the NHL criteria. 

Normally excepted properties need to meet one of the criteria exceptions, in addition to the 

criteria. Many properties associated with this theme will be eligible under Criterion 1 for their 

association with an event of historical significance and Criterion 6 for their ability to provide 

nationally significant information. Some may be eligible under Criterion 2, 4, or 5, but it is not 

expected that Criterion 3 will apply to this theme. It seems counterintuitive to think that sites 

associated with the Japanese American wartime experience could “represent some great idea or 

ideal of the American people,” although the argument could be made that such sites afford an 

opportunity to teach about American ideals, with reference to how they were corrupted by a 

combination of fear and racism. In this study, Criterion 3 will not be considered applicable. 

Many of the exceptions may apply to sites associated with this theme. In fact, all of the 

exceptions except Exception 8 (achieving significance within the past 50 years) are potentially 

applicable. Registration guidelines for the commonly applied criteria and exceptions are 

discussed in this chapter.

National Historic Landmarks can be designated as historic districts, sites, buildings, structures, or 

objects. Most of the sites associated with this theme were intended to accommodate hundreds, if 

not thousands, of people; thus, they were typically of a substantial size and, therefore, may be 

best represented by historic districts. However, many of the sites were built for the temporary 

confinement of Japanese Americans; the buildings were considered temporary, and the 

construction was flimsy. There was no intention to maintain these temporary villages after the 

war, certainly not for any commemorative reasons (those sentiments came much later). Instead, 

they were expected to be demolished or disassembled, and this proved to be the case at almost all 

of the relocation and detention centers. Because of the ephemeral nature of these properties, 

archeology is a valuable tool for interpreting and understanding these sites, and the application of 

Criterion 6 should be considered. 

Thus, the sites most explicitly associated with Japanese Americans during WW II—the 

relocation centers—typically have very few surviving buildings because of their temporary 

purpose. Sites of exceptional historical significance that retain few aboveground resources pose 

challenges when evaluated under criteria 1 through 5. In these cases, if the integrity of location, 

setting, feeling, and association is intact, the other aspects of integrity—design, workmanship, 

and materials—may be evaluated with less rigor because of the exceptional national significance 

of these sites. In some cases, no buildings or only a small number of buildings remain, but the 

surrounding landscape may be highly reminiscent of the period of significance and the site is 

brought to life with aboveground archeology, such as remnants of foundations, gardens, and 

circulation systems. In such cases, the remaining building or buildings may represent an aspect 

of the relocation or detention experience, rather than the center in its entirety. 
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 91

Today, Amache is interpreted to help visitors understand the wartime appearance of the site.

National Park Service photo, 2005

The following examples illustrate how several properties associated with this theme were 

evaluated to establish their NHL eligibility. These evaluations constitute guidance for 

evaluations of other associated sites. The absence of evaluations under Criterion 6 at these sites 

is not an indication of its lack of relevance. Extensive excavations performed at these sites in 

recent years demonstrate that evaluation under Criterion 6 should be a serious consideration for 

future NHL nominations. Archeology also should be considered a means of understanding any 

of the other criteria that apply, especially Criterion 1.

Granada Relocation Center (Camp Amache)

Prowers County, Colorado

The Granada site, commonly called “Amache,” was designated an NHL in 2006 under NHL 

criteria 1 and 4. The 593-acre site that was designated was the core of the center’s developed 

area. It encompasses areas occupied by detainee housing, administration, military police, 

warehouse, support areas, and the center cemetery. A small number of buildings remain, as well 

as the historic road network and a number of building foundations. The grid and functional 

divisions are apparent and the layout of buildings can be seen by the remaining foundations. The 

aboveground integrity of the site is considered acceptable for NHL designation under criteria 1 

and 4, due to the intact visible layout of the center, “which still gives a strong sense of the size 

and strict, military regimentation of the site, to the absence of significant changes since its 

abandonment immediately after World War II, and to the continued remoteness of the setting.”173 

The property has not been evaluated under Criterion 6.

 

173 Thomas H. Simmons and Laurie Simmons, “Granada Relocation Center National Historic Landmark 

Nomination” (Washington, DC: National Park Service, August 2004), 5.
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92 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

This memorial, installed in 1985, commemorates those who left the Heart 

Mountain Relocation Center to serve in the armed forces; 22 died in service.

National Park Service photo, 2006

Heart Mountain Relocation Center

Park County, Wyoming

This property was designated an NHL historic district in 2006 under Criterion 1 and Exception 3. 

The core area originally encompassed 740 acres surrounded by fencing and towers; the NHL 

district encompasses 123.93 acres. Located in northwestern Wyoming, the surrounding area is 

still rural, with popular tourist areas nearby. The site has the most complete extant hospital 

complex of any of the relocation centers, with good integrity exhibited by the four buildings. 

The hospital complex area also includes power poles, concrete slabs, foundation remnants, and 

other evidence of the WWII era construction. The designated area includes the administration 

site and the military police section. Neither of these areas contains historic buildings, but 

original road patterns and building foundations remain, as well as a 2003 reconstruction of the 

Honor Roll memorial, located within a park established at the site. Archeological resources and 

landscape features are considered contributing to the district, although the site has not been fully 

evaluated under Criterion 6. 

The NHL nomination summarizes the aboveground integrity of the site as follows: “The Heart 

Mountain Relocation Center has remarkable historic integrity when compared to the other nine 

relocation centers, as four original buildings remain on the site, in addition to the most intact 

hospital and administration complexes.”174

 

174 Kara M. Miyagishima, “Heart Mountain Relocation Center National Historic Landmark Nomination”

(Washington, DC: National Park Service, September 20, 2006), 11.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 93

The monument at the Manzanar National Historic 

Site is shown decorated by visitors in this photo.

National Park Service photo, 2006

Manzanar Relocation Center

Inyo County, California

Manzanar was the first Japanese American site associated with the wartime experience of 

Japanese Americans to be designated a National Historic Landmark. Designated in 1985, the 

camp was nominated as a result of the "World War II in the Pacific National Historic Landmark 

Theme Study." Manzanar was the only Japanese American site designated under this 

nomination. It was evaluated under Criterion 1; its significance was considered “Wartime 

Internment Camp,” with a period of significance 1942 to 1945. The NHL designation 

encompasses 640 acres, including an intact building, ruins and remnants of buildings and 

structures, many landscape features, and above- and belowground archeology. According to the 

nomination, “Manzanar is symbolic of this drastic event in American history, an event that is a 

reminder that a nation of laws needs constantly to honor the concept of freedom and the rights of 

its citizens.”175 The integrity of the site is not explicitly addressed, but its condition at the time 

of nomination is justified in this statement:

In 1945, the campsite was cleared of nearly all structures and returned to the administration 

of the City of Los Angeles in much the same condition as it had been before. The 

historically significant area is the 640 acres that comprised the camp at Manzanar and which 

was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. It includes the cemetery site that lay outside the 

fence.176

 

175 Erwin N. Thompson, “Manzanar War Relocation Center National Historic Landmark Nomination” (Washington, 

DC: National Park Service, August 1984), Section 8, 1.

176 Ibid., Section 7, 2.
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94 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The NHL designation for the cemetery at the Rohwer Relocation 

Center is based on Criterion 1 and Exception 5.

WRA photo by Charles Mace, June 16, 1944

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The Manzanar nomination established a precedent for nominating the relocation sites because of 

their transcendent significance in American history and using Criterion 1 to make the case for

eligibility. The nomination, like those that followed, alluded to the archeological potential of the 

site, but did not evaluate the property under Criterion 6.

Rohwer Relocation Center Memorial Cemetery

Desha County, Arkansas

The Rohwer relocation cemetery was nominated as an NHL in 1992 under the World War II 

Home Front theme. It was designated a historic district under NHL Criterion 1 and Exception 5. 

One of three extant Japanese American relocation center cemeteries, it includes 28 contributing 

monuments, two entrance markers, and two commemorative monuments. A 1982 monument is 

considered noncontributing. The site is less than one acre. 

The National Register listing for the Rohwer site (July 30, 1974) includes 363 acres, although the 

center originally consisted of approximately 1,100 acres. Although some 58 buildings, 

structures, and objects from the period are extant in the portion of Rohwer that was not 

designated an NHL in 1992, according to the nomination, “the loss of significant resources 

through demolition, removal, farming activities, and new construction have damaged the 

property’s integrity sufficiently so as to preclude the nomination of the entire camp as a National 

Historic Landmark.”177 This evaluation may be reconsidered in the future. The property has not 

been evaluated under Criterion 6.

 

177 Kenneth Story and William D. Baker, “Rohwer Relocation Center Memorial Cemetery National Historic 

Landmark Nomination” (Washington, DC: National Park Service, June 26, 1991), Section 7, 2.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 95

The landscape at the site of the Topaz Relocation Center 

conveys evidence of the buildings, roads, and other features.

National Park Service photo, 2006

Topaz Relocation Center

Millard County, Utah

The Topaz Relocation Center was designated a historic site under NHL Criterion 1 and 

Exception 3 in 2007. The 728.4 acres that were designated do not contain any buildings, but the 

road system and paths are discernable and virtually all of the concrete foundations remain. The 

footprints of buildings that lacked concrete foundations also are visible. Landscaping features 

and the camp trash dump and sewage septic field are evident. The site retains adequate integrity 

to convey its national significance, appearing “essentially as it did following the removal of the 

buildings by the WRA in 1946.”178 The property has not been evaluated under Criterion 6.

Tule Lake Segregation Center

Modoc County, California

The 42-acre site was designated a historic district under NHL criteria 1 and 4 in 2006. Most of 

the buildings in the designated area are extant, including 25 contributing resources related to the 

motor pool, the stockade, the post engineer’s yard, and part of the police compound. The 

stockade includes the jail, two guard tower foundations, 1,800 feet of original security fencing, 

and an original gate. The security features are the most distinct visible features of the 

segregation center.

The center is considered to have a “high degree of integrity of location, design, setting, 

workmanship, materials, feeling, and association.”179 The NHL nomination states that the

 

178 R. Laurie Simmons and Thomas H. Simmons, “Central Utah Relocation Center National Historic Landmark 

Nomination” (Washington, DC: National Park Service, February 26, 2006), 16.

179 Jeffery F. Burton and Mary M. Farrell, “Tule Lake Segregation Center National Historic Landmark Nomination” 
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96 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

This building from the war years remains at the Tule Lake Segregation Center.

National Park Service photo, 2005

setting of the center is essentially unchanged since the wartime years.180 It was nominated for its 

historical significance under Criterion 1 and for its architectural significance under Criterion 4, 

“as an outstanding example of a World War II U.S. Army Military Police encampment. The 

contributing buildings exemplify the military design and construction techniques characteristic of 

the era.”181 The property has not been evaluated under Criterion 6.

APPLYING CRITERION 1

Properties significant under Criterion 1 will be “associated with events that have made a 

significant contribution to, and are identified with, or that outstandingly represent the broad 

national patterns of United States history and from which an understanding and appreciation of 

those patterns may be gained.”182 The historic context part of this theme study has established 

that the treatment of Japanese Americans by the U.S. government during World War II is a 

significant chapter in American history. It was the culmination of a pattern of discriminatory 

treatment toward Japanese Americans—and other Asian groups—that was reinforced through 

immigration laws, diplomatic agreements, and state laws regarding the ownership of property. 

Because of the exceptional significance of this chapter of American history, the relevance of 

Criterion 1 is discussed in more detail than the other criteria that may apply. Much of this 

discussion is applicable to the nomination of sites under Criterion 6 for archeological 

significance.

For properties to represent the theme in terms of Criterion 1, a clear association with the 

Japanese American population during World War II must be demonstrated. The significance and 

length of the association will be a primary factor in determining if Criterion 1 has been met. For 

 

(Washington, DC: National Park Service, April 13, 2005), 14.

180 Ibid., 4.

181 Ibid., 19.

182 Code of Federal Regulations, Title 36, Part 65.4 (a).
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 97

each of the property types identified for this theme, the physical characteristics, associative 

qualities, and information potential should be evaluated as an indicator of significance and 

integrity. All NHL designations to date have been nominated under Criterion 1, in some cases 

with another criterion or exception also applicable. Archeological resources—visible and not 

visible—may contribute to an understanding of sites nominated under Criterion 1.

Guidelines for evaluating each property type in terms of Criterion 1 follow.

WCCA Assembly Centers

The process of assembling the Japanese American population in a certain locale for temporary 

confinement, while the more permanent relocation centers were being prepared, was an 

immediate response to Executive Order 9066 and the subsequent civilian exclusion orders. The 

detainees were mostly housed at existing facilities that could accommodate large numbers of 

people for an extended—and sometimes unknown—period of time. Facilities that were 

“borrowed” for the purpose of quickly assembling the Japanese American population in the areas 

where civil exclusion orders were issued included fairgrounds, migrant worker housing, and 

racetracks. In most cases, existing buildings were adapted to house the confined Japanese 

Americans and new facilities were constructed. Because the facilities typically had to 

accommodate thousands of people, barracks, bathrooms, and mess halls were common additions. 

In general, sites that were occupied for longer periods of time are more significant than sites that 

were occupied for very brief periods. With longer occupation, sites became more specifically 

adapted to use by Japanese Americans, and their cultural imprint became more pronounced. This 

does not negate the potential significance of sites that reflect episodes or events of short duration. 

However, exceptional significance in terms of this theme is generally evident at sites that were

occupied for longer periods.

Many of the assembly centers reverted to their original purpose after the detainees were sent to 

relocation centers, and the wartime housing facilities were removed. Over time, many of the 

assembly centers have been altered significantly from their 1942 appearance: fairgrounds have 

expanded to accommodate larger crowds, worker housing has been replaced with subdivisions, 

or municipal growth has encroached on the site. For assembly centers to meet Criterion 1, they 

should retain some characteristics of the period of Japanese American occupation. Although 

buildings constructed for the detainees may not be evident at the site, buildings that were at the 

site at the time of Japanese American occupation and that were used for confinement purposes 

should be extant and should exhibit character defining features of the historic period. For 

example, grandstands converted to housing for the Japanese Americans’ stay should generally 

resemble their appearance in 1942. Extensive remodeling will have a negative impact on the 

integrity of such buildings, including large additions or additions that conceal character defining 

historic features, or the removal of character defining features that existed in 1942. 

Archeological resources and aboveground features that help convey the wartime appearance of 

the assembly center landscape or site plan may be considered contributing resources under 

Criterion 1.

The integrity of the setting is important under Criterion 1. A historic building that has been 

engulfed by later development may have lost its setting, as well as the feeling and association of 

the historic times. Because many of the assembly centers were located in more urban areas than 

the relocation centers, the change over time of the broader location, including the viewshed, is 
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98 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

expected and will have a less significant impact than at other sites. Nevertheless, the immediate 

setting should bear some resemblance to the original function (such as a fairground). The least 

significant of these properties are sites that have extensive post-war construction, such as malls 

and subdivisions. Besides obscuring or altering the original site, the nationally significant

information potential at such sites may have been severely compromised, eliminating the 

possibility for the site to provide information at the level required for NHL eligibility under 

Criterion 6.

Assembly centers may be eligible under Criterion 1 if they were the setting of an exceptionally 

historic event associated with the process of confining Japanese Americans in response to the 

Civilian Exclusion Orders. Particularly notable would be events that influenced the treatment of 

detainees, that resulted in detainee resistance, or that resulted in important legal decisions. An 

assembly center that became a relocation center, notably Manzanar, may be significant for its 

dual role of assembly and relocation center. The assembly centers are not as likely to be eligible 

for National Historic Landmark designation as the relocation centers, which were built 

specifically for the confinement function, were occupied for a much longer period of time, and, 

for this reason, generally had a more profound effect on the lives of Japanese Americans during 

World War II. The relocation center sites may have a larger, potentially more intact 

archeological record.

Relocation Centers

Relocation centers were the most pivotal property type associated with Japanese American life 

and culture during World War II. They were specifically built to house Japanese Americans 

forcibly removed from their own communities; they were generally occupied by Japanese 

Americans for the longest period of time compared to other property types; and they became 

cultural expressions of a group of people transported to foreign landscapes and forced to live in 

communal, prison-like surroundings. At the relocation centers, Japanese Americans managed to 

sustain and openly express their ancestral and American heritage through social, religious, and 

educational activities, and through artistic expression. Landscaping was an important means of 

expressing artistry, staking a rudimentary claim on a small piece of land, and overlaying a sense 

of cultural heritage and beauty in the sometimes stark or hostile surroundings. Many other forms 

of artistic expression were pursued, with traditional arts and crafts common outlets for creativity 

and homemaking. An overwhelming drive of the detainees was to infuse a sense of home and 

community in an atmosphere devoid of these qualities. Even more important was the desire to 

maintain the quality of family life that had sustained the culture for generations.

The imprint of these cultural expressions is an important factor in assessing the significance of a 

site. The prescribed plans imposed at the centers by the WRA were softened or personalized by 

those confined, and as a result the sites demonstrated the adaptation of a non-military community 

to a military environment. Evidence of the juxtaposition of these elements contributes to the 

significance and aboveground integrity of the site, and should be evident at relocation centers 

nominated under Criterion 1. For example, at Topaz visible remnants of ponds, gardens, and 

paths are reminders of the detainees’ need for creative expression through landscape design and 

construction projects.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 99

Internment/Detention Facilities: Department of Justice Facilities, War Relocation 

Authority Facilities, and U.S. Army Facilities

Facilities known as “internment camps” were operated by the Department of Justice and the U.S. 

Army, rather than the War Relocation Authority (although the WRA operated some detention 

facilities). “Internment” generally is considered to be the detainment of someone considered a 

security threat, and such was the case with those held in the internment camps or detention 

facilities. The army’s detention facilities were located at existing bases, until 1943 when all 

internees were put in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), a branch

of the Department of Justice.

The internment camps and detention facilities were used primarily to house Japanese Americans 

and others of Japanese descent who were not candidates for the relocation centers. In some cases 

the internees at detention centers were perceived to be “troublemakers;” others were enemy 

aliens, such as those brought to the U.S. from South America; and others had responded to the 

loyalty questionnaire in a manner that made them suspect. Some of those held at the internment 

and detention facilities were not there for nefarious acts or suspicious behavior. For example, 

the facility at Crystal City, Texas, held a number of female language teachers and families; 

families of non-resident aliens also were held at Seagoville, Texas. In general, the internment 

camps had a smaller capacity than the relocation centers and some held Japanese Americans only 

for brief periods. 

For Criterion 1 to be applicable to these sites within the framework of this theme, the association 

with Japanese Americans should be clear and should be of some duration, rather than fleeting. 

Association with non-resident Japanese enemy aliens and Japanese POWs is not in keeping with 

this theme. Criterion 1 may apply if historic events of significance within the framework of 

Japanese American confinement took place at these sites. For example, sites that were the 

setting for loyalty hearings may have more significance than sites that were simply used for 

detention. Facilities that held special populations of people, such as Latin American people of 

Japanese descent, may be significant for reasons not directly related to this theme. The Latin 

American Japanese, for example, may have become U.S. citizens after the war, but their wartime 

experience was not as Japanese Americans. Their wartime experience may be better linked to 

the wartime experiences of German and Italian aliens, often confined at the same facilities.

U. S. Army Facilities Related to Japanese American Military Service

The historic context presents military service as a significant aspect of the wartime experience of 

some Japanese Americans. This significance is related to the irony of Japanese Americans 

serving in the military, while their families were imprisoned by the U.S. government, and the 

remarkable accomplishments of the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat 

Team. Sites associated with the contributions of Japanese American linguists at the Military 

Intelligence Service Language School, a branch of the War Department, may also be significant 

under Criterion 1. Sites associated with this aspect of the Japanese American wartime 

experience are predominantly military facilities that were used for training soldiers and 

translators. These sites may be the most appropriate sites to recognize for their association with 

Japanese American women in the military, although certain civilian hospitals may be recognized 

as placement sites for Japanese American women serving in the Cadet Nurse Corps.
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100 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Properties associated with this theme should include buildings and sites that were extant during 

the period of active duty by Japanese American soldiers and that were used to house or train 

them. The facility, in general, should retain sufficient integrity to resemble the historic facility. 

In many cases, groups of buildings and sites (historic districts) represent the period and theme 

better than individual buildings and sites. For example, an isolated building or parade ground 

generally has less meaning than a complex of buildings from the period, although at some 

complex sites with multiple layers of significance, such as the Presidio of San Francisco, a single 

building may represent an aspect of the Japanese American wartime experience. Under Criterion 

1, the integrity of individual buildings in a district or complex needs to be sufficient to convey 

the feeling and association of the time and use. A building or site nominated individually must 

have exceptional integrity to be considered eligible for NHL designation.

Japanese American Wartime Communities

Properties associated with the Japanese American World War II experience generally are 

government owned facilities, although resources associated with Japanese American wartime 

communities may be exceptions. This property type may pertain to the earliest months of the 

period of significance of the theme, when Japanese Americans were forced to leave their 

communities, or to later periods, when Japanese Americans moved to new communities. Places 

where Japanese Americans were gathered for transport to reception centers or assembly centers 

may be significant as early examples of the implementation of Executive Order 9066. Such sites 

may be particularly poignant to the community’s Japanese American population, they may have 

been considered particularly vulnerable from a military perspective by the government, or the 

mode, method, or timing of assembling the Japanese American population may have been 

meaningful. For example, the Japanese Americans on Terminal and Bainbridge islands were 

removed early in the confinement process, because the islands were considered strategically 

important by the military. Many of these sites, however, were used so briefly they lack 

exceptional national significance. Other communities, such as Seabrook, New Jersey, represent 

the adaptation of Japanese Americans to new places. In either case, the site should have 

exceptional significance and integrity to be considered eligible for NHL designation. 

A community that was abandoned during the war years by Japanese Americans will not be 

considered significant for an association with the theme. Japanese Americans must have been 

present in a community during the period of significance, or an important event associated with 

their wartime experience must have occurred there. The site should be able to evoke the wartime 

experiences of Japanese Americans, particularly through integrity of location, setting, feeling, 

and association. The other aspects of integrity also should be intact under Criterion 1. Unlike 

the more ephemeral sites associated with Japanese American confinement, the Japanese 

American wartime communities were communities in every sense and should look as they did 

when occupied by this group.

Other Sites Related to the Japanese American Wartime Experience

This theme study has recognized the sites known to have been related to the Japanese American 

wartime experience at the time of publication. However, even as this theme study is completed, 

potential sites have been suggested at Houston and El Paso, Texas, and in Hawaii. No doubt, 

with time, other sites will be identified. Most new sites should correspond with the property 

types identified in this theme study, but other property types may become evident. Sites that are 
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 101

not related to the identified property types should be evaluated for National Historic Landmark 

eligibility under Criterion 1 or Criterion 6, using benchmarks similar to those described in this 

section. Sites not directly addressed in this study should have the following characteristics:

A direct link with the wartime experience of Japanese Americans;

A significant aspect of the wartime experience of Japanese Americans. Generally, but 

not always, the associated sites will have a connection with the wartime experience of 

Japanese Americans of some duration;

Physical characteristics, associative qualities, and information potential that are 

associated with the period when the site was occupied by Japanese Americans or when 

they were directly affected by actions that took place there (1942 to1946).

Thus, sites that were important to Japanese Americans before the war or after the war and that 

were not directly linked to World War II are not the subject of this theme study. For example, 

immigration stations where Japanese Americans may have entered this country in great numbers 

before the war are not addressed by this theme, unless they played a role in the relocation or 

confinement process. Sites that played an insignificant role during the war when compared to 

sites that reflect a more profound experience may not be significant in terms of this theme. For 

example, a bus station where Japanese Americans waited to board buses for an assembly center 

would not have as deep and lasting a connection with the theme as a relocation center. Finally, 

significant sites should have some physical connection to the period when Japanese Americans 

occupied or used them during the war years. Such a connection may be actual physical 

remnants—above- or belowground—or associative qualities that elicit the feelings experienced 

by Japanese Americans. 

APPLYING CRITERION 2

Some properties associated with this theme study may be eligible under National Historic 

Landmark Criterion 2. Properties eligible under this criterion will be associated with the lives of 

individuals who are significant in the history of the United States as a whole. The person or 

persons with whom the property is associated must have played a definitive or crucial role in the 

events, decisions, or activities related to the confinement or military service of Japanese 

Americans between 1941 and 1946. Because the sites associated with the wartime experience of 

Japanese Americans are generally tied to the group, rather than to individuals, the application of 

this criterion will be rare. However, it may apply in some cases to individuals in decisionmaking positions, whose actions influenced the treatment of Japanese Americans during the war, 

or to Japanese Americans whose imprisonment may have affected policy or legal decisions. 

Archeological resources may contribute to Criterion 2, if they lend a significant understanding of 

a person’s life during the period of significance (or more broadly to Japanese American 

experiences during this period) and their contribution to Japanese American confinement.

APPLYING CRITERION 4

Significance under Criterion 4 may be linked to the military design and construction of related 

facilities, or to the planned aspects of the site, such as grid systems of blocks and the separation 

of activity areas by firebreaks. Exceptionally significant historic districts generally are 

nominated under Criterion 4. Tule Lake, for example, met this criterion because of the number 

of buildings that are extant. The Granada Relocation Center also met Criterion 4. Both centers 
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102 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

also were significant under Criterion 1. Intact above- and belowground archeological resources 

that are well documented may add significantly to an understanding of this criterion, especially 

as related to site layout and design. Such resources may be considered contributing resources.

APPLYING CRITERION 5

Criterion 5 is applied when individual resources in a collection lack individual distinction, but 

the collection itself is important as a historic district. This criterion is particularly applicable to 

districts that represent nationally significant events of historical significance and where 

landscape characteristics and features are equally or more important than standing structures. In 

the case of some confinement sites, Criterion 5 could be used to acknowledge that they 

“outstandingly commemorate or illustrate a way of life or culture.”

APPLYING CRITERION 6

Properties associated with Japanese Americans in World War II, which are appropriately 

evaluated under Criterion 6, have yielded or may be expected to yield data affecting theories, 

concepts, and ideas related to various aspects of research, such as ethnic identity, the persistence 

of cultural traditions, and social mechanisms for coping with adversity. Generally, such 

properties will be sites that can be shown to have made contributions to the study of archeology 

or that can help answer nationally significant research questions that pertain to the theme. 

Under Criterion 6, confinement and detention sites should be shown to have discreet 

archeological deposits or features that can be specifically associated with the Japanese American 

wartime experience. Archeological discoveries that pertain to events or information that have

been shown to have influenced the treatment of detainees is particularly applicable to evaluations 

under Criterion 6.

Certain property types have the potential to have a major impact on anthropological and 

archeological theory. The U.S. Army internment camps may provide an example. These sites 

housed Japanese Americans who were perceived as “troublemakers,” thus, the study of

archeological resources, such as graffiti, may add significantly to anthropological and 

archeological theories regarding the processes of dominance and resistance. Such processes 

have been studied for many years in relation to the attempted assimilation of Native Americans, 

the persistence of African cultural traditions among the enslaved on plantations, and, more 

recently, in the context of Japanese American confinement. In response to the dominance or 

oppression exerted over confined Japanese Americans, they resisted through coping mechanisms 

that reflected their own cultural traditions. Interactions between Japanese Americans and Latin 

Americans of Japanese descent, and between German and Italian prisoners of war held at army 

camps, may reveal a great deal about dynamic processes related to ethnic identity unavailable at 

other types of internment sites. Thus, this particular site type may be very valuable for 

archeological study under Criterion 6.

At some sites, archeological deposits and features have the potential to provide very significant

information about dominance and resistance, as well as insights on the processes affecting ethnic 

identity. For example, an archeological recording project at Rohwer cemetery (and cemeteries at
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 103

other camps) documented significant expressions of ethnicity on headstones and markers,

infusing this seemingly ordinary landscape component with powerful meaning.

183

APPLYING THE EXCEPTIONS

The National Historic Landmark criteria exceptions allow for the designation of properties that 

are ordinarily excluded from designation. Each exception is addressed in terms of its relevance 

to the Japanese Americans in WW II theme study. For more information on applying the NHL 

exceptions, refer to the National Register Bulletin How to Prepare National Historic Landmark 

Nominations.184

Exception 1

Properties that were built or used for religious purposes by Japanese Americans at the centers—

regardless of the faith or denomination—may be significant for their historical importance and 

usually should be addressed under Exception 1. Houses of worship were a means for the 

confined people to maintain important aspects of their culture and pass them to their children, 

derive strength for the ordeal at hand, and normalize community life by introducing familiar 

institutions. If a building that was used for religious purposes during the confinement is 

nominated for NHL designation, Exception 1 should be addressed. If the building is part of a 

historic district, Exception 1 does not have to be addressed if the house of worship is not the 

focal point of the district or if the building or district is being nominated under Criterion 6.

Exception 2

Exception 2 pertains to moved buildings. Many buildings at relocation centers were salvaged 

and moved to other locations after the centers closed. Such buildings may be significant for their 

transcendent importance, if they are the only surviving property that is most importantly 

associated with a particular relocation center. They also must have an orientation, setting, and 

general environment comparable to those of the historic location and compatible with the 

property’s significance. For example, the lone surviving building from a relocation center, 

which has been removed from an isolated location and converted to a private use in a nearby 

town, will not be eligible in terms of this theme study, because its new setting cannot convey the 

cramped conditions and regimented layout that characterized the center. On the other hand, if a 

fully intact barracks—the lone barracks remaining from a relocation center—survived on a 

different but compatible site, it might retain sufficient integrity to qualify for NHL designation 

under Exception 2 for its significance as a rare survivor of the nearby camp. In this case, the 

archeology of the original site may be significant under Criterion 6.

