History
- What: forcible relocation of all who were Japanese-born and living in the US or all American-born citizens of Japanese ancestry or parentage
- When: 1942. shortly after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Navy
- Approximately 110,000+ American-born Japanese citizens and Japanese-born citizens living in the US that lived along the Pacific Coast were moved to "War Relocation Centers". While any Japanese that lived along the West Coast were interned in Hawaii, where 150,000 of the internees made up 1/3 of the territory's population.
- Of the 150,000 people who were interned, nearly 62% were Americans
- This was part of Executive Order 9066, which stated that all American-born citizens of Japanese parentage and Japanese-born citizens in the US were to be put into camps.
- The Japanese people were put into camps because they were suspected of being spies for the Japanese troops in the air, land and sea, and also some were suspected of loyalty to their homeland.
- Manzanar: 10,046 people
- Tule Lake: 18,789 people
- Poston: 17,814 people
- Gila River: 13,348 people
- Granada: 7,318 people
- Heart Mountain: 10,767 people
- Minidoka: 9,937 people
- Topaz: 8,130 people
- Rohwer: 8,475 people
- Jerome: 8,497 people
The conditions were simply horrible:
- Barracks of simple design with tar paper roofs, without plumbing, or cooking facilities
- The barracks were based on a military style design and not made for cramped family living
- Heart Mountain had a barbed wire fence surrounded compound with no partitions in the toilets, cots for beds, budget of .45 cents per meal. Most of the West coast living families had little time to pack so they were unable to pack good clothing to brave the sudden climate changes.
