The Camps Experience

Part I

1) Temporary Detention Centers- Were Japanese Americans given adequate care and accommodations as they were rounded up? Were they given assurances and clear information on what the future held for them?

  Starting out, the camps were in horrible conditions. They were conversions of race tracks for horses, and fair grounds. The conditions were those that were similar to a concentration camp and slave quarters on a slave ship. Open sewers caused a serious problem of sanitation which led to disease. There were lines for everything, and there was no privacy in bathrooms and chambers.Nutritional and medical was on the questionable side. The care and food was of very low quality, partly due to the depression that occurred not too long ago. No assurance was given to the Japanese on their future, and when they would be set free from the camp. They were at the mercy of a government controlled by fear and prejudice.

2) Permanent WRA Camps- Discuss the claim by the U.S. Government that the camps were for the protection of the Japanese Americans. Were the barbed wire fences and guard towers meant to keep vigilantes out or Japanese American inmates in?

 I believe the fences, the towers, the camps themselves, were to keep the Japanese Americans in. The United States had just been attacked and the government took the extra (and unnecessary) precaution of making sure no one on the inside could ever harm the country. This precaution, evicting and trapping anyone with any affiliation with the country who attacked them, Japan. Now, there may have been few in the government who believed the Japanese were in danger due to American vigilantes, but the majority was scared of an inside attack. If a country is attacked from an outside country that country and it's people become a target for attack, that includes the citizens located in their own country.

 3) Camp Life- Were the camps "resettlement communities," or prisons? What's the difference between the two?

The interment camps were more of prisons then resettlement communities for many reasons including the conditions of the camps. For one thing, communities are not constantly monitored by armed military soldiers and barbed wire, prisons are. The poor conditions including lack of nutrition, medical assistance, and unlivable living quarters were that of a concentration camp, or prison. In community, there is mutual respect between the government, and the community. In a prison respect is loss to the prisoners and the conditions become horrible die to lack of attention.

4) Camp Life- Did the War Relocation Authority take measures to protect family life and privacy?

 Family life and privacy was not a concern of the WRA as much as recreation was. They may have gone to great lengths to provide something to do, but not on saving the traditions that existed in the family and privacy among themselves. Events, including eating, encouraged children to leave the company of their parents. In doing this the family tradition of parental authority diminished. With privacy, no attempt was made to give the internees any privacy, they were given one room living quarters.

5)  Questions of Loyalty- How did Japanese Americans respond after being incarcerated without due process of law to questions asking them whether or not they were unquestioningly loyal to this country?

The Japanese Americans reacted  as anyone would when asked such a question, with outrage. They were given an ultimatum, either give full loyalty to a country that fears and hates you and forget the only home you know, or be incarcerated along with your family. The questions asked for them to fight whenever the country needed to and for some that just wasn't an option. Along with this, if a parent answered no to any of the two questions asked, the child would share the same fate or be separated physically and emotionally from their parents. These questions caused arguments between people and families.

6) Tule Lake Segregation-Were those who answered "no" to the loyalty questions clearly "disloyal" or were they voicing discontent with their treatment? 

The Japanese Americans were exercising their opinion on the horrible treatment they were receiving at the camps. Those who answered no were sent off like citizens who had committed treason. Japanese Americans weren't allowed citizenship but were expected to lay down their life for another country. Tule Lake is where they sent the "disloyal" to stay, another concentration camp. By saying no, they were trying to convey their anger and disappointment of their treatment in the camps. The no was instead conveyed as rebellion and a reason to ship off and punish the Japanese.

7)Draft Resisters- Why did these young men resist being drafted into the military? Write or improvise a conversation between two brothers in a n internment camp who make two different opposing decisions on the draft: one enlists, the other resists. What are their points of agreement, if any? How do they differ? Is one brother more patriotic than the other?