Exception 3

Exception 3 is rarely met, but the Japanese American confinement sites may be a valid 

application of the exception. It is applicable to the sites of buildings and structures that are no 

longer standing, but which are associated with historical events of transcendent importance in the 

 

183 Casella, The Archaeology of Institutional Confinement, 138-139.

184 How to Prepare National Historic Landmark Nominations, (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, 

1999), 31-36.
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104 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

nation’s history. The association must be consequential, rather than incidental. The nomination 

must demonstrate the site’s transcendent importance in relation to other sites related to this 

theme. The Topaz Relocation Center and the Heart Mountain Relocation Center were designated 

under Exception 3, in addition to Criterion 1. This exception does not apply if the property is 

being nominated under Criterion 6.

Exception 4

Exception 4 is related to the birthplace, grave, or burial of an historical figure of transcendent 

importance. With the information available, it does not appear to apply to this theme study. This 

exception does not apply if the property is being nominated under Criterion 6.

Exception 5

Exception 5 concerns the designation of cemeteries. Cemeteries associated with the sites related 

to this theme may be considered significant for their association with exceptionally significant 

events. Such cemeteries must convey their historic appearance and must clearly relate to a 

particular confinement site. If the cemetery is part of a historic district, Exception 5 does not 

have to be addressed if the cemetery is not the focal point of the district. A cemetery developed 

for other purposes, but which contains a few graves of Japanese Americans who died while 

confined, would not be eligible under this exception. The Rohwer Relocation Center Memorial

Cemetery was designated under Exception 5, in addition to Criterion 1. This exception does not 

apply if the property is being nominated under Criterion 6.

Exception 6

Exception 6 pertains to reconstructed properties. Reconstructed buildings or ensembles of 

buildings may be eligible if they are accurately executed in a suitable environment as part of a 

restoration master plan. Thus, the reconstruction of a single barrack would not be eligible for 

designation, but the reconstruction of an entire block of barracks on the site of the lost buildings 

may be eligible, particularly if other aspects of the block are also reconstructed, such as roads 

and landscaping, to recreate the historic site and site plan. Such reconstructions have particular 

relevance if other properties directly associated with a relocation center—above- and 

belowground—are gone or have lost integrity.

Exception 7

Exception 7 pertains to properties that are primarily commemorative, such as monuments 

constructed by detainees to honor those who died while living at a center or who were killed in 

military service. Such monuments may be eligible as artistic expressions or for their symbolic 

value, but they must have a direct historical association. Exception 7 may become more 

applicable with time, because of the number of monuments that were built in the post-war years 

and which are still being built today. At the Rohwer Relocation Center Memorial Cemetery, two 

commemorative monuments built during the period of significance are considered contributing 

to the district, but a monument built in 1982 is considered noncontributing. Monuments are 

extremely significant, tangible tributes to the Japanese American wartime experience for those 
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 105

who were confined and others. When combined with well presented information, such as story 

boards, monuments have the power to educate, as well as inspire. With time, monuments at the 

confinement sites may assume a significance we cannot evaluate today.

Archeology may be a factor with the application of Exception 7. For example, it may be applied 

to cemeteries and monuments at Granada, Manzanar, and Rohwer, where archeological 

recording projects have documented significant expressions of ethnicity on headstones, 

monuments, and markers. These projects may add significantly to an understanding of the use 

and manipulation of identity as an anthropological issue in American culture.185

Exception 8

At this time, properties less than 50 years old are not considered eligible for an association with 

this theme. Public Law 102-248 specified the period of interest as 1941 to 1946. As described 

in the section above on Exception 7, with time the monuments built to commemorate the 

Japanese American experience may be considered of extraordinary national importance. At this 

time, however, properties less than 50 years old are not being evaluated as part of this theme 

study.

EVALUATING ABOVEGROUND INTEGRITY

The integrity of potential National Historic Landmarks is evaluated in terms of the same seven 

qualities that are used to evaluate potential National Register properties: location, design, 

setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. An evaluation of the aboveground

integrity of sites that were adapted for Japanese American occupancy, such as the assembly 

centers and military bases, must be based on an understanding of how these properties relate to 

the story of Japanese American confinement and their appearance in the narrow period of time 

when they were associated with this theme. For sites that were built for Japanese American 

occupancy, such as the relocation and detention centers, an evaluation of integrity must be 

cognizant of the historic appearance of the site, even though most of the evidence of the once 

bustling community is long gone. Such evaluations must be considerate of more subtle aspects 

of integrity, such as the ability of the environment, landscape, and building and site plan 

remnants to convey a sense of place and feeling.

Many of the sites contain elements that reflect important aspects of the removal and 

confinement. There are impressive detainee-constructed buildings at Manzanar and Minidoka, 

with evidence of traditional Japanese stylistic elements. A jail, military police compound, and 

other security-related features survive at the Tule Lake Segregation Center. A detainee-built 

school complex at the Poston Relocation Center still stands. Amache and Topaz look very much 

as they did when the barracks and other buildings were removed in 1946. The size of the centers

and the regimentation imposed on detainees can be clearly read in their intact layouts, where 

historic foundations, roads, and walks survive. Taken together, these elements may give a good 

sense of the appearance of a wartime relocation center. Thus, integrity of the plan can be a 

critical aspect of a site’s significance.

A brief discussion of each aspect of integrity in terms of this theme follows.

 

185 Casella, The Archaeology of Institutional Confinement, 138-139.
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106 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Location is the place where the historic property was constructed or the significant events 

occurred. To be related to this theme, properties must be located within the wartime boundaries 

of the United States and its possessions. Most properties associated with this theme will remain

in their original location by virtue of their scale. In some cases, a component of a property—for 

example, a barracks that had been located at a relocation center—was moved to a new location. 

Such properties may only be eligible with the application of Exception 2.

Design is the combination of elements that creates the historic form, plan, space, structure, and 

style of a property. Design includes such factors as the organization of space, proportion, scale, 

technology, ornamentation, and materials. Where few historic buildings survive, the ability of 

the property to visually convey its original planned layout may determine whether integrity of 

design is retained. Generally imposed on stark landscapes, the designs of relocation centers were 

based on right-angle grids, which imbued the centers with a sense of military order. In some 

cases, the configuration of the grid was broken to accommodate a river, a road, or a railroad. 

Residents often sought to alleviate the monotony of the typical pattern by siting detaineeconstructed buildings counter to the grid. Any physical evidence of the site plan—above- or 

belowground—has potential significance. Gardens, pools, and other landscape features created 

by the residents often embellished the stark layout. The survival of these features contributes to 

the design integrity of related properties.186

Security features also contribute to the design integrity of the site. Surviving remains of fences, 

watchtowers, jails, and police compounds provide important insights to the layout and feeling of 

a site. In some cases, intact evidence of functional divisions into agricultural, residential, 

administrative, industrial, military police, and other areas may contribute to an integrity of 

design.

Assembly centers were established at existing facilities that had enough space to handle large 

numbers of people, such as auditoriums, churches, and gymnasiums. Fairgrounds and racetracks 

were probably selected for assembly centers because they had both existing buildings and open 

space for new construction, were near the people to be confined, and could be fenced for 

security. The design integrity of these properties will depend on the nature of the existing 

facilities, as well as changes made to convert them to housing and return them to former or new 

uses after the need for assembly centers passed.

Setting is the physical environment of a historic property. For properties considered under this 

theme study, the setting includes the character of the places where they were developed, as well 

as their siting in those places. Most of the relocation centers were built in sparsely populated 

areas with harsh environmental conditions. The isolated settings of the relocation centers were 

highly significant. They reveal a perceived need to remove Japanese Americans from 

mainstream American culture and the perception that security would be easier to enforce in rural 

locations. In order for aboveground resources at these properties to be eligible for NHL 

designation, much of the harshness and isolation of the original setting should remain.

 

186 Burton, Confinement and Ethnicity, 44. 
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 107

Materials are the physical elements that were combined or deposited during a particular period 

of time and in a particular pattern or configuration to form a historic property. Most construction 

materials, such as lumber and tarpaper, are not evident aboveground. What remains may be the 

most durable or unsalvageable materials, such as concrete and stone. Where these materials 

preserve the footprints of buildings and structures, and indicate the placement of gardens, 

sidewalks, roads, and other landscape features, the integrity of their placement is an important 

aspect of the site plan. The remnants of landscape materials placed by center residents, including 

trees and other plantings, concrete garden pools, and other features, provide a key to the 

appearance of a center during occupation, and lend integrity to the site.

Workmanship is the physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture or people during any 

given period in history. Workmanship can be important in illustrating a time period associated 

with an event. This quality is particularly important for architecturally significant properties. 

For properties associated with this theme study, however, low-quality or expedient construction 

may be the sense of workmanship that is important.

The workmanship of extant camp buildings and structures generally illustrates the military 

standardization of plans (or the modification of plans) and the temporary nature of the 

construction. Surviving buildings and those examined archeologically may show the differences 

between housing for relocation center staff members and detainee housing. Others illustrate 

detainee workmanship, such as the police post and military police post buildings at Manzanar 

and the school complex at Poston. Names, dates, and other expressions incised into concrete or 

carved or painted on wood may document builders’ identities and contribute to the integrity of 

workmanship. Above- and belowground archeological evidence may indicate the quality of 

workmanship that existed in buildings and structures that are no longer extant aboveground.

Workmanship also can be applied to residential landscape features, particularly those designed 

and built by detainees. If sufficient integrity exists to decipher the plan or form of a landscape 

feature, the quality of workmanship can be assessed. 

Feeling is a property’s expression of the aesthetic or historic sense of a particular period of time. 

It results from the presence of physical features that, taken together, convey a property’s historic 

character. Because sites associated with the Japanese American wartime experience have lost 

many buildings and structures, feeling can be created by an intact setting or the footprints of lost 

buildings. Precisely mapped above- and belowground archeological features can help to visually 

convey integrity of feeling, when properly used and interpreted. The remote, often stark, 

landscapes that characterized the relocation and detention centers can lend a sense of isolation 

and abandonment to these sites—perhaps mirroring feelings experienced by detainees at times. 

With buildings, settings, and archeological resources compromised, a site will most likely lack 

integrity of feeling.

Association is the direct link between an important historic theme, event, or person and a 

historic property. A property retains integrity of association if it is the place where the event 

occurred and can still convey that historic relationship to an observer. The confinement sites—

unusual developments on U.S. soil—will maintain associative integrity if sufficient evidence 

from the period remains. Sites that have been converted from centers to shopping malls or 

residential developments are lacking associative integrity. A memorial that was built to 

recognize a site associated with Japanese Americans many years later also lacks associative 

value, because its construction was outside the period of significance.
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108 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

EVALUATING ARCHEOLOGICAL INTEGRITY

Archeological integrity is directly related to the nationally significant information potential of the 

property and the ability of deposits to contribute significant information to major themes in 

historical archeology or anthropology. In general, in order to make a contribution to archeology, 

anthropology, and an understanding of national culture, highly intact archeological deposits are 

needed. 

Highly intact deposits are those that lack serious disturbance to the spatial patterning of surface 

and subsurface artifacts or features representing different uses or activities. Few properties 

exhibit wholly undisturbed cultural deposits, because of the myriad cultural and natural 

formation processes that may impact a site. Thus, the definition of archeological integrity varies 

from property to property, although archeological deposits must have enough integrity to provide 

nationally significant information.

An evaluation of archeological integrity follows an assessment of significance, and integrity is 

related to the specific nationally significant questions being asked at a particular property. In the 

case of this theme, integrity is linked to the contribution of resources to an understanding of the 

Japanese American wartime experience and American culture. If it is determined that a 

disturbed archeological feature or site is one of the few resources that can provide nationally 

significant information about an aspect of Japanese American confinement, it may be evaluated 

under Criterion 6 if it can continue to provide nationally significant information. However, the 

archeological evidence must be directly related to the Japanese American wartime experience 

and explicit with regard to Japanese American culture or American culture generally.

Different properties may be significant archeologically for the ability to address questions that 

cannot be addressed at other types of sites. For example, archeological deposits related to

Japanese Americans serving in the military may differ from deposits related to those confined as 

threats to security. The deposits at each site may suggest a variation in Japanese American 

identity, different treatment by the federal government, or better access to culturally important 

goods. A study of these sites may help address questions concerning civil rights directly and 

indirectly related to wartime confinement and military service.

Aspects of integrity applied to other resource types may not apply if the property is only 

nominated under Criterion 6. For example, if a site lacks aboveground integrity in terms of its

historic appearance, it should not be assumed the subsurface record also is lost. Although 

archeological resources require high archeological integrity to be eligible under Criterion 6, it is 

sufficient for them to have enough integrity to demonstrate that the property can provide 

nationally significant information that will make a major contribution.
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 109

PART 6

SURVEY RESULTS

The properties surveyed and evaluated for this theme study include the 37 sites identified in Title 

II of Public Law 102-248, plus 33 additional sites identified in the research phase of the study. 

This section includes a brief discussion of each property, and, if sufficient information was 

available, an evaluation in terms of the criteria of the National Historic Landmark (NHL) 

program.

Some of the surveyed properties have been designated National Historic Landmarks, listed in or 

determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, or included in the National Park 

System. A few properties are fairly clear candidates for NHL designation; others suggest that 

NHL designation is possible, but further research and evaluation is necessary. Properties that do 

not appear to be eligible for NHL designation should be studied for possible National Register of 

Historic Places eligibility. Properties not eligible for either federal designation program may be 

candidates for state or local designation or may be marked by the development of memorials and 

the placement of plaques.

This chapter has been prepared with the information contained in the publication Confinement 

and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites and the 

information in the ―Report to the President, Japanese-American Internment Sites Preservation,‖

with editing and updates provided by National Historic Landmarks staff.

187

 Confinement and Ethnicity addresses 32 of the 37 sites identified in PL 102-248, plus 

additional sites. NPS staff obtained information on the sites not covered in either publication. 

The ―Report to the President‖ only addresses the 10 relocation centers.

The evaluations in this chapter are based on field observations and research by the authors of 

Confinement and Ethnicity, in some cases updated by more recent visits by authors of National 

Register and National Historic Landmark nominations or by NPS staff in Washington, NPS 

regional offices, and national parks. Staff of state historic preservation offices and local historic 

preservation offices also provided current information on certain sites.

When a nomination is being prepared or a federal action is being considered, each evaluation 

should be reconsidered in terms of new research and current integrity. Recommendations and 

evaluations concerning archeological resources or testing under National Register Criterion D or 

NHL Criterion 6 do not imply the need for extensive or belowground excavation. The type and 

amount of archeological research needed to evaluate each property will depend on the property 

type (assembly center, relocation center, etc.), knowledge of below- and aboveground resources, 

land disturbances since the period of significance, and the types of artifacts and features likely to 

be found.

The 37 properties marked with a star in this chapter were specifically identified in Public Law 

102-248 as sites associated with the Japanese American wartime experience. Properties are 

organized in this chapter by property type.

 

187 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity; U.S. Department of the Interior, ―Report to the President, JapaneseAmerican Internment Sites Preservation‖ (January 2001).
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110 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

WCCA ASSEMBLY CENTERS

Wartime Civil Control Administration Assembly Centers

The WCCA Assembly Centers were temporary facilities used to gather detainees before they 

were transported to War Relocation Authority (WRA) Relocation Centers. Assembly Centers 

generally were established in existing facilities and were in use only for the first few months of 

the war. The Manzanar and Poston relocation centers were first used as assembly centers, but 

because their significance as relocation centers is stronger, they are described in the relocation 

center section of this chapter.

Assembly Centers were located in four western states,

with the majority located in California.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 35
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 111

Fresno Assembly Center

Fresno, Fresno County, California

Description. Located at the Fresno County Fairgrounds, this assembly center was in operation 

from May 6, 1942, until October 30, 1942, with a capacity to hold 5,120 detainees. People from 

the central San Joaquin Valley and Amador County were taken to the Fresno Assembly Center, 

before being sent to their final wartime destination. The Fresno facility was the last assembly 

center to close.

More than 100 barracks were built within the infield of the fairgrounds racetrack. Six communal 

buildings were near the barracks. Eighty additional barracks were built adjacent to the 

fairgrounds. Extensive reconfiguration of the fairgrounds since the 1940s has made it difficult to 

identify which of the extant buildings were used during the wartime period. The existing 

grandstand probably dates to the 1940s, but this has not been verified, nor has its function in the 

assembly center been clarified.188 A historic photograph from 1939 seems to show the 

grandstand extant in that year, but the integrity of the grandstand from that period is uncertain.

The Fresno Assembly Center was designated California Historical Landmark #934 with other 

temporary confinement sites. A plaque was placed at the site in 1992 and in 2010 a memorial 

was built near the Chance Street entrance to the fairgrounds.189 

Evaluation. Due to a serious loss of aboveground integrity, the Fresno County Fairgrounds is 

not eligible for National Historic Landmark designation for an association with this theme under 

NHL criteria 1 through 5. Due to extensive reconfiguration of the grounds, it is unlikely that 

subsurface archeological remains have enough integrity to provide information of major 

scientific value at the national level of significance and, therefore, it is unlikely the property is 

eligible for NHL designation under Criterion 6.

Recommendation. If an association with the assembly center can be confirmed, the grandstand 

should be studied for possible listing in the National Register under Criterion A. If archeological 

investigations are performed and deposits associated with the period of significance are located, 

the property should be evaluated in terms of Criterion D for National Register eligibility and

Criterion 6 for NHL eligibility, depending on the nature and extent of the resources and their 

ability to answer important questions at the local, state, or national level of significance.

Marysville Assembly Center (Arboga Assembly Center)

Arboga, Yuba County, California

Description. Located at a former migrant worker camp about eight miles south of Marysville, 

this site was also known as the Arboga Assembly Center, because of its location near the small 

community of Arboga. It was occupied from May 8, 1942, until June 29, 1942, with a 

 

188 Gene Itogawa (Office of Historic Preservation, California Department of Parks and Recreation), in discussion 

with Curtis Breckenridge, 2001. 

189 The Fresno site was designated California Historical Landmark #934 in 1980, along with 10 other sites related to 

―Temporary Detention Camps for Japanese Americans.‖ California Historical Landmarks are designated by the 

State of California according to stated criteria. Landmarked sites are automatically listed in the California Register 

of Historical Resources. A bronze plaque can be placed at designated landmarks with the support of a local sponsor.
Part 6, Survey Results

112 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

maximum population of 2,451. The Marysville Assembly Center housed detainees from Placer 

and Sacramento counties. After the assembly center ceased functioning, soldiers occupied the 

property for a short period.

The assembly center consisted of 160 buildings, including 100 barracks, five dining halls, and 

two infirmary buildings. Military police were housed in barracks just outside the entrance, 

where the headquarters building also was located. The assembly center site is now privately 

owned, and houses and agricultural fields have replaced the assembly center development. In 

1996 the assembly center site was situated on two parcels of land south of Broadway. A house 

and sheds, probably of post-war construction, were located on the northern parcel, along 

Broadway, and another house was built in more recent years.

A 25-foot by 30-foot slab and remnants of pipe and concrete were scattered in the field on the 

western side of the site near Clark Slough. Trash scatters were found at the former assembly 

center site, some associated with the military occupation and others possibly associated with the 

assembly center. Some of the ceramics found were army-issue. Burton considered the World 

War II-era deposits to be significant, because they marked the only known dump at an assembly 

center site.190 The Marysville Assembly Center was designated California Historical Landmark 

#934, with other temporary confinement sites in California.

Evaluation. The assembly center site as a whole has too little integrity to be considered eligible 

for NHL designation for association with this theme under criteria 1 through 5. Under Criterion 

6, it may provide nationally significant information not available at other assembly center sites.

Recommendation. The site should be evaluated for its information potential under NHL 

Criterion 6 and National Register Criterion D.

Mayer Assembly Center

Mayer, Yavapai County, Arizona

Description. The Mayer Assembly Center was located 75 miles northwest of Phoenix at the 

former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp identified as Camp F-33-A. It was occupied 

as an assembly center from May 7, 1942, until June 2, 1942. Mayer was the shortest-lived and 

smallest assembly center, housing only 245 Japanese Americans—all from southern Arizona—

for less than a month. A 1941 inventory of the CCC camp indicates the camp was designed to 

accommodate 200 people, with four 50-person barracks and other buildings. Burton mentioned 

that gardens and a recreational facility were being established by detainees when they were 

removed from the Mayer facility.191 With their occupation at the site less than a month, the 

gardens could not have yielded much during the occupation.

None of the buildings remain, and Highway 69 from Phoenix to Prescott crosses the site. 

―Stores, restaurants, offices, and other businesses have obliterated all traces of the assembly 

center,‖ according to Burton.192 The road and town of Mayer subsequently developed on land 

occupied by the CCC camp/assembly center potentially compromised the archeological integrity 

of the site. 

 

190 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, 354.

191 Ibid., 356.

192 Ibid., 356.
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 113

Evaluation. Because of a severe loss of integrity and the extremely short duration of the use of 

the site as an assembly center, the site of the Mayer Assembly Center is not eligible for NHL 

designation.

Recommendation. If archeological investigations or testing reveal deposits from the period of 

significance, the sites should be evaluated for National Register significance under Criterion D. 

Because of the extremely short occupancy by Japanese Americans during the war and the degree 

of site disturbance, the potential for exceptional national significance or archeological 

information of major scientific importance is unlikely.

Merced Assembly Center

Merced, Merced County, California

Description. Located at the Merced County Fairgrounds in the town of Merced in the central 

San Joaquin Valley, this assembly center housed 4,508 people between May 6, 1942, and 

September 15, 1942. Internees were sent to Merced from the northern California coast, the west 

Sacramento Valley, and the northern San Joaquin Valley. 

The fairgrounds have been extensively altered since it was used as an assembly center. Although 

some buildings used for the center may remain, extensive changes at the site make them difficult 

to identify. Eleven concrete slab foundations have been detected in an area that is now a parking 

lot. Although they have not been conclusively associated with the assembly center, their rough 

dimensions of 20 by 100 feet mirror the standard barrack size. Concrete floors were very 

unusual in the temporary buildings built for the detainees and, in fact, the only other facility with 

concrete floors was the Granada Relocation Center, where the residents of Merced were 

transferred. 

The site of the Merced Assembly Center is designated California Historical Landmark #934, 

with other temporary confinement sites in California. A historic marker was placed at the main 

pedestrian entrance to the fairgrounds in 1982, and on February 20, 2010, a memorial plaza was 

dedicated at the fairgrounds. The plaza includes a bronze statue of a child surrounded by 

suitcases, bronze plaques that include the names of those who were confined at the assembly 

center, and story boards.193

Evaluation. Because of extensive changes to the site aboveground and the loss of buildings 

associated with the Japanese American presence, the site is not eligible for NHL designation 

under criteria 1 through 5. Due to severe disturbances at the site, it is likely that subsurface 

archeological remains do not have enough integrity to provide important information at the 

national level of significance required under Criterion 6.

Recommendation. Further investigation of the site should be considered to determine 

conclusively if any extant buildings were associated with the Japanese American presence at the 

site, and if they are eligible for the National Register. If further archeological testing is 

undertaken, the site should be evaluated for its National Register eligibility under Criterion D. 

Depending on the nature and extent of the resources, they may be able to answer important 

 

193 Sarah Lin (Merced Historical Society), in discussion with Barbara Wyatt, July 28, 2010.
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114 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

questions at the local, state, or national level of significance.

Pinedale Assembly Center

Pinedale, Fresno County, California

Description. Occupied by Japanese American detainees from May 7, 1942, until July 23, 1942, 

the Pinedale Assembly Center was developed on land that had been part of the Sugar Pine 

Lumber Company. Located eight miles north of downtown Fresno, the lumber company 

operated from 1923 to 1931. At its peak, it produced an average of 100 million board feet of 

lumber annually and was reputed to be ―the largest lumber company in the world.‖194 

In 1942 the U.S. Army acquired the site of the lumber mill, which at that time contained a 

complex of 21 warehouses and 11 other buildings. The Pinedale Assembly Center, which was 

developed at the site, became the destination for some detainees from Sacramento and El Dorado 

counties, but mostly from Oregon and Washington.195 Most of the detainees were sent to the 

Poston and Tule Lake relocation centers.

Pinedale‘s peak population was 4,792. The site was developed with 10 barrack blocks, with 26 

buildings in each block, located southwest of the lumber mill complex. A separate block housed 

the military police and administration functions. According to Karana Hattersley- Drayton, 

historic preservation planner for the City of Fresno, it is not entirely clear if the assembly center 

was all new construction or if mill buildings were adapted for the center. After the Japanese 

Americans were sent to the relocation centers, the facility was known as ―Camp Pinedale.‖ It 

was used to train soldiers and store supplies.196

The site is now within the city limits of Fresno, with no evidence of the once bustling assembly 

center or the lumber mill. Now occupied by housing and retail, the last building associated with 

the mill and, presumably, with the assembly center was demolished in 2009. The 1923 timber 

frame retail shed (―Building 8‖) is shown in historic photos of the assembly center, thus it is 

assumed to have been associated with it.

Although there has been speculation that a subdivision built on the site in the 1950s or 1960s 

incorporated the road pattern of the assembly center, Hattersley-Drayton stated this does not 

seem to be the case. She noted there has been no archeological interest in subsurface 

excavations at the Pinedale site, because the ground has been disturbed ―over and over again.‖197 

The site is designated California Historical Landmark #934, with other temporary confinement 

sites in California. On February 19, 2007, the 65th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, a 

memorial plaza with a fountain—known as the ―Remembrance Plaza‖—was dedicated at the site 

of the Pinedale Assembly Center.

 

194 Karana Hattersley-Drayton, ―Building 8, Former Retail Shed, Sugar Pine Lumber Company.‖ Building, 

Structure and Object Report, State of California Department of Parks and Recreation. City of Fresno, November 17, 

2005, 4-5. 

195 Ibid., 5.

196 ―Pinedale Assembly Center Memorial‖ at http//pinedalememorial.org/home/index.php?option=com_

content&task=view&id=1&Ite, accessed on October 29, 2011.

197 Karana Hattersley-Drayton (City of Fresno), in discussion with Barbara Wyatt, July 28, 2010.
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 115

Building 8, the last structure associated with the Pinedale Assembly Center, was 

located on land owned by the Sugar Pine Lumber Company. It was demolished in 2006.

Photo by Karana Hattersley-Drayton, November 2005

Courtesy of the City of Fresno

Evaluation. Due to the development of the site and the demolition of the last remaining 

standing structure, this site is not eligible for National Historic Landmark designation under 

criteria 1 through 5. At this time there is no indication the site is eligible for NHL designation 

under Criterion 6 for its information potential.

Recommendation. No federal historic recognition is recommended for this property for its 

historical significance. If archeological testing confirms an association with the assembly center, 

the site should be evaluated for National Register eligibility for its information potential under 

Criterion D.

Pomona Assembly Center

Los Angeles County, California

Description. Japanese Americans from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Clara counties 

were housed at the Pomona Assembly Center from May 7, 1942, to August 24, 1942. The center 

was developed at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, now called ―Fairplex.‖ More than 300 

barracks were built at the center, as well as eight of the standard H-shaped buildings that 

combined bathroom and laundry facilities. Burton et al noted that four baseball fields are evident 

on a 1942 aerial photo of the center, as well as the grandstand and other fair buildings.198

Although some buildings from the center may remain, only one gives a strong indication of 

assembly center construction. The size of its footprint (20 by 100 feet) mirrors the dimensions of 

barracks, and it resembles the military construction at the centers. The building would have been 

moved from another location, because its location today was not occupied by a center building 

 

198 Burton et al, Confinement and Ethnicity, 359.
Part 6, Survey Results

116 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The Pomona Assembly Center is being constructed at the 

Pomona Fairgrounds in Los Angeles County.

WRA photo by Clem Albers, April 8, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

historically. According to George Yoshinaga, the assembly center was located where the west

parking lot of Fairplex is today. There is no monument to the assembly center at the 

fairgrounds.199

The site of the Pomona Assembly Center was designated California Historical Landmark #934, 

with other temporary confinement sites in California.

Evaluation. The fairgrounds retain too little aboveground integrity from the period when it 

served as an assembly center to be considered eligible for National Historic Landmark 

designation under criteria 1 through 5. It does not appear that any subsurface testing has been 

done to confirm the presence or absence of archeological resources.

Recommendation. No federal historic recognition is recommended for this property at this 

time, but, if archeological testing is undertaken, the site should be evaluated for its information 

potential and eligibility for the National Register under Criterion D.

Portland Assembly Center

Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon

Description. The Portland Assembly Center was located at the Pacific International Livestock 

Exposition Pavilion, an 11-acre facility that housed more than 3,800 Japanese Americans from 

Oregon and central Washington between May 2, 1942, and September 10, 1942. 

 

199 George Yoshinaga, ―Horse‘s Mouth: What About a JA Monument at Pomona?‖ from ―Nisei Week 2010 Special 

Issue,‖ Los Angeles Japanese Daily News, September 28, 2009 at http://rafu.com/news/2009/09/horse% 

E2%80%99-s-mouth-what-about-a-ja-monument-at-pomona, accessed on August 2, 2010.
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 117

The Pacific International Livestock Exposition was one of five major livestock shows in the U.S. 

and ―reportedly the largest livestock exposition of its kind on the west coast.‖200 The original 

buildings, constructed in 1921 to 1922, burned in 1925 and were immediately rebuilt. The 

Japanese Americans were confined in the 48,000-square foot pavilion now known as Hall A and 

in an arena that is no longer extant. The pavilion was subdivided into apartments, a kitchen, and 

a dining hall. Most of those held at the Portland Assembly Center were sent to the relocation 

center at Minidoka, Idaho, although some were sent to Heart Mountain, Wyoming, and others 

were sent to Tule Lake, California.201

The facility is now the Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center (popularly called the ―Expo 

Center‖), and it is used for trade shows, exhibits, and other events. It consists of five 

interconnected buildings, including three buildings that were extant when the site was used as an 

assembly center (halls A, B, and C). According to Section 106 documentation, the original 

buildings were extensively remodeled three times subsequent to the changes made to 

accommodate the assembly center. In addition to interior modifications, including the removal 

of the apartment partitions, the exterior walls of the halls have been sheathed in metal siding, the 

windows have been covered or replaced with aluminum windows, and the original entrance 

façade has been altered. 

