War Relocation Authority The War Relocation Authority was a United States government agency established to handle the internment , i . e . forced relocation and detention of Japanese , German , and Italian Americans during World War II . In addition , about 2 , 200 Japanese living in South America ( mostly in Peru ) were transported to the United States and placed in internment camps . It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego , New York , which was the only refugee camp set up in the United States for refugees from the Holocaust . Formation . The WRA was formed on 18 March 1942 via Executive Order 9102 from president Franklin D . Roosevelt . The original director of the WRA was Milton S . Eisenhower . Eisenhower was a proponent of FDR ’ s New Deal and more than likely disapproved of the idea of the internment camp as a whole . The original idea for the camps was to make them similar to subsistence homesteads in the rural interior of the country . This idea was met with opposition from the governors of these interior states at a meeting in Salt Lake City in April 1942 . They were worried about security issues and claimed it as " politically infeasible . " Shortly before the meeting Eisenhower wrote to his former boss , Secretary of Agriculture Claude Wickard , and said “ when the war is over and we consider calmly this unprecedented migration of 120 , 000 people , we as Americans are going to regret the unavoidable injustices that we may have done . ” Milton S . Eisenhower continued as director of the WRA only until July 1942 . His work in the WRA including pushing FDR to make a public statement in support of the loyal Nisei , raising wages that interned Japanese Americans were paid and petitioning the United States Congress to create programs for postwar rehabilitation . Selection of camps . A total of 10 internment camps were created under direction of the WRA , mostly on Native American lands . Site selection was based upon multiple criteria including : Life in the camps . Life in an internment camp was rather difficult . Those that were fortunate enough to find a job worked long hours , usually in agricultural jobs . Resistance to camp guards and attempting escape was a low priority for most of the Japanese Americans held in the camps . But the residents themselves were more often concerned with the problems of day - to - day living , of improving the way they lived , getting an education , and , in some cases , of preparing for eventual release . Many of those who were employed , particularly those with responsible or absorbing jobs , made these jobs the focus of their lives . Many found consolation in religion , and both Christian and Buddhist services were held regularly . Others concentrated on hobbies ; still others sought self - improvement by taking adult classes , ranging from Americanization and American history and government to vocational courses in secretarial skills and bookkeeping , and cultural courses in such things as ikebana , Japanese flower arrangement . The young people spent much of their time in recreational pursuits : news of sports , theatrics , and dances fills the pages of the camp newspaper . Living space was minimal . Families lived in barracks like structures partitioned into ‘ apartments ’ with walls that usually didn ’ t reach the ceiling . These ‘ apartments ’ were , at the largest , twenty by twenty - four feet and were expected to house a family of six . In April 1943 , the Topaz camp averaged 114 square feet ( roughly six by nineteen ft ) per person . All inmates of the internment camps ate at a common mess hall . At the army camps , it was estimated that it cost 38 . 19 cents per day to feed each person . It is more than likely that the WRA spent more , but most people were able to supplement their diets with food grown by other inmates in camp . End of the camps . On 13 July 1945 the director of the WRA announced that all of the camps , except for Tule Lake , were to be closed between 15 October and 15 December of that year . On 20 March 1946 Tule Lake closed . Executive Order 9742 , signed by President Harry S . Truman on 26 June 1946 , officially terminated the WRA ’ s mission .