The Japanese Americans resisted the draft because their constitutional rights had been violated by the incarceration. If they were not trusted to be citizens, why should they be trusted to fight for this country. A conversation between two brothers with opposite opinions on the matter would, i think, go a little like this.

"Brother, I have decided to enlist, I will defend this country, so that they will release our family."

"You would fight for a country that hates you?"

"It is done, and if we prove that the hate is not mutual, maybe they will let us go."

"They will not let us go, and you know that. This country, these people, fear us and want us gone. Why else would they put us in the war, if not to kill us?"

"You're wrong. They will let us go. This incarceration is wrong, but two wrongs do not make a right."

"That is something we can agree on, this incarceration is wrong. But, we have different views on how to resolve it. Why don't you resist, show them that they do not own us and what we do."

"But they do! And if we show them that we are willing to sacrifice ourselves for this country, they will allow us to live among them."

"Again, we agree,they will let us go, but not by our sacrifice. I will not join you, i must stay here, defend our family, defend our people. When you go to fight, you will fight alone."

"Fine then, I will see you after the war is won and we are victorious, they will set us free, I will come back home."

"I hope you're right brother, I hope you're right."

In this conversation both brothers agree that the incarceration is wrong, but have different ways of going about fixing the problem; one brother would prefer to prove their devotion to the country, while the other prefers to fight against the Americans. Also, they agree that one day they will be free, on brother believes it will be after the war after their sacrifice, the other, after they prove they will not be pushed around by the Americans. In this case they both have the same amount of patriotism, just for different countries. One for Japan, one for America.

8) Military Service- What did it take to fight for a country that kept your family interned behind barbed wire?

Leaving your family to fight for a country that hates, and doesn't trust you took heroic traits that the women and men had. It took faith in America that they would give you a fighting chance and release your family after you prove your loyalty. It took humility to be at the mercy of the Americans after you enlist, to allow the teasing and taunting they must have gone through without fighting back. To leave your family in the hands of the ones that put them in the camp must have taken a strong will, to be away from your family for so long without guarantee of coming back. Joining a war takes courage to simply fight in a war, with the chance of death evident.

Part II

1) How do we prevent injustice of internment from happening again? Perhaps it starts with learning about this historic mistake, as well as working to eliminate the causes for continuing racial prejudice today.

Prevention can happen by keeping an open mind, good political leadership, and the disregard of differences among people. During times of crisis, people need to keep a clear mind and an open one to  the people that go through the prejudice. No one wants to go through the pain of prejudice. Political leadership is what guides people in a country to act the way they do. Good leadership leads to just acts by the people. We have to learn from our mistakes as we do in life all the time. People have to look back at the mistakes and try not to commit them again.

2) What do you think? Is your responsibility? What can you do as one individual? Your voice and actions can be an important part not only of preventing the gross injustice of internment from happening again, but also preventing the other negative effects of racial hatred and prejudice.

. I believe that people use prejudice as defense , for fear of something that isnt like them. Americans were afraid of the Japanese in their country, so they gave into prejudice and trapped.As an individual, I can make sure I carry moral values where ever I go. I can pass on my good values to other i meet with not so good values. My actions can give another person an impression that can be good or bad. That impression can cause someone to imitate my actions and give an impression on someone else. I have the responsibility of showing morality everyday.



Photo Album

American soldiers patrolling an area in Manzanar, an interment camp 

Photograph taken by the National Archives Registry.

Dressmaking class in an interment camp. Women learning to make dresses and other clothes. This was one of the recreational activities given to the internees. 

 Photograph taken by Ansel Adams.

  

This is a picture of  a Catholic church in an internment camp. Children and adults are seen entering for mass.

Photograph by Ansel Adams.

This is a volleyball game in a internment camp. Another form of recreation in the camp given to internees, most likely provided by the WRA.

Photograph taken by Ansel Adams.

These are Pre-K children exiting a school house. Schooling did continue in the internment, maybe to give a more normal feeling to the camp.

Photograph by Dorothea Lange.