In 1959 and 1960 the Oregon Centennial Exposition and International Trade Fair was held at the 

site. It was the largest exposition to be held on the West Coast since the San Francisco World‘s 

Fair of 1939, the largest international trade fair ever held in the West, and the second largest 

trade fair outside of New York.202 The ―Centennial Building,‖ formerly the Pacific International 

Livestock building, housed the international trade fair. After the centennial celebration, the 

Pacific International Association continued holding livestock events through the 1960s at the 

site. In 1965 the property was purchased by Multnomah County to be used for the county fair 

and livestock expositions. In 1994, responsibility for the county fair was transferred to a 

permanent board, the Fair Advisory Board, and the Expo Center was transferred to the regional 

governing body, Metro. Major renovations and new construction followed. A number of 

construction projects transformed the site, including the IMAX light rail, more than 1,500 hotel 

rooms, and shopping centers. A 108,000-square foot exhibition facility was completed in 1997 

(Hall E), and in 2001 the old Hall D was replaced with a new 72,000-square-foot building. 

Surface parking lots are located to the east and southeast of Hall A, which was used as the 

assembly center. North Marine Drive extends along the north side of halls A and B. The 

assembly center is commemorated by a memorial plaque that was placed on the north lobby wall 

of Hall A by Multnomah County and the Portland Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens 

League. 

Evaluation. In 2009, three buildings at the Expo Center were evaluated for National Register 

eligibility and were determined not eligible due to ―irretrievable integrity loss.‖203 Archeological 

testing does not seem to have been part of the evaluation process.

 

200 Rosalind Keeney, ―Section 106 Documentation Form, Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center, Pacific 

International Livestock Association Buildings (Halls A, B, and C),‖ January 2009, 3.

201 ―The Oregon History Project,‖ at http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historicalrecords/dspDocument. 

cfm?doc, accessed on August 3, 2010.

202 Keeney, ―Section 106 Documentation,‖ 4.

203 Ibid., 1.
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118 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Recommendation. The site does not exhibit sufficient integrity to be considered for National 

Historic Landmark designation under criteria 1 through 5, and due to the extreme disturbance of 

the site it does not appear to be eligible for NHL designation under Criterion 6. If disturbed in 

the future, the areas that are parking lots in the vicinity of Hall A should be tested for their 

archeological potential and evaluated for National Register eligibility under Criterion D. These 

areas may have been used for parking for many years, including the period of the centennial 

celebration, and the parking lots may cap archeological remains.

Puyallup Assembly Center

Puyallup, Pierce County, Washington

Description. Located in a rural area about 35 miles south of Seattle, the Puyallup Assembly 

Center was developed at the Western Washington State Fairgrounds. Also known as ―Camp 

Harmony,‖ the assembly center was occupied from April 28, 1942, until September 12, 1942, 

with a maximum population of 7,390. Those held at Puyallup were from Washington and 

Alaska. The fairgrounds were divided into four areas designated Districts A, B, C, and D, each 

with barracks and related facilities separated by fences. The site was crowded with new 

buildings, extending into parking lots, within the race track, and under the grandstand. Unusual 

among assembly centers, Puyallup included a roller coaster, which is still in use.

The Western Washington State Fairgrounds is still used for the annual Puyallup Fair, as well as 

for exhibits, trade shows, etc. The barracks are gone, as are the racetrack and the original 

grandstand. Parking lots were built in the area occupied by the assembly center, and State 

Highway 512 now traverses the southern end of the site where the assembly center hospital was 

located. Grading for the highway dramatically altered the terrain in this area. There are no 

extant buildings or visible remains, but the assembly center is commemorated by a sculpture by 

George Tsutakawa and two plaques, enclosed in a courtyard near the administration building. 

Evaluation. Over the years, alterations to this vibrant fairground have obliterated almost all 

evidence of the use of the site as an assembly center, precluding National Historic Landmark 

designation under criteria 1 through 5. Due to various land disturbances, it is unlikely that 

subsurface archeological remains have enough integrity to provide information of exceptional 

national significance, precluding NHL eligibility under Criterion 6.

Recommendation. NHL designation is not recommended for the site of the Puyallup Assembly 

Center at the fairgrounds, due to a lack of integrity. Because of the large number of people 

housed at this site, archeological testing of the parking areas may yield deposits associated with 

the period of significance. If archeological testing is performed in these areas, the site should be 

evaluated for National Register eligibility under Criterion D.

Sacramento Assembly Center (Walerga Assembly Center)

Sacramento, Sacramento County, California

The Sacramento Assembly Center was developed at a migrant worker camp, 15 miles northeast 

of downtown Sacramento, for Japanese Americans from Sacramento and San Joaquin counties. 

Also known as the Walerga Assembly Center, this center was occupied from May 6, 1942, until 

June 26, 1942, and had a maximum population of 4,739. The assembly center consisted of 11 

blocks of over 225 buildings, with one block likely devoted to the military police and 
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 119

administration. The temporary residents of the center were sent primarily to the Tule Lake 

Relocation Center. After they left, the assembly center was used as Camp Kohler, one of the 

Army Signal Corps‘ three principal training centers during the war. The facility was greatly 

expanded for this military training.204

The aboveground integrity of the site has suffered from the construction of Interstate 80, which 

bisects the site, and the development of subdivisions in the northern sections of Sacramento. The 

site was designated California Historical Landmark #934, with other Japanese American

confinement sites. A historic marker was erected in 1987 near a grove of cherry trees at Walerga 

Park, located on the site of the assembly center. There are no extant buildings or visible remains 

of the assembly center. 

Evaluation. Due to an extensive loss of integrity, the Sacramento Assembly Center site is not 

eligible for National Historic Landmark designation.

Recommendation. No federal historic recognition is recommended for the Sacramento 

Assembly Center at this time, although future archeological investigations may suggest National 

Register eligibility under Criterion D.

Salinas Assembly Center

Salinas, Monterey County, California

Description. The Salinas Assembly Center was developed at the California Rodeo Grounds on 

the north side of Salinas, California. It housed Japanese Americans from the Monterey Bay area, 

with a maximum population of 3,594. The center was occupied from April 27, 1942, to July 4, 

1942. Some 165 buildings accommodated the detainees, located north and east of the racetrack, 

with a few buildings in the racetrack infield. Apparently, some of the stables were occupied 

also.205 Guard towers were positioned on the periphery of the site. Most of those held at the 

Salinas Assembly Center were sent to the Poston Relocation Center in Arizona. After the 

assembly center was deactivated, it was used for the remainder of the war for training the VII 

Corps, one of two assault corps of the U.S. First Army. The property was returned to its use as a 

rodeo grounds after the war.206

The site is still occupied by the California Rodeo Grounds, as well as a small neighborhood park 

(Sherwood Park) and the Salinas Community Center. A golf course was developed on the site of 

the barracks. The grandstand and some auxiliary buildings that were present in a 1942 

photograph remain, and a number of old horse stall buildings, possibly used to house detainees, 

may survive at the site.207

 

204 ―Walerga Assembly Center, Lest We Forget‖ at http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?markder=16850, accessed on 

August 3, 2010.

205 Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL, ―Major Events for 2010‖ at http://www.watsonvillesantacruzjacl.org/ 

events.shtml, accessed on August 3, 2010, 5.

206 ―Historic California Posts: Salinas Garrison (Salinas Assembly Center)‖ at http://militarymuseum.org/ 

Salinas.html, accessed on August 3, 2010, 1.

207 Gene Itogawa (Office of Historic Preservation, California Department of Parks and Recreation), in discussion 

with Curtis Breckenridge, 2001.
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120 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

This photo shows the barracks at the Salinas Assembly Center.

WRA photo by Clem Albers, May 29, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The site was designated California Historical Landmark #934, with other temporary confinement 

sites. In 1984 a landmark plaque was placed at the site in the rear garden courtyard of the

Salinas Community Center, with another marker indicating the use of the site to train a Filipino 

army unit. In 2010 a new bronze plaque that identifies the site as the ―Day of Remembrance

Memorial Garden‖ was placed in the courtyard. The Japanese American Citizens League has

celebrated the Day of Remembrance at the site of the Salinas Assembly Center for some 30 

years.

Evaluation. Due to loss of aboveground integrity, the site is not eligible for National Historic 

Landmark designation under criteria 1 through 5, and due to significant development it is 

unlikely that belowground resources are eligible under Criterion 6.

Recommendation. Any future studies that identify resources with an association with the 

Japanese American occupation of the site should include evaluations for National Register 

eligibility.

Santa Anita Assembly Center

Arcadia, Los Angeles County, California

Description. The Santa Anita Assembly Center was developed at the Santa Anita Park race 

track at Arcadia, California. It was the biggest and longest occupied of the assembly centers. 

Housing up to 18,719 evacuees from Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Clara counties, it was 

occupied from March 27, 1942, until October 27, 1942. Besides the addition of scores of new 

barracks, more than 8,500 detainees lived in converted horse stalls at the racetrack. Bachelors 

lived in the grandstand building. The center was divided into seven districts, and the site 
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 121

In this 1942 aerial photograph of the Santa Anita Assembly Center, “A” indicates automobile storage, 

“G” is the grandstand “H” is the hospital, “L” is the laundry, “M” is the mess hall, MP” is the military police 

and administration, “R” is the recreation building, “S” indicates showers, and “W” is the warehouse.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 371

included six recreation buildings, six shower buildings, six mess halls, a hospital, a laundry, and 

a large warehouse. The racetrack infield was used for automobile storage and the grandstand 

seating area was used for a camouflage net factory that employed thedetainees.

After the assembly center was vacated, the facility was used by the Army Ordnance Corps for 

training until November 1944. Later, it was used to house German prisoners of war from 

Rommel‘s Afrika Korps. With these uses, it was known as Camp Santa Anita.208 

Buildings extant from the confinement period include the grandstand and some other racetrack 

buildings, including the horse stalls in Districts 1 and 2. Districts 4 through 7, where the 

barracks were located, are paved parking lots. The Westfield Santa Anita Shopping Mall 

occupies Districts 3 and 4, where stables and the military police compound were located. 

 

208 California State Military Department, ―Historic California Posts: Camp Santa Anita (Santa Anita Assembly 

Center)‖ at http://www.militarymuseum.org/CpSantaAnita.html, accessed on August 6, 2010, 2-3.
Part 6, Survey Results

122 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Women and children stand with laundry at a converted 

race track building at the Santa Anita Assembly Center.

WRA photo by Clem Albers, April 6, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

The Santa Anita Racetrack was designated California Historical Landmark #934 with other 

Japanese American wartime sites. A bronze plaque commemorating the assembly center was 

placed outside of the grandstand. In 2000 the Santa Anita Racetrack was identified by the 

National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of the nation‘s ―11 Most Endangered Places,‖

because of historically unsympathetic renovations being undertaken on the grandstand by the 

private owners. The concerns were related to the architectural significance of the building, 

without reference to its role in the World War II confinement of Japanese Americans.

Evaluation. In 2006, 304 acres of the former Santa Anita Assembly Center were determined 

eligible for the National Register at the national level of significance. This determination, rather 

than a listing, was due to the owner‘s objection. It was considered eligible under Criterion A and 

its use as an assembly center was considered an aspect of its significance. The grandstand, 

surrounding structures, and part of the parking lot were contributing resources in the 

determination of eligibility. Santa Anita may be the most intact assembly center because of the 

number of extant aboveground features from the period, but its significance and integrity are not 

sufficient for NHL designation under criteria 1 through 5. The parking lot may cap some of the 

barrack sites, thus the presence of archeological remains cannot be ruled out.

Recommendation. If the owners cease to object to National Register listing, the Santa Anita 

Park should be listed in the National Register. If archeological investigations are performed, the 

property should be evaluated for its National Register and NHL eligibility under Criterion D and 

Criterion 6 respectively.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 123

Some barracks at the Stockton Assembly Center were located on the infield of the race track.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, May 19, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Stockton Assembly Center

San Joaquin County, California

Located at the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds, the Stockton Assembly Center operated from 

May 10, 1942, until October 17, 1942. It had a maximum population at one time of 4,271. The 

site had 165 barracks: 125 in the racetrack infield and 40 on the east side of the fairgrounds. 

Most of those held at the Stockton facility were sent to the Rohwer Relocation Center in 

Arkansas.

No buildings remain aboveground from the Japanese American period of occupation, although 

some of the residences and businesses in the vicinity of the old fairgrounds remain. The center is 

designated California Historical Landmark #394, with other California confinement sites. Use of 

the fairgrounds as an assembly center is commemorated by a historic marker located at the 

administration buildings of the fairgrounds.

Evaluation. The site exhibits insufficient integrity aboveground to be considered eligible for 

National Historic Landmark designation under criteria 1 through 5. Insufficient information is 

available at this time to evaluate the property‘s potential archeological significance.

Recommendation. No federal historic recognition is recommended for the Stockton Assembly 

Center at this time. If further research reveals the information potential of the site, National 

Register eligibility under Criterion D should be evaluated.
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124 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Horse stalls at the Tanforan racetrack serve as family housing at the assembly center.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, April 29, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Tanforan Assembly Center

San Bruno, San Mateo County, California

Description. The Tanforan Assembly Center was located at the Tanforan Racetrack, 12 miles 

south of San Francisco. It was occupied from April 28, 1942, to October 13, 1942, by people 

removed from the San Francisco Bay area. The maximum population was 7,816. Barracks were 

built in the racetrack infield and detainees also were housed in stables. In 1964 the racetrack 

complex burned; today the site is occupied by the Tanforan (shopping) Mall. A group of historic 

markers has been placed at an entrance to the mall, including one that acknowledges the use of 

the site as an assembly center. The site is designated California Historical Landmark #934, with 

other Japanese American confinement sites.

Evaluation. All aboveground evidence of the use of the site as an assembly center has been 

removed, and the site appears to lack below ground integrity, based on the extent of development 

since its use as an assembly center.

Recommendation. No federal historic recognition is recommended for the site of the Tanforan 

Assembly Center.

Tulare Assembly Center

Tulare, Tulare County, California

Description. The Tulare Assembly Center was developed at the Tulare County Fairgrounds in 

the San Joaquin Valley for evacuees from Los Angeles and Sacramento counties and the 

southern California coast. A total of 5,061 detainees was housed at the Tulare County 

fairgrounds between April 20, 1942, and September 4, 1942. Some 100 barracks were built in 
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 125

the infield of the racetrack and spreading out to the remainder of the site. Another 55 barracks 

were built south of the fairgrounds, adjacent to the county hospital. The site included eight mess 

halls, eight bathroom/laundry buildings, a hospital, and a military police compound. Most of the 

detainees were sent to the Gila River Relocation Center.

The grandstand remains, as well as several buildings in the northeast corner of the fairgrounds 

that were probably part of the original fairgrounds, but none of the buildings constructed for the 

assembly center were retained at the site. The Tulare Assembly Center is designated California 

Historical Landmark #934, with other Japanese American temporary confinement sites.

Evaluation. The site does not have sufficient aboveground integrity to be eligible for National 

Historic Landmark designation under criteria 1 through 5, and the results of subsurface testing, if 

undertaken, are not known.

Recommendation. Surviving buildings that had associations with the assembly center should be 

evaluated for National Register eligibility. If archeological testing confirms an association with 

the assembly center, the property should be evaluated for National Register eligibility under 

Criterion D.

Turlock Assembly Center

Turlock, Stanislaus County, California

Description. Located at the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds, the Turlock Assembly Center was 

occupied from April 30, 1942, to August 12, 1942. The center housed 3,699 Japanese 

Americans, primarily from the Sacramento River delta and the Los Angeles area, with a peak 

population of 3,662. Most of the detainees were sent to the Gila River Relocation Center.

Shortly after the detainees were sent to the relocation centers, the facility became the U.S. Army 

Turlock Rehabilitation Center, which was used to train and discipline soldiers so they could 

return to military duty. The site included 150 barracks, 31 latrines, 18 bathhouses, a canteen, an 

administration building, three hospital buildings, guard towers, and open sheds. It only housed a 

maximum of 1,500 soldiers at any time, a number significantly lower than the Japanese 

American population housed there. The buildings used for the rehabilitation center may have 

been those built for the assembly center.

Buildings constructed for the assembly center or the rehabilitation center no longer exist on the 

site, but some of the fairground buildings from the period appear to be extant. A few remodeled 

barracks may be located south of the fairgrounds in an adjacent housing development.

The Turlock Assembly Center site is designated California Historical Landmark #934, with other 

Japanese American temporary confinement sites. In April 2010, a memorial was installed at the

north gate of the fairgrounds and on May 1, 2010, a ceremony was held at the memorial to 

commemorate its installation.

Evaluation. Little is known about the buildings that remain from the period of occupancy by 

Japanese Americans and it is not known if archeological testing has been undertaken. However, 

it is unlikely the site retains sufficient resources or integrity to be considered eligible for NHL 

designation.
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126 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Farm families are boarding buses for the Turlock Assembly Center at Byron, California.

WRA photo by Dorothea Lange, May 2, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Recommendation. If further study of this site is undertaken, above- and belowground resources 

should be studied for their association with the assembly center, and their National Register 

eligibility for this association should be evaluated.

WAR RELOCATION AUTHORITY RELOCATION CENTERS

Of all the property types associated with this theme, the relocation centers had the most profound 

effect on the greatest number of Japanese Americans during World War II. The relocation 

centers were essentially ―cities,‖ although not in the American tradition. These cities were more 

like prisons or military camps and, in fact, in certain regards they were operated as such. In most 

cases, the relocation centers were built from the ground, up—new facilities for a kind of 

community that had never before been built on American soil. The relocation centers were the 

primary destination for Japanese Americans removed from the exclusion zone after March 1942. 

They were conceived by Roosevelt‘s wartime administration to dispel any potential for the 

subversive activity some of the administration and some of the public imagined possible. 

Because of their longevity and permanence relative to other places important to Japanese 

Americans during World War II, they are considered the most likely candidates for National 

Historic Landmark designation.

The relocation centers were studied in greatest detail in the National Park Service report about 

sites associated with the Japanese American wartime experience, Confinement and Ethnicity.

209

 

They were the only sites treated thoroughly in the ―Report to the President: Japanese-American 

 

209

 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 127

The relocation centers were mostly scattered in western states, 

although two were located in Arkansas.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 39

Internment Sites Preservation.‖

210

 More than half of the relocation centers have already been 

designated National Historic Landmarks and the details of those nominations are not repeated 

here. However, the nominations for these properties establish a standard for eligibility and 

integrity in terms of aboveground resources that is reflected in the evaluations below. The

archeological research at Japanese American wartime sites is providing another dimension of 

understanding to these properties and the period of confinement, which will be reflected in future 

NHL nominations if it is determined they have yielded or may be likely to yield information of 

major scientific importance.

The following site descriptions, grouped by their NHL status or designation potential, were taken 

primarily from Confinement and Ethnicity and the ―Report to the President: Japanese-American 

Internment Sites Preservation.‖ Some of the descriptions were updated by NHL staff. 

Archeological information was obtained from reports and publications that concern studies 

undertaken by NPS, academic institutions, and others at various confinement sites. National 

Historic Landmark nominations for designated properties provided additional information.

 

210 U.S. Department of the Interior, ―Report to the President: Japanese-American Internment Sites Preservation” 

(Washington, DC: 2001).
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128 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Relocation Centers Designated National Historic Landmarks

Granada Relocation Center (Camp Amache)

Prowers County, Colorado

Background. The Granada Relocation Center is located in southeastern Colorado, 

approximately one mile from the Town of Granada, a half-mile south of U.S. Highway 50. The 

center was also called Camp Amache. Today, it is more commonly known simply as ―Amache.‖ 

Governor Ralph L. Carr volunteered Colorado as a place for relocation. Officially opened 

August 27, 1942, with the arrival of the first detainees from the Merced Assembly Center in 

California, it was the smallest of the relocation centers and the only one in Colorado. Although 

at its peak in October 1942 Amache housed 7,597 people, more than 10,000 people passed 

through the center, and nearly two-thirds of them were United States citizens. The center

population had a definite rural/urban split, with the majority of detainees from the agricultural 

sections of California's central valleys. Agriculture was the main industry of the center, with 

significant production during the 1943 and 1944 growing seasons, including potatoes, onions, 

corn, alfalfa, and wheat. The livestock operation included beef and dairy cattle, poultry, and 

hogs. Unlike most other centers, the fields and canals at Amache were already in place when the 

relocation center was developed on farmland obtained from Colorado farmers.

Some local newspapers and organizations were openly sympathetic to the plight of Japanese 

Americans, while others were virulently anti-Japanese. A bitter political dispute over the cost of 

the high school built for the relocation center resulted in the refusal of the WRA to build the 

planned elementary school. Instead, classes remained in a barracks building. James G. Lindley, 

project director for the relocation center throughout its existence, was unusually sensitive to the 

difficulties facing the detainees. Probably for that reason, the conflict that characterized many of 

the other centers was mostly absent at Amache. 

Japanese Americans from the center served in the military during the war as soldiers in the 

highly decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team, in the Women's Army Corps, and as nurses 

and instructors. Thirty-one members of the military from the center were killed in the war. A 

small fenced cemetery is located in the southwestern portion of the former residential compound; 

it includes a small brick structure, a granite memorial, and a 10-foot high white stone monument.

The Granada Relocation Center officially closed on January 27, 1946. Many of the detainees 

returned to California, but nearly 2,000 remained in Colorado.

Description. The relocation center area totaled approximately 10,500 acres around Granada and 

extended eastward toward the Kansas border. The site was on the south side of the Arkansas 

River. The instant city soon became the tenth largest in the state. The center was constructed at 

a cost of $4.2 million. It provided a self-contained community with more than 550 buildings, 

including living quarters, administration buildings, businesses, a hospital, warehouses, etc., 

clustered on 640 acres of prairie.

The site was flat agricultural land with little tree growth, but ribboned with canals, drainage 

ditches, and roads. Detainee cultivated gardens and planted trees to landscape the site. Recent 
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 129

The Granada Relocation Center was located in eastern 

Colorado on the south side of the Arkansas River.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 102

archeological work, particularly the work of Bonnie Clark, has provided information about 

gardens and landscaping as reflections of the persistence of Japanese cultural ways during 

confinement.211

Much of the area was fenced and the site was dotted with agricultural enterprises. A hog farm 

was located northwest of the residential complex and cultivated fields stretched to the east and 

north. A railroad line bisected the site. The residential compound was on a low bluff 

overlooking the flood plain and farmlands that extended north and east to the Arkansas River. It 

was laid out according to the standard grid plan and was surrounded by a barbed wire fence, 

punctuated with six watch towers.

Following closure of the relocation center, the agricultural lands were leased, then sold, to local 

farmers. The developed portion of the site was sold to the Town of Granada, and the wells at the 

center became the town‘s water supply. The buildings were demolished by the War Assets 

Administration, or sold for removal from the site. Today, a small brick structure that houses a 

granite monument remains near the cemetery. A reservoir, water well, and tank also remain. In

1983 a monument was built next to the cemetery, dedicated to the Amache detainees, soldiers 

from Amache killed in the war, and those who died while confined at the center.

 

211 Clark, ―The Archaeology of Gardening at Amache: A Synthesis of Results from the University of Denver Field 

Investigations.‖
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130 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

This granite monument was erected in memory of detainees who died at Camp Amache.

WRA photo by Hikaru Iwasaki, October 1945

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Almost all of the building foundations, roads, and landscaping survive at the Amache site. The 

intact roads provide a sense of the extent and layout of the original center, despite the loss of all 

but a few minor standing structures. Post-war development includes housing and a rodeo arena. 

The Town of Granada maintains the land it owns from the relocation center with the assistance 

of various volunteer groups, including the Amache Preservation Society, an organization 

comprised of Granada High School students. The society has raised funds to help restore and 

preserve the site and its remaining buildings, and it contributes to interpretation of the site.

In 2003 the Amache site was surveyed to assess its archeological potential. Compared with 

similar investigations at other relocation centers, Amache was found to be among those with the 

greatest degree of integrity and potential to provide nationally significant information.212 

Subsequent studies, notably those undertaken by the University of Denver Department of 

Anthropology, have confirmed the significance of the site and have resulted in major 

contributions to archeological literature and an anthropological understanding of Japanese 

American confinement.213

 

212 Richard F. Carrillo and David Killam, ―Camp Amache (5PEW48): A Class III Intensive Field Survey of the 

Granada Relocation Center, Prowers County, Colorado.” Manuscript, Town of Granada and RMC Consultants, 

Lakewood, Colorado, n.d.

213 Clark, ―The Tangible History of Amache,‖ 2; Skiles and Clark, “When the Foreign is not Exotic;‖ Slaughter, 

―An Archaeological and Ethnographic Examination of the Presence, Acquisition, and Consumption of Sake at 

Camp Amache;‖ Dana Odo Shew,“Feminine Identity Confined: The Archaeology of Japanese Women at 

Amache, A WWII Internment Camp.‖ Master‘s thesis (University of Denver, 2010).
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 131

Evaluation. A 313.6-acre portion of the central area of the relocation center was listed in the 

National Register in 1994. The site is also listed in the Colorado State Register of Historic 

Properties. In 2006 a 593-acre parcel owned by the Town of Granada was designated a National 

Historic Landmark under criteria 1 and 4. The NHL boundaries encompass the National 

Register site, plus an additional area with archeological potential that contained coal storage, a 

root cellar, sewage disposal, and the center dump.

Recommendation. Further documentation for NHL purposes is unnecessary at this time, but in 

the future it may be appropriate to evaluate the site under NHL Criterion 6, to determine the 

potential for exceptional archeological significance.

Heart Mountain Relocation Center

Park County, Wyoming

Background. The Heart Mountain Relocation Center was located in Park County, in 

northwestern Wyoming, 12 miles northeast of the town of Cody. The relocation center was sited

on two terraces of the Shoshone River, at an elevation of approximately 4,700 feet. The land is 

an open sagebrush desert devoid of trees, 60 miles east of Yellowstone National Park and 45 

miles south of the Montana state line. The site is visible from State Highway 14. The center was 

named for the nearby Heart Mountain Butte, which dominates the landscape.

The relocation center was constructed on Bureau of Reclamation withdrawn land that was 

transferred to the WRA for confinement purposes, pursuant to Executive Order No. 9066. 

Construction of the relocation center began on June 15, 1942, and the first detainees arrived on

August 11, 1942. The maximum population of the center reached 10,767 on January 1, 1943. 

The relocation center was in operation until November 10, 1945.

Heart Mountain was the fourth largest relocation center. While protests took place when the 

security fence and watch towers were constructed in November 1942, more significant resistance 

occurred after the draft was re-opened to Japanese Americans in February 1943. Detainees at the 

center resisted the draft as a protest against the unfair confinement of Japanese American 

citizens; 85 men were convicted and imprisoned for their participation, representing the highest 

rate of draft resistance among the relocation centers. Seven leaders of the Heart Mountain Fair 

Play Committee were convicted of conspiracy to violate the selective service law by counseling 

others to resist. In spite of the draft resistance movement at the relocation center, 700 Heart 

Mountain men reported for military physicals; approximately half of this number was inducted. 

Eleven Heart Mountain servicemen were killed and 52 were wounded in battle.

After World War II, the WRA lands were returned to the Bureau of Reclamation, along with 

many of the associated buildings and structures. Most of the land and buildings was distributed 

to returning veterans under homesteading legislation, with many of the residential barracks sold 

to local homesteaders and removed from the site. Other structures were demolished and their 

materials were salvaged. The Bureau of Reclamation retained a small acreage and a few 

buildings for administration of a nearby irrigation project.

Description. The Bureau of Reclamation transferred 21,521 acres to the War Relocation 

Authority for development of the relocation center in northwestern Wyoming. Some 740 acres 

of this land was fenced with barbed wire to enclose the main portion of the center. Eight guard 
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132 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Today, the site of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center includes a few 

standing structures, site remnants, and archeological remains.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 136

towers were interspersed along this perimeter and a ninth was built on a ridge north of the 

compound. The upper terrace of the site was used for administration and housing, and the lower 

terrace was used for hog and chicken farms and support facilities. The center had 650 buildings, 

with the standard grid site plan ordering construction. Several buildings already had been built 

on the site for a CCC camp.

About 1,000 acres were used for farming by the detainees, who built a canal to irrigate the fields. 

A number of detainees were given temporary leave clearance to work for area farmers and 

ranchers; others were permitted do agricultural work in Montana, Nebraska, and Colorado. 

Railroads, hotels, and restaurants provided other opportunities for employment.

Four of the approximately 650 buildings constructed for the Heart Mountain Relocation Center 

survive aboveground, all on a 71-acre parcel owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. A 

boiler house and attached smokestack, a warehouse, and a mess hall are located in the former 

hospital area and one housing unit remains in the original staff housing area. Few security
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 133

The landscape that characterized the Heart Mountain 

Relocation Center is still open and relatively undeveloped. 

National Park Service photo, 2002

features are extant aboveground, although portions of a perimeter fence remain in the warehouse 

section of the center. Other remains, such as foundations, hydrants, utility posts, and trash 

deposits, dot the landscape.214 Other subsurface features and artifacts may exist.

Scant evidence of the overall site plan exists aboveground, although some roads are evident. 

Much of the original site is now cultivated. The landscape remains stark, with native grasses and 

low vegetation predominating. Privately owned farmland surrounds the former relocation center, 

and the site maintains the feeling of isolation that marked it as a desirable site from the 

perspective of the WRA.

A 55-gallon barrel full of small stones inscribed with Japanese characters was found by local 

land owners near the former relocation center cemetery. The barrel of stones was given to the 

Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, and the burials at the relocation center 

cemetery were moved to the Crown Hill Cemetery, 11 miles northeast of Heart Mountain.

