picture of Mas Masuda in darkroom, Jerome or Gila River, 1940s
date: label: date made
content: circa 1940s
notes: label: Description
content: This photograph depicts Masao Masuda, an amateur photographer, sitting in a dark room with developing trays in front of him. Pictures that he took hang on the wall.
label: Description
content: This camp was one of ten prison camps that those of Japanese descent were forcibly relocated to during World War II. Following the events of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which declared the West Coast a military zone from which people who posed a threat to security could be removed. Executive Order 9066 forcibly relocated those of Japanese ancestry to these camps for the duration of the war; even Japanese American citizens of the United States were included in this relocation. 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated into these prison camps.
label: Description
content: The Jerome, Arkansas prison camp was located in southeastern Arkansas near the town of Jerome. It opened on October 6, 1942, and remained active until its closure on June 30, 1944. It held as many as 8,497 inhabitants.
label: Description
content: The camp itself was divided into 50 blocks that were surrounded by a barbed wire fence, a patrol road, and seven watchtowers where guards would keep watch. 250 to 300 residents lived in each block. Most of the camp's inhabitants came from Los Angeles, Fresno, and Sacarmento, and 10% of the population came from Hawai'i.
label: Description
content: The demographics of the camp were as follows: 14% of the residents were over the age of 60, 39% were under the age of nineteen. 66% of the residents were American citizens born in the United States; their parents were officially referred to as "aliens" and were prohibited from obtaining citizenship.
label: Description
content: Camp life lacked privacy, cultivated disease due to close proximities, and was extremely cramped - there were instances of several families sharing a one-room apartment that was not big enough for just one family.
label: Description
content: To combat the living conditions of the camp, social and culture clubs were formed by the residents who lived there. Recreational sports teams were created as well, and were very popular.
label: Description
content: After the closure of Jerome in 1944, many prisoners were transferred to Tule Lake, Rohwer, and Gila River.
label: Description
content: The person in this photo is Masao Masuda, a resident of the Jerome, Arkansas camp and the Gila River, Arizona camp. He was imprisoned along with his family following Executive Order 9066. His brothers, Kazuo Masuda and Takashi Masuda, were drafted into the army before the events of Pearl Harbor and joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit mostly comprised of Japanese American nisei (second generation). Kazuo Masuda was killed in action in Italy while sacrificing his life to save his two comrades, and was posthumously awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for his heroic actions. Takashi Masuda was wounded in Italy and awarded a Purple Heart.
label: Description
content: Masao Masuda joined the United States Army along with his other brother, Mitsuo Masuda, and they both worked for Military Intelligence in the Pacific as Japanese Language Interpreters and Translators.
label: Description
content: Masao was an amateur photographer, and he took and developed many photos during his time in the prison camp. He took photographs of the camp itself, camp activities such as dances, recreational sports game, work in the camp, club photographs, portraits, and more.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Japanese American
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Masao Masuda
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2015.0105.134
label: accession number
content: 2015.0105
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0105.134
objectType: label: Object Name
content: photograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 1/4 in x 5 3/4 in; 8.255 cm x 14.605 cm