The original honor roll, which was inscribed with the names of soldiers from the relocation 

center, is the focus of the Heart Mountain Memorial Park. The park, initiated by the Heart 

Mountain Relocation Center Memorial Association, includes plaques, a sidewalk, and a graveled 

parking area surrounded by large rocks. In 1963 the VFW placed a historical marker describing 

the relocation center along the U.S. Highway Alt. 14. This is now gone, but in August 2011 the 

Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center opened, the culmination of many years of planning 

and fund-raising by the Heart Mountain, Wyoming, Foundation.215 The center features a 

museum and recreated barrack rooms.

 

214 Thomas K. Larson, Dori M. Penny, Michael Andrews, and James O. Rose, ―Cultural Resources Investigations at 

the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Wyoming‖ (paper presented at the Society for Historic Archaeology 28th

Annual Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology, Washington, DC, 1995).

215 Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, ―We‘re Open!‖ at http://www.heartmountain.org/, accessed on October 

29, 2011.
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134 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Evaluation. Thirty acres of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center site administered by the U.S. 

Bureau of Reclamation were listed in the National Register in 1985. The four standing buildings 

and the remains of the honor roll monument were considered contributing elements to the 

property.

In 2006, 123.93 acres were designated a National Historic Landmark under Criterion 1 and 

Exception 3. The majority of the designated land is owned by the Bureau of Reclamation, but a 

50-acre parcel that contained the military police compound is owned by the Heart Mountain, 

Wyoming, Foundation.

Recommendation. Further documentation for NHL purposes is unnecessary at this time.

Manzanar Relocation Center 

Owens Valley Reception Center

Inyo County, California

Background. The Manzanar Relocation Center was the first relocation center to open; it was 

occupied for the second longest period of time (44 months), and housed the fifth largest 

population (10,046). The site is located in east-central California, five miles south of 

Independence, California. The center was established at a former farm and the community of 

Manzanar, which was abandoned when the City of Los Angeles purchased the land for its water 

rights.

Originally the facility opened as the Owens Valley Reception Center for those who left the 

exclusion zone voluntarily. More fully developed for use as a relocation center, Manaznar was 

the first relocation center occupied and the first to be administered by the War Relocation 

Authority. Many buildings at the center were constructed by paid detainee labor, including 18 

buildings in the staff residential area, the Children‘s Village for Japanese American orphans 

relocated from the exclusion zone, an auditorium, sentry posts and military police posts at the 

entrance to the center, and many support structures. In December 1942, the beating of a JACL 

leader and the arrest of a suspect led to a protest by detainees, which quickly became a riot. Two 

men were killed and ten others were wounded when military police fired into the crowd. In the 

following days, detainees thought to be troublemakers were removed to Department of Justice 

camps or to the WRA Moab Isolation Center. Sixty-five supporters of the center administration 

were removed to the Cow Creek Camp in Death Valley for their own safety.

Description. Manzanar is located in the southern part of Owens Valley, on the western edge of 

the Basin and Range province. The steep Sierra Nevada range rises to the west and the WhiteInyo Range borders on the east. The natural vegetation is desert scrub in this land of cold 

winters and hot summers. The residential compound of the center covered about 540 acres, 

fenced with barbed wire and with eight watchtowers on the perimeter. There were 36 residential 

blocks and the standard grid pattern prevailed in the center layout. Landscaping broke the 

monotony of the plan, with detainees adding sidewalks, paths, gardens, and small ponds. Play 

courts and playgrounds also were evident. Other recreation areas included a picnic area, a ninehole golf course, and other community parks. One of the largest parks, initially called ―Rose 

Park,‖ featured flower beds, two small lakes, a waterfall, and a Japanese tea house. The center 

also had several play fields and two outdoor theaters.
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 135

The Manzanar Relocation Center first served as the Owens Valley Reception Center.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 164

Vegetable gardens were cultivated and the old fruit trees that remained on the site yielded apples 

and pears. Several hundred acres were cleared for farming by the detainees and a substantial 

chicken farm met most meat needs. Hog production was introduced later, and cattle production 

proved problematic for various reasons and was abandoned.

The center was intended to house a number of industrial uses, but union complaints resulted in 

limiting the production to items used internally. Nevertheless, an industrial/warehouse area 

located on the south side of the living area included a substantial camouflage net factory 

compound that operated in 1942.

After the center was closed, all but a few buildings were removed. For a couple of years the 

remaining buildings were used for a veterans‘ housing project, but when that folded the buildings 

were removed. The three buildings remaining from the more than 800 originally located at the 

center were all constructed by detainees. The dramatic stone and concrete sentry and police 

posts have pagoda-type roofs and wood-grained concrete lintels over the openings, suggesting
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136 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The monument at the Manzanar National Historic Site has been decorated by visitors.

National Park Service photo, 2006

Japanese stylistic elements. The large auditorium has been rehabilitated for use as a visitor 

center. Most of the fields cultivated at the relocation center have been abandoned, although 

many of the irrigation ditches remain. The center's cemetery, a 1943 memorial marker, and 

archeological resources also remain at the site.

Much of the overall site plan is evident through the presence of foundations, sidewalks, and 

landscape features, including gardens and concrete ponds. Much of the road grid remains, 

although sections are buried by alluvium, overgrown with vegetation, or cut by gullies. Portions 

of the original barbed wire fence surrounding the central area are still extant. The remnants of 

landscaping are extensive, including walks with a variety of paved surfaces, entry treatments, a 

rock and concrete fountain, wading pool, arbor, fences and edging, and gardens. Confinement 

and Ethnicity includes an extensive inventory of landscape features found at the site.216

Evaluation. In the mid-1980s, Manzanar was determined to be the best preserved relocation 

center, with the greatest potential as a national park unit. The Manzanar National Historic Site 

was established by P.L. 102-248 in 1992. The legislation states that the historic site is intended 

to "provide for the protection and interpretation of historical and cultural resources associated 

with the relocation of Japanese-Americans during World War II."

217 The general management

plan (GMP), approved in 1997, calls for the site to be managed as a cultural landscape based on 

the World War II relocation center period.

 

216 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, 185.

217 H.R. 543, Title I, Manzanar National Historic Site. Sec. 101(a).
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 137

A significant amount of archeological research has been conducted at Manzanar, and several 

volumes of archeological research have been published detailing the nationally significant 

information potential that exists there. Three Farewells to Manzanar, the seminal work by 

Jeffery F. Burton, made significant contributions to an understanding of the site and confinement

life. The research at Manzanar contributes to most nationally significant research agendas 

applicable to confinement sites, and it remains the basis for comparison for much of the work at 

other sites.

218

Manzanar was designated California Historical Landmark #850 in 1972, placed on the National 

Register of Historic Places in 1976 (listed under Criterion A), and designated a National Historic 

Landmark in 1985 as part of the ―World War II in the Pacific National Historic Landmark 

Theme Study.‖

Recommendation. Further documentation for NHL purposes is unnecessary at this time.

Rohwer Relocation Center and Memorial Cemetery 

Desha County, Arkansas

Background: The Rohwer Relocation Center was constructed in 1942 on approximately 10,161 

acres in southeastern Arkansas. It was in operation from September 18, 1942, until November 

30, 1945, with a maximum population of 8,475. The site is located about 27 miles north of the 

Jerome Relocation Center. Located in the Mississippi Delta region of Arkansas, the area was

and remains primarily agricultural and rural. The region to the east, across the Mississippi River 

in Mississippi, is similarly rural.

Description. Rohwer was located five miles west of the Mississippi River in an area laced with 

canals, bayous, creeks, and swamps. Heavily forested when settled, it is now cultivated with 

crops and dotted with housing. Some of the Rohwer land had been intended for subsistence 

homesteads under the Farm Security Administration; the remainder was purchased from local 

farmers.

Approximately 500 acres served as the central area of the relocation center. It was located on the 

west side of State Highway 1, with the Missouri Pacific Railroad adjacent to the road. Typical of 

other relocation centers, the compound was divided into blocks in a grid pattern. This area was 

surrounded by a barbed wire fence and eight watch towers. There were more than 620 buildings 

at the relocation center, including residential and staff barracks, mess halls, and buildings that 

served the military police, the fire station, and hospital. As at most other relocation centers, at

Rohwer the detainees cleared the land for farming. Approximately 600 acres were cultivated, 

plus hogs and chickens were raised.

After the relocation center was closed, 120 acres were deeded to the local school district and the 

remaining land was sold back to the original farmers or to veterans. Equipment and buildings 

were sold to bidders from across the country. Today, the land once occupied by the relocation 

center is marked by agricultural fields, scattered houses, and the Desha Central High School. 

The railroad track that ran beside the center is part of a rails-to-trails conversion as part of the 

Delta Heritage Trails State Park. 

 

218 Burton, Three Farewells to Manzanar.
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138 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The Rohwer Relocation Center was located in the Mississippi River delta

in southwestern Arkansas.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 244

The site is devoid of most visible remnants of center construction, with most of the agricultural 

land planted in cotton. Of the more than 620 buildings constructed at the center, only the water 

reservoir, the hospital boiler room smokestack, and the sewage treatment plant are visible, 

although some of the barracks were moved to surrounding communities where they were adapted 

for various uses. The aboveground integrity of the site plan and the road system at the site has 

been seriously compromised.

The most important extant element is the cemetery, one of only three relocation center 

cemeteries that remain.219 It contains 24 headstones and two large commemorative monuments, 

a bench, a flagpole, sidewalks, and two entrance markers, all built by detainees. One

monument, erected in 1944, is dedicated to the 24 people who died while living at the center. 

The other monument, designed in the shape of a tank, was erected in 1945 and is dedicated to 

Japanese Americans serving in the combined 100th Regiment and 442nd Regimental Combat 

Team.

The Rohwer site has generated considerable state and local interest in Arkansas in recent years. 

In 2004 a condition assessment report was prepared for the site, which outlines stabilization and 

restoration activity. Substantial grants have been awarded through the Japanese American 

 

219 Other cemeteries survive at Manzanar and Grenada.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 139

Apartments are being built for the administrative staff at Rohwer in this 

1942 photo. The wood frame construction made it fairly easy to remove 

the buildings after the war, so the land could be returned to cultivation. 

WRA photo by Tom Parker, November 19, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Confinement Sites grant program, one for interpretation activities and the other for restoration of 

the Van Noy Eating House, which is attached to the historic depot in nearby McGhee, Arkansas. 

The restored restaurant will be used to tell the story of both Arkansas relocation centers and will 

serve as a permanent home for the exhibit ―Life Interrupted,‖ which focuses on life at the 

Rohwer and Jerome relocation centers.

Evaluation. Three hundred and sixty-three acres of the ―Rohwer Relocation Center Site‖ were 

listed in the National Register in 1974 under Criterion A at the national level of significance. 

The Rohwer Relocation Center Memorial Cemetery (.9 acres) was designated a National Historic 

Landmark in 1992 under Criterion 1 and Exception 5. The rest of the center was not included in 

this designation, because its aboveground integrity was considered compromised. Archeological 

recording and investigations at Rohwer have added significantly to an understanding of the site, 

the surveillance of internees, and expressions of cultural identity; however, a synthesis of the 

overall archeology at the site has not been undertaken. At this time it does not appear to meet 

NHL Criterion 6.

Recommendations. Further documentation for NHL purposes is unnecessary at this time.
Part 6, Survey Results

140 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The Topaz Relocation Center was located in Utah in a high desert landscape.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 260

Topaz Relocation Center (Central Utah Relocation Center)

Millard County, Utah

Background. The Topaz Relocation Center was located in west central Utah just north of the 

modern town of Delta and 140 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. It was named for Topaz 

Mountain, visible to the northwest. Local citizens encouraged the development of the center, 

because the absence of young men in the area due to the draft resulted in a shortage of farm 

workers. Unlike residents of some other states, Utahns welcomed the contributions that could be 

made by Japanese Americans to sustain agricultural production. The center was developed on a 

19,800-acre parcel of public land acquired by the county for non-payment of taxes and land 

purchased from private owners. In 1942, the Topaz Relocation Center was completed. It was 

occupied from September 11, 1942, until October 31, 1945.

Also known as the Central Utah Relocation Center (and briefly as the Abraham Relocation 

Center), the population of Topaz peaked in March 1943, at 8,130. Although it was one of the 

smallest relocation centers, it was one of the largest cities in Utah at that time. One of the most 

noted incidents at the center was the shooting death of evacuee James Wakasa by a guard on 

April 11, 1943. The guard thought that 63-year-old Wakasa was too close to the perimeter fence.
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 141

Description. Topaz was developed on very flat terrain in the Sevier Desert, part of the Basin 

and Range province. The vegetation in the area is high desert brush. The one-square-mile 

central area included 34 residential blocks and eight administrative blocks. It was enclosed by a

fence, with seven watch towers around the perimeter. Some of the buildings were brought from 

nearby Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps, including buildings that were used at Topaz 

as Christian and Buddhist houses of worship. The cemetery designated at the site was never 

used; instead, cremated remains were held at the center until they could be buried in the San 

Francisco area after the war.

The usual grid plan was used to organize construction, and residents attempted to beautify the 

site with landscaping. Besides ponds and ornamental gardens, more than 7,500 trees and 10,000 

shrubs were planted during the first nine months. Nearly all died due to the heat, wind, and 

alkaline soil conditions. The center provided its own sustenance, with much of the acreage 

cultivated with food crops or used to raise turkeys, cattle, and hogs. The former CCC camp at 

Antelope Springs, 39 miles to the west, was used as a recreation site.

After the center closed, the buildings were removed, with some taken to area farms by 

homesteading veterans. Many have been incorporated into houses, storage sheds, and barns. 

The residential and administrative parts of the center were purchased by the Topaz Museum 

Board in 1998 to protect the site from development. None of the 623 buildings originally 

constructed survive in the central area, but many foundations, slabs, and roads are still visible. 

Most of the gravel walkways leading to the barracks are clearly visible in aerial photos and help 

convey a sense of the center‘s original extent and plan. An archeological survey conducted by 

Sheri Murray Ellis identified significant resources, including detainee-constructed decorative 

rock gardens and pools.220 Archeological surveys also have identified above- and belowground 

features associated with security, artifacts associated with the everyday life of detainees, and 

recorded inscriptions.221

A number of buildings in outlying agricultural areas are extant, including a farm house at the 

cattle operation, a garage and barn at the farm kitchen, and a house at the chicken farm. Some of 

these buildings may pre-date the establishment of the relocation center. Portions of the perimeter 

fence remain and the foundations of three watchtowers are in place. A barn at the center cattle 

ranch may have been the original farm kitchen; a great deal of graffiti written by detainees 

remains on an interior wall.

In 1976 a concrete and stone monument designed by Salt Lake City artist Ted Nagata was 

dedicated on an acre of land donated by a local family. Vandalized beyond repair over the years,

the same artist designed a new monument that was dedicated in 2002. Another monument, also 

designed by Nagata, was placed at the center in 2005 to recognize the soldiers from Topaz. The 

Topaz Museum Board owns a sizable portion of the original 640 acres of the townsite; the 

remainder is owned by several other private individuals. Five modern houses are built on the 

center's townsite lands. Land on the western boundary of the original townsite is owned by the 

Federal government, including several large dump sites, guard tower foundations, and the sewer 

plant.

 

220 Sheri Murray Ellis, ―Site Documentation and Management Plan for the Topaz Relocation Center, Millard, 

County, Utah,‖ prepared for the Topaz Museum Board (Salt Lake City, UT: SWCA, Inc., Environmental 

Consultants, 2002).

221 Casella, The Archaeology of Institutional Confinement, 134–136.
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142 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Foundations remain at the Topaz Relocation Center.

National Park Service photo, 2002

Evaluation. A 300-acre portion of the Topaz site was listed in the National Register in 1974. In 

2007, a 728.4-acre parcel was designated a National Historic Landmark under Criterion 1 and 

Exception 3. The designated property includes several hundred acres of the former residential 

compound (owned by the Topaz Museum) and a smaller parcel (owned by the Bureau of Land 

Management) associated with the center‘s trash dump and sewage system septic field.222

Recommendation: Further documentation for NHL purposes is unnecessary at this time.

Tule Lake Relocation Center/Tule Lake Segregation Center 

Modoc County, California

Background: The Tule Lake Relocation Center at Newell, California, is 35 miles southeast of 

Klamath Falls, Oregon, and about 10 miles from the town of Tulelake. It is situated in the 

Klamath Basin. The center encompassed 7,400 acres, of which 1,100 acres were Bureau of 

Reclamation withdrawn land transferred to the WRA for confinement purposes. Construction of 

the center began on April 15, 1942, and the first detainees arrived on May 25, 1942. The 

maximum population of the center reached 18,789 on December 25, 1944. The center was in 

operation until March 20, 1946. 

Tule Lake was the longest occupied of all the relocation centers. In the summer of 1943 it was 

converted to a maximum security segregation facility; subsequently it became the largest of the 

WRA-administered centers. Several protests occurred in 1942, including a strike by farm 

laborers in August, a packing shed workers‘ strike in September, and a protest by mess hall 

 

221 Simmons and Simmons, ―Central Utah Relocation Center (Topaz) Site National Historic Landmark Nomination,‖ 

Section 7, 5.
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 143

The Tule Lake Relocation Center was located in northern California in the Klamath Basin.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 281

workers in October. The controversies over the WRA application for indefinite leave led to the

conversion of Tule Lake into a segregation center. Forty-two percent of the adults confined at 

Tule Lake answered the questionnaire in a manner that caused them to be classified as 

―disloyal.‖ Because Tule Lake had the highest percentage of ―disloyal‖ responses, it was 

selected to be the site of the segregation camp. Japanese Americans from other relocation 

centers who were deemed disloyal were transferred to Tule Lake, additional troops and tanks 

were sent, and the perimeter security fence was strengthened. During a strike in November 

1943, 350 protest leaders were sent to the Tule Lake stockade and 1,200 Issei were transferred to 

Department of Justice camps at Fort Lincoln and Santa Fe. Tule Lake remained under martial 

law for two months under U.S. Army control. For a variety of reasons, 95% of the 5,700 

Japanese Americans who sought to renounce their U.S. citizenship were from Tule Lake. Over a 

third of those held at the center asked to be repatriated to Japan, even though over half of them 

had been born in the United States. The center remained open until March 20, 1946, when the 

last 400 ―renunciants‖ were transferred to the INS camp at Crystal City.223 Tule Lake is unique 

among the ten relocation centers for its role as a maximum security segregation facility.

 

223 Over the next five years, all but 357 of the ―renunciants‖ applied for the return of their U.S. citizenship. 

Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, 57. 
Part 6, Survey Results

144 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

This photograph shows one of the drainage ditches at the Tule Lake Relocation Center.

WRA photo by Clem Albers, April 23, 1942

Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Description. The relocation center was built on 7,400 acres, encompassing the small town of 

Newell, on flat, treeless land—a former lake drained in the early twentieth century. The native 

vegetation is sparse grass and sagebrush, and the site is surrounded by bluffs, some composed of 

volcanic material. The Lava Bed National Monument is nearby and the prominent Mt. Shasta, 

located 50 miles away, is visible on clear days. 

The typical grid plan was used to organize the residential component of the center, incorporating 

substantial firebreaks. The administration area, to the southwest, was located next to the Central 

Pacific Railroad line and California State Highway 139. An extensive warehouse area was 

located east of the administration area, and to the east of that was an industrial area. Farming 

was carried out in two major areas, with hog and chicken operations in one area and cultivated 

land in another. The latter required the construction of miles of canals and drains by the 

evacuees. 

When Tule Lake became a segregation center, new barracks were constructed and several 

security measures were taken. Additional guard towers were built, fencing was increased, and 

search lights were installed. The entrance to the center was moved and secured. A jail and a 

stockade isolated by wide fire breaks were built to house those considered dangerous or 

insubordinate. The stockade consisted of an area enclosed by fences and guard towers, with an 

adjacent jail. It was closed in August 1944.

The Tule Lake center was transferred by the WRA to the Department of Justice in October 1945. 

The center was closed in March 1946 and the lands were returned to the Bureau of Reclamation, 

with many of the associated buildings and structures. Much of the land was transferred pursuant 
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 145

The shell of the jail remains at the Tule Lake Relocation Center.

National Park Service photo, 1999

to the Recreation and Public Purposes Act and the Airport Act. Other parcels were sold under 

the Small Tracts Act to private individuals, and many of the buildings were moved by returning 

veterans under homesteading legislation. A number of buildings were demolished and the 

materials were salvaged. The Bureau of Reclamation retained approximately 23 acres and a few 

buildings for administration of the irrigation project on nearby lands.

Fifty of the 1,300 buildings constructed at Tule Lake are extant, the largest number at any of the 

relocation centers. The most important of these are associated with the high security presence 

maintained after the conversion to a segregation center. These include 33 buildings in the 

military police compound, portions of the security fence, and the stockade jail, where protest 

leaders were held in 1943. Penciled graffiti inscribed by prisoners survives on the walls of the 

jail. Because of its relatively remote location, Tule Lake has maintained the sense of isolation 

that characterized it during its occupation.

The relocation/segregation center has been memorialized in several ways. A large monument of 

basalt rock and concrete along the north side of State Highway 139, dedicated in 1979,

commemorates the relocation center. It includes a state historical marker. The Bureau of 

Reclamation office in Klamath Falls has historical photographs, a large set of blueprints, and 

other files from the center, as well as a couple of office chairs made at the Tule Lake furniture

factory. The county fairground museum has a small exhibit about the center, and Lava Beds 

National Monument maintains a small collection of ceramics and other artifacts from the center. 

Evaluation. The center was designated California Historical Landmark # 850-2 in 1972, along 

with the Manzanar Relocation Center. A monument was placed at the site in 1979. It was 

designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006, under criteria 1 and 4. Under Criterion 1,
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146 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Tule Lake was considered to outstandingly represent the Japanese American relocation, ―an

infamous episode in our history,‖ and, under Criterion 4, to be an outstanding example of a 

World War II U.S. Army Military Police encampment.‖224 Five buildings are within the NHL 

boundaries.

Archeological investigations at Tule Lake have been revealing about the expression of ethnic and 

cultural identity in building solidarity and as a means of coping with confinement.225 The 

archeological resources at Tule Lake may be of major scientific importance because of the long 

occupation of the site and its role as a segregation facility.

Recommendation. Further documentation for NHL purposes is unnecessary at this time. 

Other WRA Relocation Centers

Gila River Relocation Center

Pinal County, Arizona

Background. The site of the Gila River Relocation Center is nine miles west of Sacaton in Pinal 

County, Arizona. The center was developed on Gila River Indian tribal land between Phoenix 

and Tucson, about 50 miles south of Phoenix and 60 miles north of Tucson. Interstate 10 runs 

through the tribal land, and the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is located nearby.

Land for the relocation center was leased by the WRA from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which 

approved construction of the relocation center over the objections of the tribe. The WRA was 

allowed the use of 16,500 acres, with the agreement that it would develop agricultural lands and 

build roads to connect the relocation center with state highways to the north and south. The site 

is sacred to the tribe, and today access to the site is restricted. The relocation center opened on 

July 10, 1942, and closed on November 10, 1945.

The detainees were mostly sent from the Tulare, Turlock, Stockton, and Fresno assembly centers 

in California; some 3,000 evacuees were sent directly from Military Area 2 without passing 

through an assembly center. The maximum population was 13,348, including 155 Hawaiians of 

Japanese ancestory—the last to leave the center. Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Gila River 

Relocation Center on April 23, 1943. After the center closed, the War Relocation Authority sold 

most of the buildings.

Description. The center was divided into two separate camps, about 31⁄2 miles apart. Canal 

Camp in the eastern part of the reserve, the smaller of the two, originally contained 404 

buildings. It mainly housed rural people from the Turlock Assembly Center and Military Area 2. 

Forty-four of the buildings were devoted to administration and hospital use. The 17 residential 

blocks each had 14 barracks, a mess hall, men‘s bathroom, women‘s bathroom, laundry room, 

 

224 Jeffery Burton and Mary Farrell, ―Tule Lake Segregation Center National Historic Landmark Nomination‖ 

(Washington, DC: National Park Service, April 13, 2005), 19.

225 Casella, The Archaeology of Institutional Confinement, 134-141; Gerald R. Gates, ―Tule Lake National 

Wildlife Refuge Land Exchange Archaeological Reconnaissance Report‖ (Tulelake, CA: U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service, 1982); Makoto Kowta, ―Tule Lake War Relocation Project‖ in ―Archaeological Overview for the Mt. 

Dome and Timbered Craters Regions, North Central California‖ (Chico, CA: manuscript, California Historic 

Resource Information System, California State University, 1976).
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 147

The Gila River Relocation Center was located on Gila River Indian Tribal land in Arizona.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 60

ironing room, recreation building, and a 1,000-gallon fuel oil tank. Canal Camp included an 

elementary and high school, with an auditorium/gym, home economics building, vocational arts 

building, and athletic fields. Detainees enhanced the landscape of Canal Camp with gardens, 

shade trees, and fish ponds. 

Butte Camp, in the western part of the reserve, was the larger of the two camps and included 821 

buildings. Butte detainee were mainly from urban areas, sent from the Tulare and Santa Anita 

assembly centers. It included essentially the same constellation of buildings, with blocks 

organized in the typical grid with firebreaks. The hospital for both camps was located at the 

Butte facility. A baseball diamond, designed by professional baseball player Kenichi Zenimura, 

could accommodate 6,000 spectators. It has been replaced by an olive grove.

Work opportunities were ample at the Gila River site. Some 500 acres were planted in 

vegetables, flax, cotton, and castor beans. Seed farms and nurseries for ornamental plants were 

also cultivated, and a livestock operation included dairy cows, steers, hogs, and chickens. A 

camouflage net factory operated in the early months of the center.
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148 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Few aboveground historic features remain at the site of the relocation center. At Canal Camp, no 

buildings remain, but roads remain passable and concrete slabs of many of the buildings remain. 

Also evident are foundations of the administration buildings, warehouses and the high school, 

pier footings for barracks, landscaping, traces of irrigation ditches, and most features of the 

sewage treatment plant.

No buildings are left at Butte Camp either. There are concrete slab foundations, manholes, 

cisterns, ditches, and other landscape features. The roads are not as intact as those at Canal 

Camp. An honor roll monument at the Butte Camp was built by the detainees to honor the

Japanese Americans from the Gila River Relocation Center who served in the military during 

World War II. It originally included a reflecting pool and a ramada with concrete benches, but 

the ramada, a flagpole, and the wooden face of the monument that held the list of names are 

gone.

Extensive archeological investigations have taken place at the site of the Gila River Relocation 

Center. At Butte Camp, archeological investigations have yielded information about the location 

of the sewage treatment plant and the dairy, among other sites. Numerous trash dumps 

surrounded by scatters of artifacts have yielded typical artifacts of the period and Japanese 

ceramics. The area between the two camps is now intensively cultivated with orange and olive 

groves, which may have destroyed some archeological sites. Despite this, the site contains other 

archeological sites that are remarkably intact.226

The Gila River Indian Reservation Cultural Center, located four miles north of the camps,

includes an exhibit and outdoor display about the relocation center prepared by the Arizona 

Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. Memorial markers have been placed at the 

two camps. The tribes approved the markers, with the understanding the Japanese American 

community would not ask for National Historic Landmark designation or any other official 

designation. In 1978 a National Register nomination was prepared for one site, but the Arizona 

State Parks Board withdrew the nomination when it learned the tribe would not support it. A 

permit from the Gila River Indian Tribes must be purchased to visit the sites of the relocation

center, although the fee is normally waived for former detainees and their immediate family 

members.

Evaluation. Both camps are historically significant in terms of Criterion 1, and both may be 

eligible for National Historic Landmark designation on this basis and in combination with 

Criterion 6. The integrity of the sites is similar to that of other relocation centers that have been 

designated; however, at this time the Gila River Indian community has not expressed interest in 

official historical designation for the center.

 

226 Richard W. Effland and Margerie Green, ―Cultural Resource Assessment for the Gila River Farms Indian 

Community, GRIC‖ (Phoenix, AZ: Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd., 1983); Scott C. Russell, Karolyn 

Jackman Jensen, and Jon S. Czaplicki, ―The Historic Archaeology and Ethnohistory of a World War II JapaneseAmerican Relocation Center in Central Arizona‖ (Washington, DC: paper presented at Society for Historic 

Archaeology 28th Annual Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology, 1995); Mary Sullivan, Monique 

Sawyer-Lang, Richard W. Effland, Jr., and Margerie Green ―An Archaeological Survey of the Gila River Farms 

Expansion, Pinal County, Arizona‖ (Phoenix, AZ: manuscript, Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd., 1987).
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 149

The monument at the Gila River Relocation Center 

provides a “window” to the surrounding landscape.

National Park Service photo, 1999

Recommendation. If the tribe becomes willing to support designation, both camps should be 

evaluated for possible NHL designation. At this point, Canal Camp has greater integrity,

although Butte Camp, particularly the honor roll memorial, may be eligible for the National 

Register. Neither designation should be pursued without the support of the tribe.

Jerome Relocation Center

Chicot County and Drew County, Arkansas

Background. The Jerome Relocation Center was constructed in 1942 on approximately 500 

acres in Drew and Chicot counties in rural, southeastern Arkansas. The site is located about 120 

miles southeast of Little Rock and about 27 miles south of the Rohwer Relocation Center. The 

small town of Jerome is located to the south. The land for the center was tax delinquent land 

purchased by the Farm Security Administration.

The relocation center was in operation from October 6, 1942, until June 30, 1944. It was the last 

center to open and the first to close. The maximum population of 8,497 consisted of Japanese 

Americans from California and Hawaii. The only known shooting of detainees by local civilians 

happened at this center. When the center closed, the remaining residents were sent to the nearby 

Rohwer Relocation Center. After the Japanese Americans were moved out, German prisoners of 

war were held at the central portion of the Jerome site. Prisoners included a general and his 

orderlies captured at the Battle of the Bulge and captured SS troops. The German prisoners did 

not work in the surrounding agricultural fields.227

 

227 ―Jerome Relocation Center,‖ at http://www.javadc.org/jerome_relocation_center.htm, accessed on 

August 18, 2010,
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150 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The Jerome Relocation Center was developed in the Mississippi River delta region.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 150

Description. The center was located in the Mississippi River delta region, about 12 miles west 

of the river. The low, damp ground was originally covered in forests, but the detainees cleared 

land for farming, dug drainage ditches, and built bridges. Several hundred acres were used to 

grow vegetables, and the center included a hog farm and a saw mill.

Jerome included more than 610 buildings used for housing, police, staff, fire station, health care, 

and mess halls. Although space was reserved for schools, a church, and a store, these structures 

were never built. The residential compound was located at the west edge of the property, 

adjacent to the Missouri Pacific railroad line. The 50-block area was surrounded by a barbed 

wire fence, with seven watch towers spaced around the periphery. The standard grid plan was 

used.

The site of the relocation center is now on privately owned farm land. Of the more than 610 

buildings constructed at Jerome, only two houses, the concrete reservoir, and the smokestack of 

the hospital boiler house are standing. The two houses were built originally by the Farm 

Security Administration and were moved by the WRA to the center. Some foundations remain, 

and raised gravel roads associated with the center are still in use. Most of the land associated 
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 151

The Jerome Relocation Center Memorial is surrounded by the agricultural 

landscape that characterized the site during World War II.

National Park Service photo by Rachel Franklin-Weekley, 2010

with the center is under intensive agricultural cultivation, including the residential compound. 

Foundations are not discernable in the cultivated fields and the forests are gone. The only 

significant aboveground feature remaining in the outlying area is the relocation center's sewage 

treatment plant.

The site is commemorated by a 10-foot tall granite boulder monument on the east side of the 

property. The Jerome Relocation Center and the Rohwer Relocation Center were among the 

sites designated ―Nine in Need: Arkansas Endangered Historic Places‖ in 2010 because of 

neglect and vandalism. Also in 2010, funds were awarded through the Japanese American 

Confinement Sites Grant Program for interpretation projects at the two Arkansas relocation 

centers and for an oral history project involving Hawaiian detainees at the Arkansas camps.

Evaluation. The Jerome site was placed in the Arkansas Register of Historic Places in 2010. It 

is currently being evaluated for National Historic Landmark designation. 

Recommendation. Portions of the site that are eligible for NHL designation should be 

nominated.
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152 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The Minidoka Relocation Center was located in southern Idaho

from Confinement and Ethnicity. 204

Minidoka Relocation Center

Jerome County, Idaho

Background. The Minidoka Relocation Center, also known as the Hunt Site, is located in 

Jerome County, Idaho. The site is located 14 miles east of Jerome and 20 miles northeast of 

Twin Falls. A Jerome county road runs through the middle of the remaining 84 acres in federal 

ownership at the former relocation center.

Construction of the center began on June 5, 1942, and the first evacuees arrived on August 10, 

1942, before construction was completed. The maximum population of the relocation center was 

9,397, reached on March 1, 1943. Minidoka was in operation until October 28, 1945. Once 

military service was re-opened to Japanese Americans, nearly 1,000 men and women from 

Minidoka served in the military, almost ten percent of the center‘s population; two earned a 

Medal of Honor for their service. Seventy-three were killed in action, the largest number of 

battlefield casualties from any of the relocation centers.

The Minidoka Relocation Center was originally conceived as an opportunity to employ 

evacuated Japanese Americans in reclamation efforts in southern Idaho. Although the internees 

prepared some 1,500 acres of land for self-sustaining agriculture, a sweeping reclamation project 

did not become a reality. Instead, internees worked on farms in the area to address the deficit of 

workers lost to the draft. 
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 153

Description. Minidoka was built on 33,000 acres in the high desert of the Snake River plain. 

The region is very cold in the winter and the site became extremely dusty when the native 

sagebrush and grasses were impacted by construction of the site. The administrative and 

residential areas occupied 950 acres in the west-central portion of the center, surrounded by 

barbed wire fencing and eight watch towers. The layout at Minidoka was unusual, due to the 

rugged terrain. The grid site plan was broken into four sections, following the arc of the North 

Side Canal that formed the southwestern boundary of the center. The residential area consisted 

of 35 blocks, separated from the administrative area by wells and a sewage disposal plant. More 

than 600 buildings were constructed at the center and some 1,500 acres were cleared by the 

detainees for agriculture. Besides vegetable crops, the center had hog and chicken operations.

The detainees built a number of recreational facilities, including nine baseball fields, an ice 

skating area, and two swimming pools. They developed a landscaped park and picnic grounds, 

as well as a cemetery. After the war, burials in the cemetery were re-interred elsewhere and the 

cemetery was closed.

The center closed in October 1945 and the land was divided into small farms. Forty-three of the 

farms were allotted in 1947 to World War II veterans, selected by lottery. Each veteran received 

two barracks with the land. Forty-six additional farms were allotted from the center land in 

1949. 

The original 950-acre administrative and residential section is now mostly private land, either 

cultivated or used for grazing. Little aboveground evidence of the site plan is evident. The 

Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) was left with 84 acres on the northeast side of the North Side 

Canal that includes some ruins. Beyond the BOR parcel, few remains of the relocation center are 

evident, except Firehouse No. 1, now a privately owned barn, and a root cellar. A number of 

former center buildings are located on private farms within the boundaries of the relocation 

center; many of these have been altered or moved from their original locations.

Six acres of BOR land at the entrance of the center are listed in the National Register. The parcel 

includes the remaining basalt and concrete walls of the guard house and waiting room, a small 

area across the road from the guard house that once was an ornamental garden, and historic

markers. The markers include interpretive and memorial signs and maps erected by the Bureau 

of Reclamation, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), and the State of Idaho.

The Jerome County Historical Museum has a small display about the relocation center. The 

Museum has acquired two original barracks and moved them to its Idaho Farm and Ranch 

Museum, located 18 miles west of the former center. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)

building adjacent to the museum was a mess hall moved from the center. A large state historical 

marker has been installed east of Jerome on State Highway 25.

The history of Minidoka was thoroughly examined in preparation for its designation as a national 

monument. 228 In addition, extensive archeological investigations were undertaken, revealing 

that considerable above- and belowground archeological resources still exist. Archeological 

 

228 Amy Lowe Meger, ―Minidoka Internment National Monument Historic Resource Study‖ (Seattle: NPS 

Northwest Regional Office, 2005).
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154 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Remnants of the entrance to Minidoka Relocation Center are evident today.

National Park Service photo by Rosemary Masters, 2010

studies addressed the effects of surveillance on detainees, ceramics, garden layout, plantings, 

inscriptions, and other artifacts. Archeological analyses at Minidoka have the potential to 

contribute nationally significant information.229 

Evaluation. Six acres of the Minidoka Relocation Center (formerly administered by the Bureau 

of Reclamation) were listed in the National Register in 1979. In 2001, 73 federally-owned acres 

of the relocation center site, including the six acres listed in the National Register, were declared 

the Minidoka Internment National Monument to commemorate the hardships and sacrifices of 

Japanese Americans confined at the center during World War II.

Recommendation. As a National Monument and a unit of the National Park System, the site 

has been determined nationally significant.

Poston Relocation Center (Colorado River Relocation Center)/Parker Dam Reception Center

La Paz County, Arizona

Background. The Poston Relocation Center was located in rural, southwestern Arizona in La 

Paz County (which was Yuma County in World War II), approximately 110 miles west of 

Phoenix on the Arizona-California border, and 12 miles south of the town of Parker. The center 

was built on tribal land that was part of the Colorado River Reservation. Beginning as one of 

 

229 Burton, Bergstresser, and Tamura, ―Minidoka Internment National Monument: Archaeology at the Gate;‖

Burton and Farrell, This is Minidoka. An Archaeological Survey of Minidoka Internment National Monument, 

Idaho; Cassella, The Archaeology of Institutional Confinement, 134-139.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 155

The Poston Relocation Center was located on the Arizona-California 

border on the Colorado River Reservation.

from Confinement and Ethnicity, 218

two ―reception centers‖ (the other was the Owens Valley Reception Center at Manzanar), the 

Poston facility was occupied before any of the assembly centers could be put into service.

The relocation center included three separate units, Poston I, II, and III, situated three miles 

apart. The maximum population of the center was 17,814, making it Arizona's third largest city 

at the time and the second largest relocation center. Poston was occupied for 43 months, from 

May 18, 1942, until November 28, 1945. Detainee were from the Mayer, Salinas, Santa Anita, 

and Pinedale assembly centers in California.
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156 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The library shows typical construction in the school complex at Poston I.

The ruins of the auditorium can be seen in the background.

Photo by Thomas H. Simmons, November 2010

Description. The Poston camps were located in the Parker Valley, about 21⁄2 miles east of the 

Colorado River. The area is in a remote part of the Sonoran Desert, with hot summers and cool 

winters with cold nights. In an unusual cooperative arrangement between the War Relocation 

Authority and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the center was constructed on lands of the 

Colorado River Indian Tribes, overruling objections of the Tribal Council. The BIA 

administered the center from March 1942 to the end of 1943, apparently as part of a long term 

plan to relocate members of other tribes to the area. The WRA assumed its administration in 

December 1943.230

Poston I, the largest of the three units, was completed first. It was the farthest north of the units 

and had 36 residential blocks, three staff housing areas, warehouses, and an administration area. 

The warehouse area included 42 buildings, as well as a building for ice storage, a butcher shop, a 

box factory, and a crematory. A camouflage net factory was located at the south end of Poston I, 

with a warehouse, weaving shed, cutting shed, office, and latrine. The detainees built a tofu 

factory nearby. A hospital and police compound for the entire center was located at Poston I. 

The hospital included 17 buildings with connecting walkways. Schools were built by the 

detainees, using adobe bricks when lumber was not available. 

Poston II, 31⁄2 miles to the south of Poston I, had the same basic constellation of buildings, but 

the layout featured a large swimming pool, fed by a canal that bisected the complex. This 

middle camp included 18 residential blocks; one was the elementary school. Residents built a 

high school of adobe brick. Staff housing was outside the complex to the east, and the 

administration area was inside the fence at the southeast corner. Warehouses and a garage area 

were located to the south of the administration area and a net factory to the south of them. As at 

 

230 Ruth Okimoto (Poston Restoration Project, Berkeley, CA), in discussion with Marilyn Harper, 8-10-04.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 157

Poston I, the detainees developed a nursery area; this one included a lath house, victory garden, 

and packing shed. A chicken operation was located north of the nursery and a hog operation was 

located between Poston I and II.

Poston III also had 18 residential blocks, with one used as an elementary school and another for 

community services. The detainees built a high school complex that included 10 buildings, all 

built of adobe bricks. The southernmost of the three camps, the residential area at Poston III 

featured a large, central recreational area with two swimming pools. The center also had a net 

factory, a chicken operation, and a farm nursery.

Today, most of the land around the relocation center is irrigated farm fields. Poston I contains

most of the remaining structures in terms of aboveground resources. Most prominent is the 

elementary school complex, consisting of ten adobe classroom buildings connected by a system 

of walkways (originally covered). An associated auditorium burned in recent years, but the 

building‘s ruins remain. The buildings were constructed by detainees, but the BIA, which 

anticipated using the complex after the war as part of its expansion plan, may have been involved 

in their design. A machine shop and portions of four other buildings also survive at Poston I. 

The sewage treatment plants at Poston I, II, and III are intact. Although most of the 

approximately 1,900 buildings constructed at the three camps are gone, remnants of foundations 

or slabs remain at all three camps. The detainee-built irrigation system is still in use. Many 

buildings moved from the relocation center are present in the surrounding area. 

As at other relocation centers, detainees added landscaping, such as ponds, and planted gardens 

and trees, to help abate the summer heat and dust. A nursery was located northwest of the 

barracks, including a number of structures built by internees. A substantial chicken farm was 

located west of the barracks. By 1944, agricultural production at Poston (all three sites) included 

more than 1,400 acres of vegetables and 800 acres of field crops.

A large monument, located along the road at Poston I, was dedicated in 1992. It consists of a 30-

foot-high concrete column with a hexagonal base shaped like a Japanese stone lantern. A nearby 

kiosk that describes tribal and Japanese American history was dedicated in 1995. Both the 

monument and kiosk include interpretive signs that discuss the history of the relocation, Japanese 

American military service, and the Colorado River Indian Tribes reservation.

Evaluation. The elementary school complex at Poston I exhibits sufficient integrity to be 

considered for National Historic Landmark designation. The remainder of the site has lost most 

visible evidence of the relocation center development, with grids of roads and patterns of 

foundations eradicated by agricultural production. An NHL nomination that evaluates the school 

complex under Criterion 1 has been prepared. The site should be evaluated for its archeological 

significance as investigations proceed.

Recommendation. The NHL nomination process should be pursued. 
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158 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Ancillary Relocation Center Facilities (WRA)

The War Relocation Authority operated several sites that supplemented the role of the relocation 

centers as places for supervised recreation or places where detainees could be held temporarily.

Antelope Springs

Millard County, Utah

Description. The WRA used this former CCC camp as a recreation area for detainees at the 

Topaz Relocation Center, located 39 miles to the east. Youth groups were brought here for 

camping, swimming, and hiking. Individuals could obtain passes to hike in the mountains. The 

Antelope Springs camp is important as a recreational facility used by detainees. No buildings are 

extant, but remaining camp features include concrete slab foundations, terraces, rock steps, rock 

alignments, and a gravel walkway. 

Evaluation. Aboveground surveys have indicated archeological deposits and features that date 

to the period of significance. The site is not known to have been evaluated for National Register 

or NHL eligibility.

Recommendation. The Antelope Springs site should be studied for the role it played in the lives 

of youth and adults, and it should be determined if that role is significant. The aboveground 

integrity of the site should be evaluated in terms of the World War II period, and archeological 

resources should be further identified and evaluated. Identification and evaluation activity 

should be followed by nominations, as appropriate.

Cow Creek Camp

Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, California

Description. In December 1942, a small WRA auxiliary camp was established at Cow Creek in 

what was known as the Death Valley National Monument (now the Death Valley National Park). 

Cow Creek was a former CCC facility and the location of the park headquarters. After the unrest 

at Manzanar that sprang from the beating of a JACL leader, detainees who strongly supported the 

center administration were threatened by other detainees. These individuals and their families, 

numbering 65, were moved to Cow Creek for their protection. While residing at Cow Creek, the 

detainees did volunteer work for the park. Within three months, all were placed in jobs away 

from the West Coast and released from custody.

In 1942, the Cow Creek Camp contained about 35 buildings; the WRA used 10 for the former 

Manzanar residents, soldiers, and WRA staff.231 Only a third of the buildings present in 1942 are 

extant aboveground; the CCC swimming pool used by the former Manzanar residents also is 

extant. Two of the buildings (designated CC-39 and CC-49) are believed to have been used by 

the WRA.232 Building 39 was constructed in 1933, and served as an army office, supply room, 

and recreation hall/canteen; subsequently it was used for storage. Building 49 was constructed in 

1933 as an infirmary; subsequently it served a variety of purposes. Although both buildings have 

undergone some exterior and interior changes, buildings 39 and 49 are listed as contributing

 

231 Burton, et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, 338, 342.

232 Linda Greene (Chief of Resources Management, Death Valley National Park), in discussion with Curtis 

Breckenridge, 2002.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 159

resources to the Cow Creek Historic District, determined eligible for listing in the National 

Register for its prewar significance.233 In 2004 the Cow Creek Camp was being used as park 

offices, housing, and maintenance. In January 2010, the cultural resources manager at Death 

Valley noted that a number of the structures and features within the Cow Creek Historic District 

had been altered or modernized, and a few new, non-contributing structures had been added to 

the historic district or nearby. Both NPS and the California SHPO agreed that these alterations 

and additions did not have an adverse effect on the district and ―did not significantly alter or 

change those characteristics that qualify the historic district for inclusion on the NRHP . . . by 

incorporating new structures in the setting and material fabric of the existing historic district.‖234 

Evaluation. In 1989 the Cow Creek Historic District was determined eligible for the National 

Register, based on its association with the Civilian Conservation Corps. A multiple property 

nomination titled ―Residential, Administrative, Maintenance, and Visitor Use Facilities in Death 

Valley National Monument Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps‖ was prepared to evaluate 

the resources in Death Valley for their CCC significance. All were determined to be eligible 

under Criterion A and Criterion C. The Cow Creek Historic District was one of five resources 

determined eligible within the context of the multiple property nomination. Its period of 

significance was considered to be 1933 to 1938. The nomination does not cover the Japanese 

American history associated with the Death Valley National Monument site.

Recommendation. The Cow Creek Historic District does not appear to be eligible for National 

Historic Landmark designation for association with this theme, because of the very short period 

of occupancy. If the district is nominated to the National Register, the documentation should 

reflect the camp‘s association with this theme, and the period of significance should be extended 

to encompass the years of Japanese American occupation. If archeological research is 

undertaken, the property should be evaluated under National Register Criterion D, as well as 

Criterion A.

INTERNMENT/DETENTION FACILITIES

Internment camps held Japanese Americans considered security risks, as well as Japanese aliens 

who were living in the United States and from Central and South American countries. 

Internment camps were operated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the War Relocation 

Authority (WRA). DOJ camps for enemy aliens were operated by the Immigration and 

Naturalization Service (INS) and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Although the FBI was under the 

DOJ and was responsible for arresting those violating the removal operation and curfew, it did 

not directly operate internment camps. The U.S. Army also operated detention facilities, 

described later in this report.

The detention facility to which someone was sent ―depended on several factors, including 

citizenship, perceived level of threat, geography, degree of cooperation or protest, and sheer 

chance. For the most part, the DOJ and U.S. Army camps interned first-generation (Issei) men 

who were arrested by the FBI, while the WRA camps incarcerated both U.S. citizens and 

 

233 Linda Greene, ―Cow Creek Historic District.‖ National Register of Historic Places Nomination, draft on file 

at Death Valley National Park, n.d.

234 Blair Davenport (Cultural Resources Manager, Death Valley National Park), in discussion with Barbara 

Wyatt, January 12, 2010.
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160 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

immigrants affected by the exclusion order.‖ 235 The DOJ internment camps retained evacuees 

longer than the WRA facilities. According to Densho, ―the last internment camp to close was 

Crystal City in January 1948. Upon release, the majority of those who had been incarcerated 

were given only $25 and one-way transportation.‖236

Department of Justice Facilities

Two branches of the Department of Justice (DOJ) were responsible for the detention of some 

Japanese Americans during World War II: the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the Immigration 

and Naturalization Service (INS). BOP was established within DOJ in 1930. INS was 

established in 1933 and transferred to DOJ in 1940. Its functions were re-assigned to the 

Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

Catalina Prison Camp (BOP facility) 

Coronado National Forest, Arizona

Description. The Catalina Prison Camp was located in the Santa Catalina Mountains, northeast 

of Tucson. It was originally developed to house prison laborers helping to build the Catalina 

Highway, near Tucson. Contrary to the intent of the New Deal, which was to provide jobs for 

the millions of Americans out of work during the Depression, the use of prison labor was 

approved on the last day of the Hoover administration. Road construction in the vicinity of the 

camp, including construction of other paved and gravel county and forest roads, was carried out 

by prisoners until 1951. Mary M. Farrell and Jeffery F. Burton explored the history and 

significance of the Catalina Prison Camp in the publication Archaeologies of Internment.

237

Much of the information in this section is borrowed from their chapter in the publication.

Construction on the camp began in 1932 and continued until at least 1940. In addition to 

providing labor for construction of the road, the prison camp provided an opportunity for a wide 

variety of training related to construction and camp operations. Prisoners at the camp had 

committed a range of federal offenses, but during World War II, the facility was used to imprison 

conscientious objectors and draft resisters. Approximately 45 Japanese American draft resisters 

were imprisoned at Catalina, participating in road construction and the labor necessary to operate 

the camp.

The most famous individual held at the Catalina Prison Camp was Gordon Hirabayashi, who had 

served concurrent 90-day sentences in Seattle for violating the curfew imposed on Japanese 

Americans and the removal order. In 1943 the Supreme Court ruled on his case, Hirabayashi v. 

United States, unanimously upholding the constitutionality of the curfew orders, based on the 

principle of ―military necessity.‖ Hirabayashi‘s was the first challenge to the government‘s 

wartime curfew and the confinement of Japanese Americans. He was sentenced to 90 days, 

which he served at the Catalina Prison Camp. Released to Spokane, he later served a year in 

prison for refusing to report for a physical and for induction into the U.S. Army. Hirabayashi‘s 

convictions were overturned in 1986 and 1987. Some 45 Japanese Americans imprisoned at 

 

235 Densho, ―Sites of Shame‖ at http://www.densho.org/sitesofshame/index.html, accessed on August 24, 2010.

236 Ibid.

237 Mary M. Farrell and Jeffery F. Burton, ―Gordon Hirabayashi, the Tucsonians, and the U.S. Constitution: 

Negotiating Reconciliation in a Landscape of Exile.‖ In Archaeologies of Internment, A. Myers and G. 

Moshenska, eds. (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2011).
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 161

This drawing of the Catalina Prison Camp appeared in the July-August 1945 issue of

The Road Runner, published by and for the inmates of the Federal Prison Camp at Tucson.

The artist was Kenneth Burress, art director for the newsletter.

Courtesy of the Coronado National Forest

Catalina were being held for resisting the draft while held at relocation centers. Many of these 

resisters forged lifelong friendships at Catalina, calling themselves the ―Tucsonians‖ and holding 

occasional reunions.

The Catalina Prison Camp included barracks that were segregated by race.238 Other buildings at 

the site included a mess hall, a laundry, a powerhouse, a storeroom, a garage, a vocational 

training shop, and a classroom. It also included buildings for the staff, a chicken and turkey 

farm, and a baseball field. Ten acres were farmed to raise vegetables for the camp. Instead of 

fencing, the compound was marked by boulders painted white. It did not have guard towers.

From 1965 until the early 1970s the camp was used as a facility for juvenile offenders. The State 

of Arizona acquired it in 1967, and all buildings were razed in the 1970s. Concrete slabs and 

masonry retaining walls and stairs remain from the camp construction. The U.S. Forest Service, 

Coronado National Forest, named a campground built at the site for Gordon Hirabayashi. The 

dedication ceremony of the Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site in 1999 was attended by a 

number of Tucsonians and Dr. Hirabayashi. Educational displays have been built at the 

campground, and a trail interprets the camp remains. 

 

238 Nicole Branton, ―Drawing the Line: Places of Power in the Japanese-American Internment Eventscape,‖ PhD 

Dissertation, University of Arizona, 2004, 166.
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162 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Evaluation. In 1986 the site of the prison camp was determined not eligible for the National 

Register when it was evaluated for Section 106 compliance for the widening of the Catalina 

Highway. Today, with more knowledge about the camp‘s role in Japanese American history and 

its association with Gordon Hirabayashi, that evaluation is questioned. According to 

archeologist William Gillespie, the Forest Service now considers the site eligible.239 Mary 

Farrell and Jeffery Burton explain why they believe the camp may be eligible under criteria A, B, 

and D in their chapter in Archaeologies of Internment.

240

 

Archeological investigations by Mary Farrell and others demonstrate the site may have the 

potential to reveal more about the site‘s history and meaning.241 Like many other sites associated 

with the Japanese American wartime experience, the integrity of location, setting, feeling, and 

association at Catalina helps preserve the historicity of the site, despite an absence of standing 

structures. The site presents an opportunity to connect material culture, landscape, and memories 

for purposes of interpretation, management, and commemoration.

Recommendation: The Catalina Prison Camp should be nominated to the National Register for 

its association with the Japanese American resistance movement during World War II and 

Gordon Hirabayashi. To be considered for National Historic Landmark designation for either of 

these associations, a more focused comparison with other related sites needs to be undertaken. 

The site should be studied further archeologically, and evaluated for its significance under 

National Register Criterion D and, if indicated, for its significance under NHL Criterion 6. 

Crystal City Internment Camp (INS facility)

Crystal City, Zavala County, Texas

Description. The INS camp at Crystal City was established to house members of interned 

families together, and to reunite families that had been separately interned. At the outset of the 

war, many interned fathers had been separated from their wives and children. The camp was in 

operation from November 2, 1942, to November 1, 1947. Its peak population was 4,000. The 

Crystal City facility originally was a Farm Security Administration migratory labor camp that 

accommodated about 2,000 people. For conversion to an internment camp, housing was added, 

the facility was fenced, and guard towers were built. 

Two-thirds of the internees were people of Japanese ancestry from the U.S. and Latin America, 

but German, Italian, and Indonesian aliens were interned there as well. German aliens and their 

families were the first to arrive, in December 1942. In March 1943, the first Japanese aliens 

arrived at the Crystal City camp. The camp was divided into areas for different ethnic groups. 

As other internment camps were closed, Crystal City continued to operate, holding those 

transferred from the de-activated camps. The last to be housed at the facility were the Japanese 

Peruvians who were refused re-entry by the Peruvian government at the end of the war. 

Eventually they were offered jobs at the Seabrook Farms cannery in New Jersey, where they 

were sent in 1947. After their departure, the Crystal City facility was closed.

 

239 William Gillespie, in discussion with Barbara Wyatt, July 25, 2011.

240 Farrell and Burton, ―Gordon Hirabayashi, the Tucsonians, and the U.S. Constitution: Negotiating 

Reconciliation in a Landscape of Exile‖ in Archaeologies of Internment, 108.

241 Mary Farrell, ―A Cultural Resources Investigation of the Proposed Mt. Lemmon Highway Staging Ground‖ 

(Report 1986-05-037), Tucson: Coronado National Forest, 1986).
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 163

A stone monument was placed at Crystal City in the 1980s by former

Japanese American internees and family members.

Courtesy of the Texas Historical Commission, 2010

Most traces of the internment facility aboveground have vanished, and the site is now owned by 

the local school district. Three schools with athletic fields are located there, as well as a small 

airport, city social services buildings, and a low-income housing project. Although this 

development has had a significant impact on the site, some remnants of the camp remain: 

concrete slab foundations of housing for camp staff, one building that served as the German 

school, and the swimming/irrigation pool with the foundations of the segregated bathhouses for 

the Germans and Japanese.242 A well and some evidence of the camp roads also remain.

A stone monument commemorating the internment camp was placed on one of the foundations 

in the 1980s by former detainees and their families. Interestingly, it reads, ―World War II 

Concentration Camp.‖ In 2007, a Texas Historical Commission subject marker was placed at 

the site. 

The Texas Historical Commission (THC) was awarded a grant by the Japanese American 

Confinement Sites Grant Program to educate the public about the Crystal City site and its 

significance, using various educational tools. Planning and interpretive activities will be 

undertaken, in partnership with the City of Crystal City, the Zavala County Historical 

Commission, and others. Because it is the state‘s largest wartime family internment camp, the 

THC is particularly interested in highlighting the Crystal City camp; however, another 

confinement site grant will be used to educate the public about the other confinement sites in 

Texas (Camp Kenedy, Camp Seagoville, Fort Sam Houston, and Fort Bliss).243

 

242 William McWhorter (Texas Historical Commission staff), personal communication to Barbara Wyatt, August 

26, 2010. 

243 William McWhorter (Texas Historical Commission staff), personal communication to Barbara Wyatt, August 

27, 2010. 
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164 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Evaluation. The Crystal City Internment Camp has few aboveground remains and the integrity 

of the site has been compromised by new construction. It is not a candidate for National Historic 

Landmark designation under criteria 1 through 5. It has not been investigated for its 

archeological potential.

Recommendation. The remnants from the internment era should be studied for their National 

Register eligibility. Any archeological testing that takes place should include an evaluation of 

significance in terms of the NHL and National Register criteria.

Fort Lincoln Internment Camp (INS facility)

Bismarck, Burleigh County, North Dakota

Description. The Fort Lincoln Internment Camp was located five miles south of Bismarck, 

North Dakota, at a former military base. The earliest brick buildings at the site were built in 

1903 for the military base. In the 1930s the base became the Civilian Conservation Corps state 

headquarters, and during the CCC occupation a number of wooden buildings were constructed at 

the facility. Presumably, buildings were added to accommodate the wartime internment camp.

The first wartime internees at the camp were German and Italian seamen who had been in U.S. 

waters in 1939 when the war started in Europe. In April 1941, 800 Italians were sent to the 

camp, but they were soon sent to Fort Missoula, Montana. The first group of Issei arrived in 

1942, but they were soon transferred to other camps. Until February 1945, the camp was 

occupied solely by German internees. At that time, 650 Japanese and Japanese American 

internees were brought to Fort Lincoln, about half of them ―recalcitrants‖ from the Tule Lake 

Segregation Center and the Santa Fe Internment Camp. These internees had renounced their 

American citizenship and were to be sent to Japan after the war. Others were Japanese nationals 

who would be repatriated after the war. Although the Japanese and Germans were separated 

within the camp, they were allowed to mingle and share some facilities, such as the laundry and 

kitchen.

After the war, Fort Lincoln became the headquarters for the Garrison Division of the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers and the planning center for the Garrison Dam Project. In 1966 the army 

declared the fort surplus and it was remodeled for use as a Job Corps Training Center. When the 

Job Corps closed, Fort Lincoln became a campus for the United Tribes Technical College.

Most of the original brick army buildings are extant, but all of the wooden CCC and internment 

camp buildings were removed and replaced with modern college facilities. A stone entrance 

feature of an unknown date is located at the entrance to the college on State Highway 1804. It is 

unclear if any belowground archeological investigations have been undertaken at the site.

Evaluation. Removal of temporary internment camp buildings and the subsequent development 

of the college campus have resulted in a loss of historic integrity for the internment camp site. 

Until 1945 this site was known more for its association with German POWs; although beginning 

in 1945 it housed people of Japanese descent who were to be sent back to Japan after the war. 

This site has less significance for its association with Japanese American internment than other 

wartime sites. It is not eligible for National Historic Landmark designation for this association. 
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 165

Recommendation. Historic buildings that were used for the internment of Japanese Americans 

and others should be evaluated for nomination to the National Register. The archeological 

significance of the site should be evaluated if archeological investigations are undertaken. 

Fort Missoula Internment Camp (INS facility)

Missoula County, Montana

Description. Fort Missoula was an old army post located near Missoula, Montana. In the 1930s 

it was used as regional headquarters for the CCC and in 1941 it was turned over to the 

Department of Justice. The army barracks and CCC facilities were fenced and used for internee 

housing, and guard towers were added. The internment camp operated from December 1941 

until July 1, 1944.

The first internees were 25 Japanese Americans arrested in Salt Lake City, who arrived on 

December 18, 1941. The number of Issei soon swelled to 633 and by April 1942 more than 

1,000 Italian nationals were at the fort. The Japanese Americans‘ stay at Fort Missoula was 

generally short; they were sent to Fort Missoula to undergo immigration and loyalty hearings. 

When the camp reached capacity, another internment camp was established at Fort Lincoln in 

North Dakota. After the hearings, most of the Issei were transferred to army internment camps 

or to relocation centers. In April 1942, the population of the internment camp peaked at 

approximately 2,000, about half Issei and half Italian aliens. By the end of 1942, only 29 

Japanese Americans were at Fort Missoula, but the Italian national population grew to over 

1,200. In March 1944, 258 Japanese from Hawaii were held briefly at Fort Missoula, before 

being transferred to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The facility was closed July 1, 1944.

Today, several buildings from the fort and internment eras remain. Several officers‘ houses are 

situated on a tree-lined street, and the stone entry posts are located at the original entrance, 

although the fort access road has been relocated. The Post Headquarters, which includes the 

Enemy Alien Hearing Courtroom, also is extant. To the east of the former army barracks, 

foundations, manholes, and a fire hydrant remain from the army years, but there is no aboveground evidence of the CCC occupation. The CCC barracks were removed in the 1950s; some 

were moved to the Montana State Fairgrounds, where they are still in use. One of these was 

returned to Fort Missoula, where the barracks is used to interpret the internment camp. Nearby, 

a guard tower cabin and monument were placed by Eagle Scouts to memorialize the interned 

Americans. The fort is now known as the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula. 

Evaluation. The 32-acre fort was listed in the National Register in 1987 at the state level of 

significance as the Fort Missoula Historic District. Fort Missoula is potentially of exceptional 

national significance in terms of various aspects of its history: as a military post, particularly as 

headquarters for the segregated 25th Infantry Regiment, for its World War I role in training 

skilled mechanics, and as one of the largest Civilian Conservation Corps headquarters in the U.S. 

The site needs to be studied in more detail, particularly in comparison with other internment 

sites, to evaluate its NHL potential based on its Japanese American history. NHL eligibility may 

be based on this aspect of its history, in combination with other aspects of the site‘s history and 

significance. Archeological deposits from the period of significance and from other significant 

periods should be included in an evaluation for NHL eligibility.
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166 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Recommendation. A full evaluation of the site‘s potential for NHL nomination should be made. 

If archeological testing confirms World War II era deposits, the property should be evaluated 

under Criterion 6. If NHL designation is not recommended in terms of any criteria, the site 

should be evaluated for its significance in terms of the National Register.

Fort Stanton Internment Camp (INS facility)

Lincoln County, New Mexico

Description. Fort Stanton is located in an isolated part of New Mexico, north of Ruidoso. In 

1899 the fort was transferred to the Merchant Marine to be used as a tuberculosis sanatorium. 

The first internment camp established by the INS, Fort Stanton was initially used to hold the 

crew of the German luxury liner Columbus, which was rescued off the coast of Cuba on 

December 19, 1939. The crew had scuttled the ship to prevent its capture by the British. 

Rescued by American vessels, the 512 men were first housed at Ellis Island, then sent to Angel 

Island to wait transport back to Germany. When the U.S. entered the war, the Columbus crew 

members were reclassified as enemy aliens and transferred to Fort Stanton, where they were 

housed at a former CCC camp near the fort. Department of Justice patrol agents were recruited 

as guards, and the CCC compound was enclosed with a barbed wire fence.

Between January 1941 and September 1945, 695 German, 21 Italian, and 62 Japanese internees 

were held at Fort Stanton. A separate camp held ―incorrigible agitators‖ transferred from other

INS enemy alien camps. The Department of Justice named this camp ―Japanese Segregation 

Camp #1.‖ By October 1945, 58 people of Japanese descent were housed there.

The aboveground remains of the internment camp include two extant buildings, the remnants of 

two other buildings, the camp swimming pool, and many camp features. Archeological remains 

of the Japanese Segregation Camp #1 have been found, according to Jeffery Burton.244

Evaluation. Fort Stanton was listed in the National Register in 1973; in 2000 the Fort Stanton 

Historic District was expanded, but the site of the segregation camp was not included in the 

boundary expansion. According to the nomination, many of the extant remains appear to be 

associated with the German internees.

Recommendation. The site and its history do not suggest that NHL designation is appropriate 

for association with this theme. The site is most strongly associated with German internees. If 

compelling information becomes evident, particularly from archeological investigations, the site 

should be re-evaluated.

Kenedy Internment Camp (INS facility)

Kenedy, Karnes County, Texas

Description. The INS alien enemy internment camp located at Kenedy, Texas, was developed at 

a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp. It operated from April 21, 1942, to October 1, 

1944. The first internees were 456 German, 156 Japanese, and 14 Italians from Latin America, 

extradited at the urging of the U.S. government for their possible exchange for Allied prisoners 

held in Japan. By 1943, 705 of the approximately 2,000 single male internees held here were of 

 

244 Jeffery Burton, personal communication to Barbara Wyatt, September 2, 2011.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 167

Japanese ancestry, including some who had spent many years in the U.S. Eventually the 

internees were transferred to other facilities and Camp Kenedy was used exclusively for German 

prisoners of war. Japanese POWs were brought to Camp Kenedy after July 1945.

Today, the site is occupied by a residential subdivision and very little remains of the camp 

aboveground. A fountain built by Japanese internees is now in a backyard; nearby, some 

concrete rubble used to construct a retaining wall may be a legacy of the camp. Two pillars on a 

residential street may date from the camp. It does not seem that archeological investigations at 

the site have been undertaken.245 A Texas Historical Commission subject marker was placed at 

the camp cemetery. The Kenedy public library contains materials related to the internment/ 

POW camp and a historic marker downtown mentions the camp.

Evaluation. Development of the subdivision visually erased the camp from the landscape; 

however, archeological deposits could exist. The property is not eligible for designation as an 

NHL.

Recommendation. If archeological testing confirms that deposits date to the period of 

significance, the site should be evaluated for National Register eligibility under Criterion D.

Kooskia Internment Camp (INS facility)

Clearwater National Forest, Idaho County, Idaho

Description. Located at a former U.S. Bureau of Prisons work camp in north-central Idaho, the 

Kooskia INS Internment Camp operated from May 1943 until May 1945, housing a total of 256 

internees. The enemy aliens at Kooskia were all males of Japanese descent, who came from 

many parts of the United States and from Latin America. Internees at Kooskia earned wages 

while helping to construct the Lewis and Clark Highway. Although provisions of the Geneva 

Convention prohibited the conscription of prisoners for this type of labor, all of the Kooskia 

evacuees were volunteers from other INS camps. Interviews with former internees have revealed 

that the men considered this work a positive experience; it made them feel useful and helped 

restore some of the self-respect they had lost because of their internment.246 The men interned at 

Kooskia were praised by the INS for their role in building the Lewis and Clark Highway.

There are no extant buildings at the Kooskia site, but remains of the camp include a concrete pad 

for a water tower, a ball field area, a stone wall, fruit trees, and landscaped terraces. Most of the 

site is forested, so additional remains may be present but not visible. An archeological 

investigation scheduled for the summer of 2010 by the University of Idaho may have provided 

significant information about above- and belowground archeological resources at the camp.

Evaluation. At this time, too little is known about the site to evaluate its eligibility as an NHL 

or for the National Register.

Recommendation. As studies of the site continue and as the role of INS work camps as an 

aspect of internment is better understood, the significance of the site should be evaluated. 

 

245 William McWhorter, personal communication to Barbara Wyatt, August 23, 2010.

246 Priscilla Wegars, ―The Japanese Internment Camp Near Kooskia, Idaho, 1943-1945.‖
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168 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Old Raton Ranch Camp (INS facility)

Santa Fe County, New Mexico

Description. The 32 Japanese American residents of nearby Clovis, New Mexico, an important 

terminal for the Santa Fe Railroad, were taken to this INS camp in January 1942, before 

Executive Order 9066 was issued. The INS classified the Issei adults as enemy aliens; their 

Nisei children had ―volunteered‖ to accompany them. Located at an isolated former CCC camp 

in the Lincoln National Forest, with no jobs and no schools nearby, the internment camp was 

administered from Fort Stanton, 13 miles away. In November 1942, the WRA agreed to accept 

those interned at the Old Raton Ranch, and most went to the Poston and Gila River relocation 

centers. By December 1942 the camp was closed.247

A number of foundations and other remains, such as a Japanese garden, survive at the Baca 

Campground in the Lincoln National Forest. Most remains reflect the CCC camp that operated 

from about 1934 through 1940. The campground has been heavily used and is quite disturbed.248

Evaluation. Additional research is needed for this property to be evaluated for its association 

with this theme. 

Recommendation. The site‘s association with the CCC may be stronger than its association 

with the wartime confinement of Japanese Americans. Any identification and evaluation activity 

in the future, including archeological investigations, should include an assessment of all aspects 

of the history of the site. 

Santa Fe Internment Camp (INS facility)

Santa Fe County, New Mexico

Description. This former CCC camp was expanded by the Department of Justice in 1942. It 

originally held 800 Issei men; some were later transferred to relocation centers or to army 

detention centers at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Lordsburg, New Mexico. From the fall of 1942 until 

early 1943, German and Italian aliens were housed at the Santa Fe Internment Camp. In June 

1945, it held 2,100 Japanese American men, many identified by authorities as among the most 

active pro-Japanese leaders at the Tule Lake Segregation Center. A riot in March 1945 led to the 

incarceration of about 350 internees in the camp stockade and the transfer of others to the Fort 

Stanton Internment Camp.

After the war, the Santa Fe Camp was used as a holding and processing center for other 

internment camps. All property of the camp was sold shortly after last internee left in May 1946. 

The site has been developed into a residential subdivision and has lost all aboveground integrity. 

However, a large boulder with a marker on a small hill overlooking Frank S. Ortiz Park is a 

monument to the site‘s Japanese American wartime history. The title on the marker is 

―Department of Justice Santa Fe Internment Camp.‖ In nearby Rosario Cemetery, grave markers 

note the burials of two individuals of Japanese heritage.

 

247 Tetsuden Kashima, Judgment Without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment During World War II (Seattle: 

University of Washington Press, 2003), 111-113.

248 ―Archaeological Survey Form, Inst. #FS 151,‖ Museum of New Mexico, Laboratory of Anthropology, 1989.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 169

Monument recognizing the Japanese Americans held at the Santa Fe INS camp.

National Park Service photo, c. 2000

Evaluation. If archeological testing is done, the archeological significance of the site should be 

evaluated.

Recommendation. No federal recognition is recommended for this property at this time.

Seagoville Internment Camp (INS facility)

Seagoville, Dallas County, Texas

Description. Located at the Seagoville Federal Reformatory for Women near Dallas, this INS 

camp operated from April 1, 1942, to June 1945. It was originally adapted to house 50 Japanese 

American language teachers from the West Coast. Later, Japanese families from Latin America 

were housed at Seagoville, as well as childless married couples from the U.S. Thus, it served as 

a family camp, much like the facility at Crystal City, Texas. The maximum population at 

Kenedy was 647.

The prison included six dormitories, an auditorium, a school, a vocational arts center, and a 

hospital—all brick buildings. As the population of the camp increased, 50 plywood huts and 

fencing were added to create quarters for families. The huts are not extant.

The twelve brick buildings that remain from the original prison and that were used for the 

internment camp are still in use. Together with their setting, they are reminiscent of Seagoville 

in the years it was used for wartime internment, except for the absence of wartime construction. 

The facility is now used as a minimum security prison for about 850 men.

Evaluation. Because of its consistency over time as a small prison, the Seagoville facility

retains more aboveground integrity than most INS wartime internment facilities. If the site is 

studied in more depth, the significance of the brick buildings, the landscape, and the site‘s 

archeology should be evaluated in terms of the internment camp. Further field investigations 

may suggest the eligibility of the site for the National Register or NHL designation for its 

historical and archeological significance.

Recommendation. The site should be studied in more detail to confirm the integrity of the site, 

its association with the camp, and its significance in terms of other sites.
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170 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Sharp Park Detention Facility (INS facility)

Pacifica, San Mateo County, California

Description. Located at a former California state relief camp adjacent to the Sharp Park Golf 

Course, the Sharp Park INS camp was 12 miles south of San Francisco. It began operation on 

March 30, 1942, apparently using the golf course and the camp. The facility was secured with a 

ten-foot high fence, and additional barracks were built so the camp could accommodate 1,200 

people. ―Quonset huts had been hurriedly set up on a golf course,‖ according to one report.249 

German, Italian, and Japanese immigrant detainees were held at Sharp Park temporarily, then 

sent to permanent facilities. In July 1943, 119 Peruvian Japanese were briefly held at Sharp 

Park, then sent to Fort Missoula. Sharp Park closed in 1946.250

The camp is included on an INS list of alien enemy detention sites and was the subject of a 

newspaper article from the period that indicates that it could hold up to 600 people.251 A 

December 1943 manifest of Japanese relief goods on the exchange ship M.S. Gripsholm shows 

that a small amount of the goods was intended for Sharp Park, suggesting that Japanese nationals 

were interned there.252 Italian enemy aliens also were detained at Sharp Park, some held for as 

long as a year; later, Italian prisoners of war were held at Sharp Park.

Evaluation. The site does not seem to have been evaluated for its historical or archeological 

significance, but its association with this theme seems weak and speculative.

Recommendation. Additional research is needed to determine the strength of this site‘s 

association with Japanese American internment and its historical and archeological significance. 

With current information, it does not appear to be eligible for federal designation for association 

with this theme.

U.S. Federal Penitentiary, Leavenworth (BOP facility)

Leavenworth County, Kansas

Description. In March 1944, 106 Japanese American soldiers assigned to Fort McClellan in 

Alabama protested the confinement of their families by refusing to participate in combat training. 

Twenty-eight were court-martialed and sentenced to the United States Federal Penitentiary at 

Leavenworth. Older draft resisters from the Heart Mountain Relocation Center were imprisoned 

here after their trials at Cheyenne, Wyoming, along with seven leaders of the Heart Mountain 

Fair Play Committee. It is not clear whether they were held in the main building or at the nearby 

Federal Prison Camp, a minimum security facility. Both were operated by the Bureau of Prisons. 

Several local historians claimed they had never heard of the imprisonment of people of Japanese 

descent in Leavenworth during the war. Warren Reed noted that 100 German prisoners of war 

were held in Barracks 5 (no longer extant) at the ―local VA facilities during W.W.II.‖253 Virgil 

 

249 American Italian Historical Association, Western Regional Chapter, ―Una Storia Segreta‖ at 

www.io.com/~segreta, accessed in 2001.

250 ―German American Internee Coalition,‖ at http://www.gaic.info/camp_temporary.htm, accessed on August 3, 

2010.

251 ―193 Aliens, Chiefly Japanese, Moved to Sharp Park Camp to Ease Immigration Station,‖ The San Francisco 

News, March 31, 1942, at www.sfmuseum.org/hist8/sharppark.html (Museum of San Francisco), accessed in 2001.

252 Weglyn, Years of Infamy, 176.

253 Warren L. Reed, personal communication to Barbara Wyatt, August 25, 2010.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 171

Dean, editor of Kansas History, a publication of the Kansas Historical Society, noted that to his 

knowledge no people of Japanese descent were interned in Kansas during the war. In fact, 

―opposition to the very idea erupted early and was really nasty.‖ For example, on April 1, 1942, 

the Kansas City Times reported that ―Governor Ratner Wednesday ordered ports of entry and 

highway patrolmen to bar all Japanese from Kansas.‖ The governor ―sent a telegram to 

Secretary of War Stimson which stressed the  ̳increasing concern‘ regarding the yellow visitors

. . . while Kansas will not oppose properly guarded concentration camps, the state did not desire 

to accept the foreign visitors on any other basis.‖ On April 14, the newspaper reported that 

Kansas had not been selected as the site for a War Relocation Authority facility, and noted that 

―The relocation program is being directed by Milton Eisenhower, formerly of Kansas.‖ 254 

Regardless of public sentiment, the federal government may have imprisoned Japanese or 

Japanese Americans at the federal penitentiary.

The U. S. Disciplinary Barracks (USDB) at Fort Leavenworth is a separate prison, which has 

been operated by the U. S. Army since 1940. Established in 1873, it was operated by the 

Department of Justice in its earlier history. Eight Japanese American soldiers in the 1800th

Engineer General Service Battalion, stationed at Camp Shelby, called attention to the 

discriminatory treatment received by Japanese American soldiers and requested to be discharged. 

Their requests remained unacknowledged and ultimately they refused to work and resisted 

orders. They were dishonorably discharged and sentenced to the U.S. Penitentiary at Fort 

Leavenworth in March 1944, but served their sentence at the USDB at Fort Leavenworth.255 

This is the only known connection between Japanese Americans and the USDB at Fort 

Leavenworth during World War II.

Evaluation. The United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB) at Fort Leavenworth is within the 

Fort Leavenworth Military Reservation Historic District, designated a National Historic 

Landmark in 1966. Evaluation activity at the U. S. Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth is not 

known, particularly in terms of World War II.

Recommendation. Additional research is needed for an accurate understanding of the role the 

U.S. Federal Penitentiary played in the imprisonment of Japanese and Japanese Americans 

during World War II. Available information does not indicate a strong relationship between this 

theme and the federal penitentiary; however, if connections are discovered, the property should 

be evaluated for significance and integrity. The imprisonment of Japanese Americans at the 

USDB is not mentioned in the NHL nomination. If updated in the future, this could be 

mentioned in the revisions. 

U.S. Federal Penitentiary, McNeil Island (BOP facility)

Steilacoom, Pierce County, Washington

Description. Younger draft resisters from the Heart Mountain Relocation Center were 

imprisoned at the McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary after their convictions in Cheyenne, 

Wyoming. After completing his concurrent sentences for violating curfew and evacuation 

orders, Gordon Hirabayashi was convicted of draft resistance and served his sentence at the 

McNeil Island Penitentiary. Conscientious objectors also were incarcerated here. Until recently, 

 

254 VirgilDean, in discussion with Christy Davis, August 26, 2010.

255 Shirley Castelnuovo, Soldiers of Conscience: Japanese American Military Resisters in World War II

(Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008), 68-73.
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172 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

the penitentiary was known as the McNeil Island Corrections Center and was administered by 

the Washington State Department of Corrections. It is now closed. 

Evaluation. Identification and evaluation activity in terms of the NHL or National Register is 

not known.

Recommendation. Additional research is needed for the significance of this site in terms of the 

detention of Japanese Americans to be evaluated.

U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis Island (INS facility)

Statue of Liberty National Monument, New York

Description. During World War II, the U.S. Immigration Station at Ellis Island in Upper New 

York Bay was used for the detention of Japanese, German, and Italian enemy aliens from the 

East Coast. Some of those detained on the island were waiting for a hearing that would 

determine if they would be deported, repatriated, or expatriated. Ellis Island also served as a 

way station for those being transferred between internment camps. Internees were held in the 

baggage and dormitory buildings. In December 1941, 279 Japanese, 248 Germans, and 81 

Italians were held here. Most people were held at Ellis Island for one to four months, but several 

hundred were brought to the island each month. By June 30, 1944, a single Japanese enemy 

alien was in INS custody at Ellis Island.

In July 2010 an exhibit ―Go For Broke: Japanese American Soldiers Fighting on Two Fronts‖ 

opened at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. The opening of the exhibit was timed to 

coincide with the 125th anniversary of the arrival of Japanese settlers in America, although the 

experiences of Japanese Americans in World War II—in combat and on the home front—are a 

major focus of the exhibit. The exhibit will be taken to other locations after its Ellis Island 

showing.256

Evaluation. The immigration station is a part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, 

established in 1965. It was listed in the National Register in 1966. Extensive archeological 

research has been done at the site.257

Recommendation. Because Ellis Island has been designated a National Monument and a unit of 

the National Park System, it is already recognized as nationally significant. Interpretation of the 

site should include Japanese American aspects of its history and related archeology. 

U.S. Immigration Station, Oahu (INS facility)

Honolulu County, Hawaii

Description. The U.S. Immigration Station was located on Oahu in buildings that now house the 

Honolulu Immigration and Naturalization Service. The three buildings that exist at the complex 

consist of the main building, a two-story building, and a one-story annex. The main building, 

designed by Hawaiian architect Charles W. Dickey, was built in 1933. The entire building is 

 

256 Hokubei Online, (http://www.hokubei.com/en/neews/2010/07/Go-Broke-Exhibit-Open-Ellis-Island-Museum), 

accessed on November 10, 2010.

257 Kristen Heitert, ―Ellis Island, Public Archaeology Lab,‖ in Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology 

Newsletter, vol. 65, 2006, 10.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 173

concrete, even elements that appear to be wood. Japanese Americans from Oahu were taken to 

the Immigration Station beginning on December 7, 1941, with the arrests of people considered 

threats. People from other islands were brought to the Immigration Station before being sent to 

Sand Island. Japanese Americans were held in the courtyard and in holding cells, still extant, in 

back of the main building.

Evaluation. The Immigration Station, including 3.1 acres, was listed in the National Register of 

Historic Places on August 14, 1973, at the state level of significance for its architectural and 

historical significance.

Recommendation. Further information is needed on the role of the Immigration Station during 

the war in terms of Japanese Americans for the facility to be evaluated for NHL significance in 

terms of this theme.

War Relocation Authority Detention Facilities

Leupp Isolation Camp

Leupp, Coconino County, Arizona

Description. Located at an abandoned Indian boarding school on Navajo lands, this WRA camp 

operated from April 27 until December 2, 1943. The total population was 71. Inmates held at 

the Moab Isolation Center were transferred to Leupp in order to be reunited with their families. 

―Incorrigibles‖ continued to be held in a separate compound at Leupp. When Leupp was closed, 

the inmates were transferred to the Tule Lake Segregation Center.

A few aboveground remnants and one building are present at the site of the Leupp Isolation 

Center, but the site requires further study to assess its integrity and information potential. 

Discrete archeological deposits from the period of significance are possible.

Evaluation. Identification and evaluation activity at this site has not been determined.

Recommendation. With the information available, the property does not seem to be eligible for 

NHL designation for association with this theme. Its occupation was short and few Japanese 

Americans were held compared to other sites. However, further research and archeological 

investigations may clarify its significance in terms of detention facilities for Japanese Americans 

during World War II.

Moab Isolation Center

Grand County, Utah

Description. The former Dalton Wells CCC camp was used by the WRA from January 11, 

1943, to April 27, 1943, to hold men identified by various relocation center directors as 

―troublemakers.‖ Restrictions on the men at Moab were more severe than those at the relocation 

centers. For example, they were not permitted to visit the town, their mail was censored, and 

they were not allowed contact with their families. Twenty-six inmates at Moab came from 

Manzanar, 13 from Gila River, and 15 from Tule Lake. The isolation center was moved to 

Leupp, Arizona, on April 27, 1943. 
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174 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Camp Tulelake is located about two miles north of the Klamath Basin Refuge Visitor Center.

Map courtesy of the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service

No buildings are extant at Moab, but some concrete foundations are visible and roads are 

discernible. Some pathways are visible and a stone reservoir is intact. It is not known if 

archeological investigations have led to a better understanding of the site during the Japanese 

American occupation.

Evaluation. The property was listed in the National Register in 1994 as the ―Dalton Wells CCC 

Camp/Moab Relocation Center,‖ under Criterion A at the national level of significance. Its 

Japanese American history contributed to its significance.

Recommendation. Due to its listing in the National Register at the national level, NHL 

eligibility should be evaluated as further research and archeological investigations clarify 

whether the site has exceptional national significance.

Camp Tulelake

Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, California

Description. Camp Tulelake was established in 1935 as a CCC camp to provide labor for 

development of the Klamath Reclamation Project. In June 1935 construction of the camp‘s 23 

buildings was initiated. The camp was operational until the summer of 1942, when enrollees left 

to join the war effort.258

 

258 ―Camp Tulelake,‖ at www.nps.gov/tule, accessed on August 3, 2010, 1.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 175

In March 1943 more than 100 men from the Tule Lake Relocation Center were sent to Camp 

Tulelake, because they had refused to answer the loyalty questionnaire. They remained at the 

camp for several months, contributing to various construction or repair projects, then they were 

returned to the Tule Lake Relocation Center, or sent elsewhere. In October 1943 (by then the 

relocation center had been designated a segregation center), 243workers were transferred from 

other centers to harvest the Tule Lake crops. Tule Lake workers had gone on strike because the 

harvests were slated for other camps. For their own protection, the imported workers were 

housed at Camp Tulelake.

Between 1944 and 1946, the camp was used to hold Italian and German POWs. At its peak it 

held 800 German POWs, transferred from Camp White in Oregon.259 In 1946 the camp was 

transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and most of the camp construction was razed.

Four buildings used by the WRA remain aboveground: a barracks, the kitchen/mess hall, the 

garage/storage/ shop, and the paint shop. Until recently, all four buildings were in poor 

condition and their future seemed uncertain. In 2006, a Preserve America grant was used to 

begin stabilization of the barracks. Archeological resources may be present at the site, but the 

extent and integrity of these resources is unknown. Camp Tulelake is now part of the World War 

II Valor in the Pacific National Monument.

Evaluation. Further research and archeological investigations are needed to clarify the 

significance of Camp Tulelake in terms of ancillary segregation facilities, particularly any related 

to disobedience and labor strikes.

Recommendation: The site, the remaining construction, and archeology at the WRA camp 

should be evaluated for significance in terms of all NHL and National Register criteria.

Other Internment/Detention Facilities

Wailua County Jail

Kauai County, Hawaii

Description. The county jail was used to assemble people on Kauai who were arrested after the 

Pearl Harbor attack. About 24 people remained there until the following June; others were

transferred to different facilities. The county jail was a two-story concrete block building, which 

no longer exists, located at the site of the Kauai Community Correctional Center.260

Evaluation. Because the building no longer exists and the site has been altered, the aboveground integrity of the site is poor. It is not clear if archeological investigations have been made, 

but the potential for eligibility under Criterion 6 seems remote.

Recommendation. Not enough remains of the facility aboveground to warrant NHL 

designation, but, if archeological investigations reveal the potential for information, the site 

should be evaluated in terms of National Register eligibility.

 

259 Ibid., 2.

260 Jeffery Burton and Mary Farrell, ―World War II Japanese American Internment Sites in Hawai‘i‖ (Honolulu: 

Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i, 2007), 22.
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176 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Wailuku County Jail

Maui County, Hawaii

Description. The Wailuku County Jail no longer exists, but it was located in downtown 

Wailuku. Built in 1907, internees from Lanai and Molokai may have been brought to the 

Wailuku County Jail when arrests were made after Pearl Harbor.261 The site seems to be 

occupied by a nine-story office building.

Evaluation. The severe loss of integrity above- and belowground precludes NHL eligibility.

Recommendation. Federal historic designation is not warranted for this site.

U.S. ARMY FACILITIES

U.S. Army Facilities used for Training and Administration

Camp McCoy/Fort McCoy

Monroe County, Wisconsin

Description. The Hawaiian Provisional Battalion, transferred to the mainland and re-designated 

as the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) in June 1942, received its basic training at a new, 

―temporary‖ cantonment, then under construction at Camp McCoy. The camp was located at a 

former CCC camp, nine miles west of Tomah, Wisconsin. For the first three months of their 

training, the men of the 100th Battalion stayed in the former CCC housing; they spent their 

second three months in the newly constructed cantonment area. In February 1943, the 100th was 

transferred to Camp Shelby in Mississippi for advanced training and maneuvers.

A U.S. Army Internment Camp was located on the old part of the camp, across the road from the 

new cantonment area. The first enemy aliens held in the facility, Germans and Japanese, arrived 

in March 1942. Individuals of Japanese ancestry were transferred to Camp McCoy from the 

Sand Island Detention Camp in Hawaii, but were subsequently dispersed to other INS camps. 

The number of enemy aliens held at Camp McCoy was limited to 100 during the time the 100th

Battalion was stationed there. When the Japanese American battalion was transferred to Camp 

Shelby, the internment camp returned to its 1,000-person capacity, but all enemy aliens were 

soon transferred back to INS camps. The internment camp was de-activated and the area 

subsequently was used as a prisoner-of-war camp. The POW camp at Camp McCoy operated 

until 1946, holding more Japanese prisoners of war than any other POW camp in the U.S. 262 

Now called Fort McCoy, the facility is an active military base.

Little remains of the enemy alien and POW camp aboveground, but the cantonment area where 

the Japanese American soldiers stayed maintains some integrity to its World War II 

appearance.263 Of the 1,559 buildings from that period, 1,100 remain and are still used, although 

 

261 Ibid., 37-38.

262 Heather L. Spencer, ―Archaeological and Documentary Investigation of Fort McCoy‘s Japanese Prisoner of War 

Camp, South Post, Fort McCoy,‖ Reports of Investigation No. 5, Fort McCoy Archaeological Resource 

Management Series (Fort McCoy, WI: 1996), 15.

263 Dell Greek (USAR Cultural Resources Program Manager, Fort McCoy), in discussion with Curtis Breckenridge, 

2001.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 177

The barracks at Fort McCoy have been modernized and are still in use.

National Park Service photo by Michele Curran, 2010

most have been remodeled to some degree. To date, documentation identifying the barracks that 

were occupied by the 100th Infantry Battalion is not conclusive.264 A monument at the site 

commemorates its use as a training camp. Several archeological studies have been done at the 

site, from all periods of its occupation.

Evaluation. Although potentially eligible for NHL designation based on its significance and 

integrity, because the fort is an active military base, the army has no interest in nominating the 

site.

Recommendation. If it is conclusively established that resources associated with training 

Japanese American soldiers exist and if the army becomes interested in nominating them, the 

cantonment associated with training of Japanese American soldiers should be evaluated for 

significance and integrity and for the strength of association with the theme. The information 

potential of the archeology at the site also should be evaluated.

Camp Savage

Savage, Scott County, Minnesota

Description. In 1942 the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) moved from 

the Presidio in San Francisco to Camp Savage, Minnesota. Minnesota was selected for the 

school, in part, because relatively little racial discrimination was expected in that state. On June 

1, 1942, the first classes began at Camp Savage, with 200 students. As the school grew, three 

separate camps were occupied. The accelerating war in the Pacific fueled the demand for more 

translators. Additional facilities were constructed, but eventually the school outgrew Camp 

Savage and in August 1944 the MISLS was moved to Fort Snelling, Minnesota.

The last remnants of the camp seem to have been destroyed by the construction of an industrial 

park in the 1980s. However, two surviving buildings are reported to be in their original 

 

264 Linda Fournier, in discussion with Barbara Wyatt, September 29, 2011.
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178 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

locations, and other buildings were relocated to the surrounding area.265 It is unclear if any 

archeological investigations have been done to locate associated archeological remains. Camp 

Savage is commemorated by a Savage Chamber of Commerce historical marker.

Evaluation. The site is historically significant, but because of the severe loss of aboveground 

integrity due to construction of the industrial park, it is not eligible for NHL designation under 

criteria 1 through 5. It is unlikely that an archeological site of national significance exists, 

precluding eligibility under Criterion 6.

Recommendation. The remaining buildings, especially those in their original settings, should 

be evaluated for National Register eligibility. If archeological investigations are undertaken, the 

site should be evaluated for National Register eligibility under Criterion D.

Camp Shelby

Forrest County, Mississippi

Description. Camp Shelby is located in southern Mississippi, near Hattisburg. Developed in the 

DeSoto National Forest, Camp Shelby was activated in 1917 to train World War I troops. More 

than 1,200 buildings were constructed for the World War I facility, although soldiers were 

housed in tents. After the war, the camp was deactivated and all but four buildings were 

demolished. Only the ammunition storage building remains from the World War I period. The 

State of Mississippi acquired the camp in 1934 to use as a summer camp for National Guard 

troops. In 1938 the ―White House‖ was built as a WPA project. It served as offices and quarters 

for the camp commander and staff. That same year, the facility was used for U.S. Army 

maneuvers, and reopened as a federal training facility in 1940.266

More than 1,800 buildings and 250 miles of roads were constructed at the camp, with more than 

1,000 square miles used for the training facility. Construction costs were $24 million. The 

population at Camp Shelby exceeded 100,000 at one time, making it the largest training center in 

the world.267 Soldiers were still housed in tents. The Women‘s Army Corp, a large convalescent 

hospital, and a prisoner of war camp also were located at Camp Shelby. 

Camp Shelby served as the training base for the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat 

Team (RCT), which was transferred to the Mississippi facility from Camp McCoy in Wisconsin. 

The 100th Battalion was stationed at Camp Shelby for advanced training and maneuvers in 

February 1943; the battalion left for North Africa in August. The 442nd RCT was at Camp 

Shelby from early summer 1943 until the spring of 1944; on May 1, it left for Europe. While in 

Italy, the 100th Battalion was attached to the 442nd RCT. By this, it became the first battalion of 

the all-Nisei unit, although it retained its separate numerical designation. 

After the war, the post was again deactivated, with all federally owned property sold, even the 

water pipes, most going to Oklahoma City. During the Korean Conflict the camp was once more 

used for training, and in 1954 National Guard troops trained there. In 1956, the Continental 

 

265 Scott Anfinson (Minnesota Historical Society), in discussion with Curtis Breckenridge, 2001; Susan Roth 

(Minnesota Historical Society), in discussion with Marilyn Harper, 2004.

266 ―Camp Shelby, History of Training Camp during WW2 & Today‖ at http://www.custermen.com/AtTheFront/ 

CampShelby.htm, accessed on August 2, 2010, 1.

267 Ibid., 2.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 179

Army Command designated Camp Shelby as a Permanent Training Site. In 1959 the army 

approved a development plan for the camp, and adopted it as ―the model for future construction 

at all field training sites.‖ 268 Today, Camp Shelby is a state-operated training facility for the 

Mississippi National Guard. It encompasses 134,820 acres, and is considered the largest stateowned and operated field training site in the U.S. 

Few aboveground historic resources remain at Camp Shelby from the World War II period, 

perhaps limited to four buildings and the road network. Cinder block structures have replaced 

those that were removed or demolished. The Armed Forces Museum at the camp serves as a 

military museum for Mississippi. In 2003, Senator Daniel Inouye was the keynote speaker for 

the dedication of a monument to the members of the 442nd RCT at Camp Shelby. Senator Inouye 

served with the RCT and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Congressional 

Medal of Honor.

269

Evaluation. Two of the remaining historic buildings are listed in the National Register. The 

World War I ammunition magazine was listed in 1992 at the state level for its WWI significance 

and the ―White House,‖ the 1938 WPA-constructed building, was listed in 1997 for its WPA and 

military significance. Both are Mississippi state landmarks.270 It is not evident that 

archeological investigations have been undertaken.

Recommendation. The site should be evaluated for its significance and integrity in terms of all 

NHL criteria and the inclusive history of the camp, not simply for its association with the 442nd

RCT.

Fort Snelling

Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota

Description. The Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) was moved to Fort 

Snelling in August 1944, after outgrowing the facilities at Camp Savage. U.S. operations against 

Japan accelerated after Germany was defeated in the spring of 1945. Additional linguists were 

needed, and changes were made in the training program to produce Japanese linguists as quickly 

as possible. Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945, but the number of MISLS students peaked 

in 1946, as linguists were even more in demand for the occupation of Japan. In that year, the 

school had 3,000 students, 160 instructors, and over 125 classrooms.271 In June 1946, the final 

Fort Snelling class graduated and the MISLS moved back to the West Coast, to the Presidio of 

Monterey.

Several buildings associated with the language school are extant, including Building 17 and 

Building 18, which housed MISLS students, and Building 57, the MISLS headquarters. 

Buildings 101, 102, and 103, barracks that served as MISLS classrooms, are extant but in poor 

 

268 Ibid., 3.

269 Dottie Gibbons (Mobile District, Army Corps of Engineers), in discussion with Curtis Breckenridge, 2001.

270 Vicky Meyers (Mississippi National Register coordinator) in discussion with Barbara Wyatt, August 26, 2010.

271 Masaharu Ano, ―Loyal Linguists–Nisei of World War II Learned Japanese in Minnesota‖ Minnesota History

45:7 (1977), 282.
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180 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

condition.272 It is not clear if archeological investigations have taken place. Now a park, the 

Fort Snelling State Park presents information about the long history of the fort, including its role 

as the Military Intelligence Service Language School.

Evaluation. Fort Snelling was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 for its 

significance as the first U.S. military installation in present-day Minnesota and for its role as an 

army training center from the Civil War through World War II. 

Recommendation: Consideration should be given to amending the NHL documentation for Fort 

Snelling to reflect its significance as the home of the MISLS during World War II. If 

archeological resources are discovered, they should be evaluated for their NHL or National 

Register eligibility.

The Presidio of San Francisco, Buildings 35 and 640

Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, California

Description. Two buildings at The Presidio have a connection to the wartime experience of 

Japanese Americans. Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, commander of the Western Defense 

Command and the U.S. 4th Army, issued the public proclamations and civilian exclusion orders 

that implemented Executive Order 9066 from Building 35. The Military Intelligence Service 

Language School (MISLS) began classes in Building 640 on November 1, 1941. The building 

was the former air mail hangar at Crissy Field, and it served as classrooms and barracks for the 

first class of MISLS students. After this class graduated, the school was moved to Minnesota, 

ostensibly because larger and better facilities were required. The intense anti-Japanese sentiment 

of the public in California and the antipathy of the Western Defense Command likely contributed 

to the decision.

Evaluation. The Presidio of San Francisco was designated a National Historic Landmark 

district in 1962 for its significance as a military post used by Spain, Mexico, and the United 

States, and for its military buildings, planning, and landscaping spanning many decades of 

development. Buildings 35 and 640 were identified as contributing elements in this historic 

district. In 1994, the Presidio became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and it 

has been jointly managed by the National Park Service and the Presidio Trust since 1998. A 

great deal of archeological research has been undertaken at The Presidio, but it is not clear if any 

investigations have focused on the Japanese American period at the MISLS.

Lieutenant General DeWitt‘s office, on the second floor of Building 35, has a high degree of 

integrity. The school that signed a long-term lease for the building in 2004 was committed to 

interpreting the history of the building in a display in the lobby and in DeWitt‘s office.273 In 

1997, the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS) entered into a memorandum 

of agreement with the NPS to jointly interpret the story of Japanese Americans at the Presidio. 

The NJAHS will be rehabilitating Building 640 for use as an MISLS interpretive center.

 

272 Steve Osman (Director, Historic Fort Snelling), in discussion with Curtis Breckenridge, 2001.

273 Max Millard, ―Bay School in San Francisco‘s Presidio,‖ Marina Times, September 2004 at .http://maxmillard.

com/articles/baysch.htm , accessed on July 14, 2011.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 181

Recommendation: The documentation for The Presidio NHL should be amended to reflect its 

significance to the confinemement of Japanese Americans, in terms of the proclamations and 

civilian exclusion orders, and the involvement of Japanese Americans in the MISLS. Any 

archeological investigations should be evaluated for significance in terms of this theme.

U.S. Army Internment/Detention Facilities

Camp Florence

Florence, Pinal County, Arizona

Description. The only evidence of a connection between Japanese Americans and Camp 

Florence during World War II is a December 1943 manifest of relief goods carried on the 

exchange ship M.S. Gripsholm. The manifest directed a small amount of these goods to Camp 

Florence.274 Between 1942 and 1946, the 311 buildings constructed at this site are known to 

have been used for a POW camp. All that remains aboveground is the incinerator building, a 

water tank, nurses‘ quarters, an administration building, and portions of the infrastructure. They 

are on the property known as the Florence Garden Mobile Home Park. 

Evaluation. There does not seem to have been any evaluation activity at this site.

Recommendation. Additional research is needed before the wartime significance of this 

property can be evaluated, but NHL eligibility is doubtful based on an association with this 

theme.

Camp Forrest

Tullahoma, Coffee County, Tennessee

Description. Camp Forrest was located in a rural part of Tennessee, some 70 miles south of 

Nashville. The army began operating an alien enemy internment camp at Camp Forrest on May 

12, 1942. The internee population averaged about 200 until November 1942, when 600 internees 

from Fort Meade, Maryland, were transferred to Camp Forrest. In January 1943, the internee 

population consisted of 700 Germans, 1 Italian, 2 Japanese, and one person categorized as 

―miscellaneous.‖275 In May 1943, all civilian internees were transferred to INS custody, and 

internees at Camp Forrest with families were transferred either to Seagoville or Crystal City, 

Texas; single males were sent to Fort Lincoln in North Dakota.

One source notes that ―little or nothing remains on the site.‖276 This observation probably does 

not include archeological resources, which could be important in terms of the U.S. Army‘s 

internment and POW programs during the war.

Evaluation. There does not seem to have been any evaluation activity or archeological testing at 

this site.

 

274 Weglyn, Years of Infamy, 176.

275 John A. Heitmann, ―Enemies Are Human.‖ Paper presented at the Dayton Christian-Jewish Dialogue, May 

10, 1998, at www.foitimes.com/internment/enemy1.htm, accessed on July 14, 2011.

276 ―German American Internee Coalition,‖ at http://www.gaic.info/camp_usarmy.htm, accessed on August 3, 

2010.
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182 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Recommendation. Additional research is needed to confirm a link between this property and 

the wartime experience of Japanese Americans, although its NHL eligibility for association with 

this theme is unlikely because its link is weak compared to other resources. 

Camp Livingston

Colfax (vicinity), Rapides Parish and Grant Parish, Louisiana

Description. Originally called Camp Tioga, the U. S. Army facility in Louisiana was only open 

during World War II. It was developed at the Kisatchie National Forest, which was cutover land 

when purchased by the U. S. government beginning in 1929. Much of the land was reforested by

the CCC, but at the outbreak of World War II the army developed several installations at the 

national forest, including Camp Livingston, which became an important army training facility.277

The camp included an alien enemy internment camp that housed over 900 people of Japanese 

ancestry (400 from the West Coast, 354 from Hawaii, and 160 from Panama and Costa Rica). 

The confined included Masuo Yasui, the father of Minoru Yasui, who was the plaintiff in the 

curfew violation case that was taken to the Supreme Court. Camp Livingston was used to hold 

enemy aliens from the spring of 1942 until May 1943, when the custody of civilian internees was 

transferred to the INS. After the enemy aliens were removed, Camp Livingston served as a 

POW camp for German, Italian, and Japanese soldiers. With the end of the war, Camp 

Livingston was abandoned and the buildings were salvaged. Although now forested, foundations 

and other infrastructure from the World War II camp are evident.278

Evaluation. Some archeological testing has been conducted at the site, but its National Register 

eligibility has not been evaluated.

Recommendation. Additional research is needed for the significance and integrity of this site in 

terms of the Japanese American wartime experience to be fully evaluated, but it seems to be a 

weak candidate for NHL eligibility.

Camp Lordsburg

Hidalgo County, New Mexico

Description. Beginning construction in early 1942, this was the only U.S. Army internment 

camp specifically constructed to house Japanese Americans. The remainder of new facilities 

were constructed by the WRA and the DOJ. In July 1942, 613 Issei men were transferred to 

Camp Lordsburg from Fort Lincoln. The total number of prisoners eventually reached 1,500. 

The most notorious incident at the camp happened on July 27, 1942, when two critically ill 

evacuees were shot by a guard. By July 1943, the Japanese Americans were gone, but the camp 

housed 4,000 Italian POWs between 1943 and 1945.

The former camp site, located on POW Road, is now privately owned. One surviving hospital 

 

277 Mark Gutzman, Kitsatchie National Forest, in personal communication with Barbara Wyatt, 

September 29, 2011.

278 United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, ―Kitsatchie National Forest Heritage History,‖ at 

http://www.fs.fed.us/outernet/r8/kisatchie/kisatchie_national_forest/heritage_program/archeological%20history, 

accessed on September 29, 2011.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 183

building has been altered for residential use; another is used for storage. The camp water tower 

and water treatment plant and a very small concrete vault-like building survive. The most 

important of the remaining aboveground features is a decorative U.S. seal made of pebbles 

embedded in concrete. Otherwise, little of the camp is left aboveground. The Hidalgo County 

Museum in Lordsburg features an exhibit about the camp, including artifacts recovered from the 

site.

Evaluation. There does not seem to have been evaluation activity at this site.

Recommendation. If the owners are interested, additional research and archeological testing 

would be needed for the significance and integrity of this site in terms of the Japanese American 

wartime experience to be fully evaluated. It seems to be a weak candidate for NHL eligibility, 

but may have some potential for National Register eligibility.

Fort Bliss

El Paso County, Texas

Description. In 1942, 73 Japanese American Issei were reportedly transferred from the INS 

Santa Fe Detention Camp to Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas. Fort Bliss was one of the earliest 

installations on the western frontier. A military post was established in the vicinity of El Paso in 

about 1848; in 1854 it was named Fort Bliss for Lt. Col. William Wallace Smith Bliss, who was 

Adjutant General to Zachary Taylor in Mexico and Taylor‘s personal secretary when he became 

president.

The post moved to several locations around El Paso before it was permanently established 

northeast of town in about 1890. Important for its role as a major installation on the Mexican 

border, Fort Bliss was the base for a number of cavalry regiments. In 1940 it began to be used to

train antiaircraft regiments, eventually becoming the center of the army‘s antiaircraft training

program. Post-war, it developed into a premier guided missile range.279

The relationship of Japanese Americans to the base is not known—where they stayed and the 

duration of their internment. According to Jeffery Burton, the three graves of Japanese 

Americans in the cemetery at Fort Bliss were moved from Lordsburg to Fort Bliss in 1946.280

Evaluation. Old Fort Bliss Fort was listed in the National Register under Criterion A in 1972 

and the Fort Bliss Main Post Historic District was listed in the National Register in 1998 under 

criteria A and C. The Old Fort Bliss nomination does not mention the Japanese American 

internment at the fort. The nomination for the Main Post Historic District does not strongly link 

the site‘s significance to Japanese Americans during World War II. It is not clear if 

archeological investigations have been carried out at the fort to locate associated archeological 

remains.

 

279 ―Bliss History‖ at http://www.bliss.army.mil/garrison/sites/about/history.asp, accessed on August 3, 2010.

280 Jeffery Burton, personal communication to Barbara Wyatt, September 2, 2011.
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184 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

The cemetery at Fort Bliss includes the grave of a Japanese American man 

killed at Camp Lordsburg and two others of Japanese heritage.

Photos courtesy of the Texas Historical Commission, 2010

Recommendation. Additional research is needed to evaluate the significance of the association 

between Fort Bliss and Japanese Americans during WW II; however, it does not appear to be 

strong enough for NHL designation. The National Register documentation could be 

supplemented with a stronger statement regarding the Japanese American connection to the fort.

Fort George G. Meade

Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Description. In the early spring and summer of 1942, internees who had been examined by alien

enemy hearing boards at Ellis Island—mainly German—and deemed dangerous were sent to Fort 

George G. Meade, an army post south of Baltimore. German seamen sent from Camp Upton, 

New York, were already being held at Fort Meade. In November 1942, the internees were 

moved to Camp Forrest, an army installation in Tennessee.281

After the internees were moved, a large number of POWs were held at Fort George G. Meade. 

Over the period that POWs were there, about 2,000 were German and about 900 were Italian. 

Whether there were Japanese prisoners of war is not known by the Fort George G. Meade 

Museum staff; however, there may have been people of Japanese ancestory—staff or prisoners of 

war—at the fort in conjunction with the U.S. Army Prisoner of War/Civilian Internee 

Information Center, which was based at the fort. 282 There were likely Japanese American 

interpreters stationed at Fort Meade as translators.

Evaluation. Archeological investigations have revealed remains associated with German and 

Italian POWs. The Japanese/Japanese American presence at Fort Meade does not seem to have 

been identified or evaluated.

 

281 John A. Heitmann, ―Enemies are Human.‖

282 Barbara Taylor, personal communication with Barbara Wyatt, August 31, 2010.
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Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 185

Recommendation. With additional research, the significance of the fort in terms of this theme 

can be evaluated, but under any National Historic Landmark criteria the association does not 

seem strong enough for NHL eligibility.

Fort Richardson

Anchorage Borough, Alaska

Description. Fort Richardson, near Anchorage, was used for a short time to hold family 

members of Japanese American men from Alaska who had been imprisoned. These family 

members were subsequently transferred to the Puyallup Assembly Center, then to relocation 

centers. The Fort Richardson located in Alaska today is in a different location from the World 

War II-era Fort Richardson.283

Evaluation. There does not seem to have been any evaluation activity or archeological testing at 

the site of Fort Richardson in World War II.

Recommendation. Additional research is needed to evaluate the significance of the site‘s 

association with Japanese Americans during World War II and the integrity of above- and belowground remains from that association. 

Fort Sam Houston

San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Description. For some nine days, a small number of Japanese Americans from Hawaii and from 

the Fort Missoula Alien Enemy Internment Camp, as well as 300 Alaskan Eskimos, were held at 

Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Apparently, they were housed in tents within a barbed wire 

enclosure. From Fort Sam Houston they were transferred to Camp Lordsburg.284

Evaluation. Fort Sam Houston (400 acres) was designated a National Historic Landmark on 

May 15, 1975, but its significance in terms of the nine-day occupancy by Japanese Americans 

was not cited.

Recommendation. The site does not seem to be of exceptional significance in terms of any 

NHL criteria for a relationship to this theme.

Fort Sill Internment Camp

Comanche County, Oklahoma

Description. In March 1942, 350 Issei men were transferred from Fort Missoula to a U.S. Army 

Alien Enemy Internment Camp at Fort Sill, near Lawton, Oklahoma. Located in southwest 

Oklahoma, Fort Sill was established in 1869 to serve as a base for campaigns to quell Indian 

raids in the region. The struggles between the U.S. Army and the Plains Indians ended in 1875, 

with the Indians‘ surrender at Fort Sill. Other notable aspects of the fort‘s history include the 

 

283 Jeffery Burton, personal communication to Barbara Wyatt, September 2, 2011.

284 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, 406.
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186 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

July 1901 land lottery, with 29,000 homesteaders registering for the lottery at Fort Sill, and the

1911 founding of the School of Fire for the Field Artillery. Now known as the U.S. Army Field 

Artillery School, Fort Sill has trained generations of soldiers.

The alien internment camp was located on the Fort Sill Military Reservation, northwest of the 

intersection of Fort Sill Boulevard and Ringgold Road, although it probably was used for 

German prisoners of war. A total of 700 enemy aliens were eventually held at Fort Sill. 

Japanese aliens from Midwestern states and from South and Central America were held at Fort 

Sill. The fort was the site of an unfortunate incident: the shooting death of a distraught internee 

who was trying to escape. In the spring of 1943, the army gave the INS custody of the civilian 

internees.

The precise location of the internment camp for Japanese aliens at Fort Sill is not known, but 

may have been close to the German POW camp. A few slab foundations remain above ground, 

with post-war buildings occupying the site.

Evaluation. The old fort, built in 1869, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 

for its role in U.S. military campaigns against Indian tribes of the Southern Plains in the late 

1800s. 

Recommendation. If further research and archeological testing establish the location of the 

Japanese American camp, and if any remains survive and are considered nationally significant, 

consideration should be given to amending the NHL documentation (and possibly the 

boundaries) to encompass the fort‘s significance within this historic context.

Haiku Camp

Maui County, Hawaii

Description. According to Burton and Farrell, Haiku Camp was established on an athletic field 

on the grounds of the Haiku pineapple cannery, which had closed in 1938. Although the 

prisoners allegedly lived in tents, one of the cannery dormitories, now converted to a school, may 

have been used to house prison staff. Other buildings and sidewalks in the vicinity may have 

been associated with the cannery and, later, the prison camp. Today, the area is a residential 

community.285 The Japanese American National Museum has identified a detention camp 

operating on Maui from 1942 to 1943, presumably the same facility.286 

Evaluation. Only preliminary evaluations seem to have been made.

Recommendation. Additional research is needed to determine the significance of Haiku Camp 

in terms of the detention of Japanese Americans. Field work may determine archeological 

significance at the site. However, with the knowledge available and the integrity evident, the site 

of Haiku Camp does not seem to be eligible for NHL designation.

 

285 Burton and Farrell, ―World War II Japanese American Internment Sites in Hawai‘i,‖ 38.

286 Manabi and Sumi Hirasaki National Resource Center, Japanese American National Museum, ―Japanese 

American Incarceration Facts,‖ at www.janm.org/nrc/internfs.html, accessed on July 14, 2011.
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 187

This photograph shows the Honouliuli Internment Camp in about 1945.

Courtesy of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’I Research Center

Honouliuli Internment Camp

Ewa, Honolulu County, Hawaii

Description. The Honouliuli camp opened on March 2, 1943, to house Hawaiian Japanese 

Americans and others, including prisoners of war. It is located about 15 miles west of Honolulu 

in a gulch surrounded by agricultural fields. The site was and remains hidden by its location. It 

is one of the most intact of the Hawaiian detention/internment sites, with more than 110 features 

remaining from its use as a World War II camp. Remnants of the camp include buildings, 

foundations, walls, and artifact scatters.287

Many of the internees at Sand Island in Honolulu Harbor were removed to the U.S. Army camp 

at Honouliuli in central Oahu or to the mainland. The Honouliuli camp held Kibei and Issei, as 

well as German civilians and POWs. Honouliuli appears to have closed in the fall of 1944, after 

martial law was lifted in Hawaii.

Evaluation. A National Register nomination is being prepared for Honouliuli by the Hawaii 

state historic preservation office. The pending nomination considers the property nationally 

significant under criteria A, C, and D. Its listing in the National Register is anticipated. A 

special resource study has been authorized to determine if the site is appropriate for inclusion in 

the National Park System.

Recommendation. With the information available at this time, it is unknown whether the site is 

eligible for NHL designation, but its evaluation for NHL designation should be considered.

 

287 ―Hawaii Internment Sites Special Resource Study Legislation—Supporting Language,‖ manuscript, NPS Pacific 

West Regional Office, Honolulu, n.d.
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188 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Kalaheo Stockade

Kauai County, Hawaii

Description. The location of the Kalaheo stockade on the island of Maui has not been exactly 

determined, but Burton and Farrell found six sites on the island that are possible. The stockade 

was probably part of a military encampment consisting of a small number of buildings.288 The 

Japanese American National Museum lists a U.S. Army detention camp operating on Kauai from 

1942 to 1944. 

Evaluation. Evaluation activity has been minimal.

Recommendation. Additional research is needed to locate the site and determine its 

significance in terms of Japanese Americans in World War II.

Kilauea Military Camp

Hawaii County, Hawaii

Description. This Kilauea Military Camp is located in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the 

Big Island. It was originally established in 1916 as a National Guard training ground and an 

army vacation facility. On December 7, 1941, enemy aliens were taken to Kilauea, but by the 

summer of 1942 they had all been sent to the Sand Island Detention Camp on Oahu or to the 

U.S. mainland.

The facility consisted of several barracks, a mess hall, laundry, and latrines. About 100 people 

who were suspected to be dangerous were interned at Kilauea, and after they were sent elsewhere 

a facility to house prisoners of war was built at the site. This is probably the most intact of the 

Hawaiian internment sites. Several buildings from the camp are extant, including Building 40, 

which housed the internees, and Building 35, which was used as a mess hall.289

Evaluation. Evaluation activity has been minimal.

Recommendation. The site needs to be evaluated for its National Register or NHL potential.

Sand Island Detention Camp

Honolulu, Hawaii

Description. On December 8, 1941, the U.S. Army established the Sand Island Detention Camp 

at the Territorial Quarantine Hospital in Honolulu Harbor. The hospital buildings were used for 

the detention function of the site. Some 1,250 Japanese Americans detained under martial law 

received their initial housing and processing at Sand Island, which served as an internment camp 

for fifteen months. The camp was divided into four compounds: two held a total of 500 

Japanese males, one compound held 40 women, and one compound held 25 Germans and 

Italians. The transfer of internees to mainland camps began in early 1943, with a number of 

internees remaining at Sand Island until it closed on March 1, 1943.290

 

288 Burton and Farrell, ―World War II Japanese American Internment Sites in Hawai‘i,‖ 22-23.

289 Ibid., 11-12. 

290 Ibid., 46-61.
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 189

The Sand Island camp played an important role in the internment of Japanese Americans from 

Hawaii. Burton and Farrell have studied the site and have determined its appearance and use as a 

detention facility. However, almost all aboveground evidence of the camp and the hospital has 

vanished, replaced with modern warehouses and a waste water treatment plant. This later 

development seems to have impacted the landscape and integrity of the site. One building 

remains from the war years, a chapel built by Italian prisoners of war, and some road patterns are 

evident.

Evaluation. The history, significance, and integrity of the site (and its above- and belowground 

resources) need to be studied in more depth for an evaluation of significance to be made.

Recommendation. With so little remaining aboveground and with later development 

compromising the integrity of much of the site, it is doubtful the site is eligible for National 

Historic Landmark designation under any criteria.

Stringtown Internment Camp

Stringtown, Atoka County, Oklahoma

Description. This prison complex was established in 1933 on 8,000 acres of land, five miles 

north of Stringtown, Oklahoma, to alleviate overcrowding at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. 

In 1937 it became the Oklahoma State Technical Institute, a prison training facility. 

During World War II, the U.S. Army used the facility as an internment camp for enemy aliens 

and as a prison for prisoners of war. Primarily Germans were held as enemy aliens, although 

some Italian and Japanese also were held there.291 German POWs were held at Stringtown later 

in the war.

Internees lived in the prison cells, but were allowed to engage in hobbies and do their own 

cooking. In June 1943 the internees were moved to INS facilities, but for the remainder of the 

war German POWs were kept at the Stringtown facility.292 They were later moved to army sites. 

The facility was closed by the army in 1943. Near the end of the war the facility may have been 

used as a state hospital, but it was returned to its original use as a sub-prison in 1945. The 

Stringtown facility is now the Mack Alford Correctional Center, a medium-security prison.

One source noted that ―the three alien internment camps have left little evidence of their 

existence, but three of the four aliens who died while imprisoned in Oklahoma still lie in 

cemeteries in this state.‖ (The other two sites are Fort Sill and McAlester Alien Internment 

Camp, which did not hold anyone of Japanese descent.)293 Buildings that remain from the war 

years at Stringtown include one housing unit, a chapel, a gym, and the Administration 

Building.294 Two other housing units were destroyed in a 1988 riot. 

Evaluation. Additional research is required to associate the Stringtown site with this theme and 

to evaluate its significance in terms of the association. 

 

291 ―German American Internee Coalition;‖ ―World War II & POW Camps, 1942-1945 Prisoner of War Camps in 

Oklahoma,‖ at http://okielegacy.org/WWIIpowcamps/OKChronicles.html, accessed on August 3, 2010.

292 ―German American Internee Coalition,‖ 4.

293 ―World War II & POW Camps,‖ 4.

294 Burton et al., Confinement and Ethnicity, 404.
Part 6, Survey Results

190 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Recommendation. The site does not have a strong enough association with Japanese Americans 

to be eligible for National Historic Landmark designation in the context of this theme. Its 

significance and integrity in terms of other themes may make it eligible for the National Register 

for historical, architectural, or archeological significance.

U.S. Immigration Station, Angel Island

Angel Island State Park, Marin County, California

Description. Angel Island is located in San Francisco Bay. Providing a setting for both a 

military installation and, later, an immigration station, today the entire island is a California state 

park. In 1850 the federal government recognized the need for greater protection at San 

Francisco, but not until the Civil War was an artillery post established on Angel Island. 

Designated ―Camp Reynolds,‖ the construction of fortifications continued through the war. In 

the years after the Civil War, Camp Reynolds served as a recruit depot, processing new recruits 

to the army. From Camp Reynolds, soldiers were sent to serve in western forts during the years 

of extensive Indian conflicts.295 

In the years before the Spanish-American War, the construction of fortifications again became a 

priority. The thousands of soldiers sent to the Philippines were sent via Angel Island and 

returned via the island as well. Facilities for sick soldiers and for discharge from military service 

were built on the island.

In 1900 the island became known as ―Fort McDowell,‖ and in 1910 the army launched a major 

building initiative. At this time, the East Garrison was built and Camp Reynolds became the 

West Garrison. Fort McDowell was busy during World War I, but experienced a lull in activity 

in the years prior to the outbreak of World War II. During the Second World War, as the San 

Francisco Port of Embarkation, thousands of soldiers passed through Angel Island on their way 

to the Pacific front.

At the same time the army was building the East Garrison, the Immigration Service built an 

immigration station on the east side of the island. Known as the ―Guardian of the Western 

Gate,‖ more than a million immigrants from more than 80 countries were processed through the 

immigration station at Angel Island between 1910 and 1940. The station became instrumental in 

enforcing the Asian exclusion laws, holding Asian immigrants for days, weeks, or months for 

questioning.296 In 1940 fire destroyed the Immigration Station administrative building, the 

station ceased operating on the island, and the facility fell under the jurisdiction of the U. S. 

Army. Several new buildings were constructed at the former Immigration Station, and it became 

the North Garrison of Fort McDowell. Among other functions, it served as an intake and transfer 

station for German and Japanese prisoners of war bound for inland camps. The former 

immigration station detention barracks housed some of these POWs. Italian POWs, organized 

into Italian Service Units after Italy‘s surrender, were stationed at Angel Island starting in May 

1944; they performed non-combatant work and were able to move about in relative freedom.297 

 

295 John Soennichsen, ―Historic California Posts: Fort McDowell (Camp Reynolds, Post of Angel Island)‖ at 

http/www.militarymuseum.org/CpReynolds.html, accessed on October 30, 2011.

296 Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, ―Celebrating the Story of Pacific Immigration‖ (brochure), n.d.

297 Philip P. Choy, ―U.S. Immigration Station, Angel Island, National Historic Landmark Nomination‖ 

(Washington, DC: National Park Service, 1995), 5.
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 191

The most important link between Angel Island and Japanese Americans during World War II is 

the role of the North Garrison facility in the transfer of Japanese Americans living in Hawaii to 

detention and relocation centers on the mainland. All of the Japanese Americans from Hawaii 

were sent first to Angel Island to be processed for a final wartime destination. The hundreds sent 

from Hawaii included those arrested after the Pearl Harbor attack and those who left on a 

voluntary basis. They were housed in generally overcrowded conditions in the immigration 

station facilities. 

In 1946 Fort McDowell was deemed unnecessary by the army and the island was declared 

surplus property. However, the Cold War brought renewed interest from the army, and between 

1954 and 1962 a Nike Anti-aircraft missile station was maintained on the island. In 1954 the 

State of California acquired some 36 acres on the north end of the island for development of a 

state park. It gradually acquired more acreage, and by 1963, with the Nike facility closed, the 

entire island became a state park. It is now known as ―Angel Island State Park.‖

The mission of the California State Parks and its partners, the National Park Service and the 

Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, is ―to promote a greater understanding of Pacific 

immigration and its role in shaping America‘s past, present and future.‖298 To that end, historic 

resources are being preserved and interpreted and the history of the island is being fully 

explored. The immigration station building is extant, as are the power house, mess hall, 

barracks, and hospital. Graffiti and art work from the World War II years are evident on the 

walls of some buildings. Grant funds and appropriations have been awarded to restore the 

Detention Barracks and the hospital.299 Museum exhibit space has been developed.

Angel Island is designated California Historical Landmark #529.

Evaluation. The Angel Island Immigration Station was designated a National Historic 

Landmark in 1997 for its significance as the major West Coast processing center for immigrants 

between 1910 and 1940. Although it served as the port of entry to the United States for many 

Japanese during those years, its role as a gateway for Japanese Americans from Hawaii during 

World War II is not explained in the nomination.

Recommendation: Consideration should be given to adding information to the NHL 

nomination about its use during World War II, including its role as a stopping place for Japanese 

Americans from Hawaii. 

JAPANESE AMERICAN WARTIME COMMUNITIES

Seabrook Farms is the only community established for Japanese Americans during the war that 

was studied for this report. Two Japanese American communities that had been established long 

before the beginning of the war, on Bainbridge and Terminal islands, were notable in the earliest 

weeks of the war. During the war, other communities were established within existing cities, 

such as Philadelphia and Chicago, but it has not been determined if there are extant resources 

associated with the Japanese Americans who moved to those cities in the war years. The 

Japanese American population of some rural communities increased during the war, particularly 

 

298 Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation brochure.

299 Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, ―Celebrating the Story of Pacific Immigration.‖
Part 6, Survey Results

192 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

in some western states where Japanese Americans were recruited to meet farm labor shortages. 

For example, Japanese Americans evacuated from western Oregon were recruited to eastern 

Oregon to help with the sugar beet harvests. Some were housed at the Farm Security 

Administration camp and the former CCC camp near Nyssa. Further research is needed on the 

impact of the recruited workers on these communities and whether they stayed after the war. 

Bainbridge Island and Terminal Island were identified in Public Law 102-248 as sites that should 

be studied for their association with the Japanese American wartime experience. Japanese 

Americans were evacuated from the two islands very early in the war, so the association with 

this theme is brief, but important to explain.

Eagledale Ferry Dock

Bainbridge Island, Washington

Description. On March 30, 1942, 227 Japanese Americans residents of Bainbridge Island, 

Washington, were forced from their homes and assembled at the Eagledale Ferry Dock. From 

here, they were ferried to Seattle and taken by train to the Owens Valley Reception Center, 

which became the Manzanar Relocation Center. Many of the Bainbridge Island residents were 

later taken from Manzanar to the Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho to join Japanese 

Americans from Seattle. They remained at Minidoka until the end of the war.

The Bainbridge Island residents who boarded the ferry Kehloken, leaving behind their homes, 

businesses, and non-Japanese neighbors, were the first Japanese Americans forced to leave their 

homes after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. 

The Bainbridge Islanders were considered a priority for removal because of the Fort Ward Naval 

Radio Station on Bainbridge Island, an important navy communication facility. Approximately 

half of the residents did not return to Bainbridge Island after the war, but those who did return 

tried to re-establish the lives they had left behind.

Sometime after the war, the ferry dock was removed and a municipal water supply well and 

pump house were installed in the road leading to the dock. For many years Bainbridge Islanders 

hoped to establish a memorial to the wartime experience of Japanese Americans, in the spirit of 

the Japanese axiom, ―Nidoto Nai Yoni‖—let it not happen again. In 2008, President George 

Bush signed legislation that made the site of the Eagledale Ferry Dock a satellite unit of the 

Minidoka National Historic Site. The small site consists of the Nidoto Nai Yoni—let it not 

happen again—memorial, which was completed in 2010.

Evaluation. As a unit of the National Park System, Nidoto Nai Yoni should be documented, but 

because of its recent construction, it may be many years before it is eligible for listing in the 

National Register or National Historic Landmark designation. The site of the ferry may exist 

archeologically, but it is not likely to yield nationally significant information in terms of this 

theme. Sites related to pre-war Japanese American culture may exist, but they are not related to 

this theme.

Recommendation. Further documentation for NHL purposes is unnecessary at this time, but if 

archeological remains are located, they should be evaluated under National Register Criterion D. 
Part 6, Survey Results

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 193

Aerial photo showing the Seabrook Farms plant and factory in about 1949.

Photo courtesy of Seabrook Museum and Cultural Center

Seabrook Farms

Seabrook, New Jersey

Description. Seabrook Farms was a large-scale producer of canned and frozen vegetables, 

whose wartime contract with the military greatly increased its labor needs. Jack Seabrook 

gained permission from the WRA to recruit Japanese Americans from the relocation centers—a

venture that proved to be very successful. Nearly 3,000 workers were attracted to the jobs, 

which included housing, schools for children, and other opportunities. The influx of detainees to 

the small New Jersey farming community might have overwhelmed the local housing stock; 

however, government barracks were built in patterns reminiscent of the relocation centers. 

Portable houses were also erected and cinderblock apartments were available in later years. The 

barracks were demolished late in 2009. The only building that remains from the Japanese 

American residency during the war is the community center.

After the war, many Japanese Americans stayed in New Jersey and today about 300 Japanese 

Americans whose families worked at Seabrook during the war years remain in the community. 

The Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center includes displays that celebrate the Japanese 

American legacy of the community (as well as several other ethnic groups that were recruited as 

workers), and the nearby Millville Airport Museum includes photographs of Japanese American 

men in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Seabrook was recently nominated for an Emperor‘s 

Award by the Japanese government for its ongoing work to strengthen ties between Japan and 

the United States.

Evaluation. No evaluation activity for NHL or National Register eligibility has been 

undertaken, and there has not been any archeological testing. 

Recommendation. The Seabrook Farms community center should be evaluated for NHL and 

National Register eligibility.
Part 6, Survey Results

194 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

This reminder to the American people is part of the

National Japanese American Memorial in Washington, DC.

National Park Service photo by Barbara Wyatt, October 6, 2011

Terminal Island School

East San Pedro, Los Angeles County, California

Description. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, many of the men of the Japanese fishing 

community on Terminal Island were arrested by the FBI. On February 14, 1942, the U.S. Navy 

announced that all Japanese residents had to leave the island by March 14, but when Executive 

Order 9066 was signed five days later, the approximately 3,000 affected residents were given 48 

hours to vacate the island. No one returned to Terminal Island after the war, because all of the 

residences and businesses of the community were removed. In 1988, only the Terminal School 

building was extant and this was being used by the United States Marine Corps. The current 

status of this building is unknown. It is unclear if any archeological investigations have been 

done to locate remains associated with the community. A monument commemorates the preWorld War II fishing community.

Evaluation. Too little is known about this site to determine its eligibility for National Historic 

Landmark designation. If the school exists and maintains adequate integrity, NHL eligibility 

may be evident; however, the association may be more strongly linked to Japanese American 

culture before the advent of World War II. It is unclear if archeological remains, if located, 

would contribute nationally significant information. 

Recommendation. If the Terminal Island School survives, it should be studied for its role in the 

removal of Japanese Americans in 1941 and evaluated for its NHL potential. If NHL listing is 

not possible, the school should be evaluated for National Register eligibility under all criteria.
Part 7, Bibliography

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 195

PART 7

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U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation. “Klamath Project, Annual History for 

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Part 8, Appendix

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 213

PART 8

APPENDIX

Table 3. Summary of Known Recognition Initiatives, July 2011 

Japanese American Wartime Properties Identified in Public Law 102-248

NAME OF PROPERTY LOCATION STATUS OF FEDERAL/ 

STATE DESIGNATIONS1

TANGIBLE RECOGNITION:

MARKERS, MONUMENTS, 

MEMORIALS, AND MUSEUMS2

WCCA Assembly Centers

Fresno Assembly Center Fresno County, CA No Federal designation

CA Historical Landmark

Marker, 1992; memorial, 2010

Marysville Assembly Center, aka 

Arboga Assembly Center

Yuba County, CA No Federal designation

CA Historical Landmark

None known

Mayer Assembly Center Yavapai County, AZ No Federal designation None known

Merced Assembly Center Merced County, CA No Federal designation

CA Historical Landmark

Marker, 1982; monument and 

memorial plaza, 2010

Pinedale Assembly Center Fresno County, CA No Federal designation

CA Historical Landmark

Memorial plaza

Pomona Assembly Center Los Angeles County, 

CA

No Federal designation

CA Historical Landmark

None known

Portland Assembly Center Multnomah County, OR No Federal designation Marker

Puyallup Assembly Center, aka 

Camp Harmony

Pierce County, WA No Federal designation Memorial courtyard with sculpture and 

markers

Sacramento Assembly Center, aka 

Walerga Assembly Center

Sacramento County, CA No Federal designation

CA Historical Landmark

Marker, 1987; memorial grove of 

cherry trees

Salinas Assembly Center Monterey County, CA No Federal designation

CA Historical Landmark

Marker, 1984; Day of Remembrance 

Memorial Garden, 2010

Santa Anita Assembly Center Los Angeles County, 

CA

Determined eligible for National 

Register, 2006

CA Historical Landmark

Marker

Stockton Assembly Center San Joaquin County, CA No Federal designation

CA Historical Landmark

Marker

Tanforan Assembly Center San Bruno, San Mateo

County, CA

No Federal designation

CA Historical Landmark

Marker

Tulare Assembly Center Tulare County, CA No Federal designation

CA Historical Landmark

None known

Turlock Assembly Center Stanislaus County, CA No Federal designation

CA Historical Landmark

Marker, 2010

WRA Relocation Centers

Gila River Relocation Center:

Butte Camp and Canal Camp

Pinal County, AZ None Markers at both camps; memorial 

exhibit at Gila River Indian 

Reservation Cultural Center

Granada Relocation Center, aka 

Amache

Prowers County, CO National Register 5-18-94

NHL 2-10-06

National Historic Site 1-9-07

Cemetery with monument

 

1

Federal designation includes listing in the National Register of Historic Places, designation as a National Historic Landmark, or 

some other Federal effort to honor the site for its relation to the Japanese American wartime experience.

2 A marker identifies the site and its relation to the World War II experience of Japanese Americans; text generally is mounted on 

a post or solid base. A monument is an artistic work that serves as a memorial to the Japanese American wartime experience. A 

memorial is a space dedicated to the Japanese American wartime experience, and may include landscape, architectural, sculptural, 

and educational elements. Museums include exhibits that interpret Japanese American wartime experiences.
Part 8, Appendix

214 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

NAME OF PROPERTY LOCATION STATUS OF FEDERAL/ 

STATE DESIGNATIONS

TANGIBLE RECOGNITION

MARKERS, MONUMENTS, 

MEMORIALS, AND MUSEUMS

Heart Mountain Relocation 

Center

Park County, WY National Register 12-19-85

NHL 9-20-06

Memorial park with markers and honor 

roll; Interpretive Learning Center, 

August 2011.

Jerome Relocation Center Chicot and Drew 

Counties, AR

None Monument

Manzanar Relocation Center

Originally Owens Valley 

Reception Center

Inyo County, CA National Register 7-30-76

NHL 2-4-85

National Historic Site 1992

CA Historical Landmark, 1972

Memorial cemetery, markers, 

monument, interpretive center

Minidoka Relocation Center Jerome County, ID National Register (monument 

only) 7-10-79

National Monument 2001

National Historic Site 2008

Monument; markers, exhibit at Jerome 

County Historical Museum; State 

marker on State Highway 25

Poston Relocation Center

Poston I, II, and III

La Paz County, AZ None Memorial with monument and 

educational kiosk, 1992

Rohwer Relocation Center

Rohwer Memorial Cemetery

Desha County, AR

Desha County, AR

National Register 7-30-74

National Register 7-6-92

NHL 7-6-92

Memorial cemetery with monuments 

and markers

Topaz Relocation Center, aka 

Central Utah or Abraham 

Relocation Center

Millard County, UT National Register 1-2-74

NHL 3-29-07

Original monument, 1976; replacement 

monument, 2002; monument to Topaz 

soldiers, 2005

Tule Lake Relocation Center Modoc County, CA National Register 2-17-06

NHL 2-17-06

WWII Valor in the Pacific 

National Monument 12-5-08

CA Historical Landmark

Monument, 1979; marker and 

collections at BLM in Klamath Falls, at 

Modoc County Fairgrounds, and at 

Lava Beds National Monument

Internment/Detention 

Facilities—DOJ

Crystal City Internment Camp

(INS)

Zavala County, TX No Federal designation

Texas State Historic Site

Texas State Marker, 2007; monument, 

1980s

Fort Lincoln Internment Camp

(INS)

Bismarck, Burleigh 

County, ND

No Federal designation None known

Fort Missoula Internment Camp

(INS)

Missoula County, MT National Register 4-29-87 Monument and museum; now called 

“Historical Museum at Fort Missoula”

Kenedy Internment Camp

(INS)

Karnes County, TX No Federal designation Texas State Subject Marker at camp 

cemetery; marker in Kenedy; and 

materials at Kenedy Public Library. 

Seagoville Internment Camp

(WRA camp)

Dallas County, TX No Federal designation None known

U.S. Army Facilities—Training

Camp McCoy/now Fort McCoy Monroe County, WI No Federal designation Monument and museum

Camp Savage Scott County, MN No Federal designation Marker by Savage Chamber of 

Commerce

Camp Shelby Forrest and Perry

counties, MS

National Register:

Bldg 6981, Perry County, 6-11-92

Bldg 1071, Forrest County, 9-2-97

Monument to the 442nd Regimental 

Combat Team, 2003

Fort Snelling Minneapolis, MN National Register 10-15-66

NHL 12-19-66 (not for this theme)

Marker and museum
Part 8, Appendix

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 215

NAME OF PROPERTY LOCATION STATUS OF FEDERAL/ 

STATE DESIGNATIONS

TANGIBLE RECOGNITION

MARKERS, MONUMENTS, 

MEMORIALS, AND MUSEUMS

U.S. Army Facilities—Detention

Angel Island, North Garrison of 

Fort McDowell

Marin County, CA National Register 10-14-71

NHL 12-9-97

CA Historical Landmark

Now Angel Island State Park

Markers, monument, and museum

Japanese American Wartime 

Communities

Eagledale Ferry Dock

Bainbridge Island

Kitsap County, WA Part of Minidoka Historic Site, 5-

8-08

Memorial (Nidoto Ni Yoni)

Terminal Island School Los Angeles County, 

CA

No Federal designation Monument nearby
Part 8, Appendix

216 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Table 4. Summary of Known Recognition Initiatives, July 2011 

Additional Wartime Properties Associated with Japanese Americans in World War II

NAME OF PROPERTY LOCATION

STATUS OF 

FEDERAL/STATE 

DESIGNATIONS3

TANGIBLE RECOGNITION:

MARKERS, MONUMENTS, 

MEMORIALS, AND MUSEUMS4

Relocation Centers, 

Supplementary Sites

Antelope Springs BLM/Fillmore, Millard 

County, UT

No Federal designation None known

Cow Creek Camp Death Valley National 

Park, Inyo County, CA

Cow Creek Historic District, 

determined NR eligible for 

association with CCC, 1989

None known

Internment/Detention 

Facilities—DOJ

Catalina Federal Honor Camp Coronado National Forest, 

AZ

Named “Gordon Hirabayashi 

Recreation Site” by U.S. Forest 

Service, 1999

Interpretive kiosk built by USFS

Fort Stanton Lincoln County, NM National Register, 4-13-73 Museum

Kooskia Internment Camp Clearwater National 

Forest, Idaho County, ID

No Federal designation None known

Old Raton Ranch Camp Santa Fe County, NM No Federal designation None known

Santa Fe Internment Camp Santa Fe County, NM No Federal designation Marker

Sharp Park Detention Facility Pacifica, San Mateo 

County, CA

No Federal designation None known

U.S. Federal Penitentiary, 

Leavenworth

Leavenworth County, KS No Federal designation None known

U.S. Federal Penitentiary, McNeil 

Island

Steilacoom, Pierce County, 

WA

No Federal designation None known

U.S. Immigration Station, Ellis 

Island

New York Harbor, NY National Register, 10-15-66

Part of Statue of Liberty 

National Monument

Exhibit on Japanese American wartime 

experiences opened in July 2010

U.S. Immigration Station, Oahu Honolulu County, HA National Register, 8-14-73 None known

Internment/Detention 

Facilities—WRA

Leupp Isolation Camp Coconino County, AZ No Federal designation None known

Moab Isolation Center Grand County, UT National Register, 5-2-94 

(Dalton Wells CCC 

Camp/Moab Relocation Center)

None known

Tulelake Camp Tule Lake National 

Wildlife Refuge, CA

No Federal designation None known

 

3

Federal designation includes listing in the National Register of Historic Places, designation as a National Historic 

Landmark, or some other Federal effort to honor the site for its relation to the Japanese American wartime experience.

4 A marker identifies the site and its relation to the World War II experience of Japanese Americans; text generally is 

mounted on a post or solid base. A monument is an artistic work that serves as a memorial to the Japanese American 

wartime experience. A memorial is a space dedicated to the Japanese American wartime experience, and may include 

landscape, architectural, sculptural, and educational elements. Museums include exhibits that interpret Japanese American 

wartime experiences.
Part 8, Appendix

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 217

NAME OF PROPERTY LOCATION

STATUS OF 

FEDERAL/STATE 

DESIGNATIONS

TANGIBLE RECOGNITION

MARKERS, MONUMENTS, 

MEMORIALS, AND MUSEUMS

Internment/Detention 

Facilities—Other

Waialua County Jail Kauai County, HA No Federal designation None known

Wailuka County Jail Maui County, HA No Federal designation None known

U.S. Army Facilities—Detention 

Camp Florence Florence, Pinal County, 

AZ

No Federal designation None known

Camp Forrest Tullahoma, Coffee County, 

TN

No Federal designation None known

Camp Livingston Alexandria, Rapides 

Parish, LA

No Federal designation None known

Camp Lordsburg Hidalgo County, NM No Federal designation Museum nearby

Fort Bliss El Paso County, TX National Register, 5-7-98

(included in Fort Bliss Main 

Post Historic District)

None known

Fort George G. Meade Anne Arundel County, MD No Federal designation None known

Fort Richardson Anchorage Borough, AK No Federal designation None known

Fort Sam Houston San Antonio, TX National Register, 5-15-75; 

National Historic Landmark, 5-

15-75 (not for Japanese 

American association)

None known

Fort Sill Internment Camp Comanche County, OK National Historic Landmark, 

12-19-60. National Register, 

10-15-66 (not for Japanese 

American association)

None known

Haiku Camp Maui County, HI No Federal recognition None known

Honouliuli Internment Camp Ewa, Honolulu County, HI Draft nomination completed. None known

Kalaheo Stockade Kauai County, HI No Federal designation None known

Kilauea Military Camp Honolulu County, HI 

(Oahu)

No Federal designation None known

Sand Island Detention Camp Honolulu County, HI 

(Oahu)

No Federal designation None known

Stringtown Internment Camp Stringtown, Atoka County, 

OK

No Federal designation None known

Japanese American Wartime 

Communities

Seabrook Farms Seabrook, NJ No Federal designation Seabrook Educational and Cultural 

Center interprets the Japanese 

American experience during WWII 
Part 8, Appendix

218 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

Table 5. Locations of Some WCCA Civil Control Stations5

EXCLUSION ORDER 

NUMBER STATION LOCATION

1 Anderson Dock Store Winslow, Bainbridge Island, WA

2 San Pedro, CA

2 Long Beach, CA

3 Los Angeles, CA

4 1919 India Street San Diego, CA

5 1701 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA

6 Downey, CA

6 Lawndale, CA

7 Santa Monica, CA

8 West Los Angeles, CA

9 131 Magnolia Street Burbank, CA

10 1157 North La Brea Avenue Hollywood, CA

11 961 South Mariposa Avenue Los Angeles, CA

12 322 South California Street Ventura, CA

13 American Legion Building

112 West Labrillo Boulevard

Santa Barbara, CA

14 Arroyo Grande High School Gymnasium Arroyo Grande, CA

15 National Guard Armory

Salinas and Howard streets

Salinas, CA

16 Veterans Memorial Building

Third Street

Watsonville, CA

17 2100 Second Avenue Seattle, WA

18 1319 Rainier Avenue Seattle, WA

19 2345 Channing Way Berkeley, CA

20 JACL League Auditorium

2031 Bush Street

San Francisco, CA

21 3500 Normandie Avenue Los Angeles, CA

22 2314 S. Vermont Avenue Los Angeles, CA

23 American Legion Hall

Merchant and West streets

Vacaville, CA

24 Odd Fellows Hall, Main Street Byron, CA

25 Salvation Army Headquarters

20 Southwest Sixth Avenue

Portland, OR

26 Navy Post, American Legion Hall

128 Northeast Russell Street

Portland, OR

27 530 Eighteenth Street Oakland, CA

28 1117 Oak Street (12th and Oak streets, 2nd floor) Oakland, CA

29 16522 South Western Avenue Torrance, CA

 

5 Lawrence I. Hewes, Jr. “Final Report of the Participation of the Farm Security Administration in the Evacuation Program of 

the Wartime Civil Control Administration Civil Affairs Division Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, Covering the 

Period March 15, 1942 through May 31, 1942” at www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId= hb009n99p1&brand= 

oac4&doc.view=entire_text, accessed on May 30, 2011. Parts of this list were derived from digital images of Civilian 

Exclusion Order posters, from the collections of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. 
Part 8, Appendix

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 219

EXCLUSION ORDER 

NUMBER STATION LOCATION

30 7412 South Broadway Los Angeles, CA

31 839 South Central Avenue Los Angeles, CA

32 Japanese Christian Church

822 East 20th Street

Los Angeles, CA

33 Japanese Union Church

120 North San Pedro Street

Los Angeles, CA

34 920 C Street Hayward, CA

35 Masonic Temple Building 

100 North Ellsworth Street

San Mateo, CA

36 Japanese Chamber of Commerce

316 Maynard Avenue (rooms 111-112)

Seattle, WA

37 Seattle, WA

38 1921 East Washington Street Phoenix, AZ

38 61 East Pennington Street Tucson, AZ

39 Lonely Acres Skating Rink

Old Seattle-Tacoma Highway

Renton, WA (approximately 3 miles west of 

Renton)

40 Seattle, WA

41 1530 Buchanan Street San Francisco, CA

42 Hollywood Independent Church

4525 Lexington Avenue

Hollywood, CA

43 360 South Westlake Avenue Los Angeles, CA

44 Tulare Civic Memorial Building

100 block South M Street

Tulare, CA

45 Hanford Civic Auditorium,

Civic Center

Hanford, CA

46 Administration Building

Gresham Fairgrounds

Gresham, OR

47 Loomis, CA

48 Community Hall New Castle, CA

49 American Legion Hall

11th and June streets

Hood River, OR

50 Winter Garden Auditorium

1125 Tenth Street

Modesto, CA

51 Veteran’s Memorial Hall

17th Street, between. P and Q streets

Merced, CA

52 Civic Memorial Auditorium

15th and I streets

Sacramento, CA

53 National Guard State Armory Building,

1420 North California Street

Stockton, CA

54 38 East California Street Pasadena, CA

55 American Legion Hall

Valencia Street and San Bernardino Road

Covina, CA

56 805 Garvey Boulevard Monterey Park, CA

57 Christian Youth Center

2203 East Madison Street

Seattle, WA

58 City Hall Auditorium

South Meridian Street

Puyallup, WA

59 Japanese School House

in “Little Tokio,” Hwy 101

1/4 miles north of Oceanside, CA

60 249 East Center Street Anaheim, CA
Part 8, Appendix

220 Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study

EXCLUSION ORDER 

NUMBER STATION LOCATION

61 Memorial Hall

Sixth and Magnolia streets

Huntington Beach, CA

62 American Legion Hall

1705 Second Street

Selma, CA

63 Memorial Hall

Corner G and Sixth Streets

Madera, CA

64 2107 Inyo Street Fresno, CA

65 201 B Street

Corner Third and B Street

Santa Rosa, CA

66 Old Southern Pacific Depot

Fifth and Central avenues, 2nd fl.

Los Angeles, CA

67 Tacoma, WA

68 Vashon-Poulsbo, WA

69 California State Guard Armory

300 B Street

Yuba City, CA

70 Lodi, CA

71 Brawley, CA

72 El Centro, CA

73 Indio, CA

74 Forest Grove, OR

74 Astoria, OR

75 Isleton, CA

76 Chico, CA

77 Gilroy High School Gymnasium

IOOF Avenue

Gilroy, CA

78 American Legion Hall

Bush Street

Woodland, CA

79 Auburn High School Gymnasium

711 East Main Street

Auburn, WA

80 122 Kirkland Avenue Kirkland, WA

81 Raphael Weill School Auditorium San Francisco, CA

82 Ukiah, CA

83 3557 Main Street Riverside, CA

84 522 Sierra Highway Palmdale, CA

84 719 Front Street Needles, CA

85 Kern County Exhibit Building

Kern County Fair Grounds, North Chester Avenue

Bakersfield, CA

86 Japanese Baptist Church

2923 East Second Street

Los Angeles, CA

87 45 North Fir Street Medford, OR

87 34 West Sixth Avenue Eugene, OR

88 Chebalis, WA

89 Olympia, WA

89 Port Townsend, WA

90 Everett, WA

90 Burlington, WA

91 Corvallis, OR

91 Salem, OR

92 Masonic Hall Elk Grove, CA
Part 8, Appendix

Japanese Americans in World War II Theme Study 221

EXCLUSION ORDER 

NUMBER STATION LOCATION

93 Florin, CA

94 Walnut Grove, CA

95 Perkins, CA

96 San Jose, CA

97 Manteca, CA

98 Schoolhouse Lyle, WA

98 U.S. Employment Service Office

Columbia Hotel Building

Wenatchee, WA

98 Gymnasium

202 West 2nd Street

Wapato, WA

99 Clarksburg Grammar School Clarksburg, CA

101 319 C Street Marysville, CA

102 Municipal Civic Auditorium Lincoln, CA