Executive Order 9006, signed by FDR a few months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, demanded that all Americans of Japanese descent were to be relocated into internment camps. Unaware of where they were going or how long they were going to be gone, 120000 Japanese-Americans found themselves in one of ten US internment camps.
Living conditions were poor in internment camps. Bordered with barbed wire and guard towers, the camps had poorly kept mess halls, schools, post offices, latrines, hospitals, and warehouses. Overcrowded, dirty, and cramped, the relocation centers were described by the War Relocation Authority as "tarpaper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind." Each barrack, built to house mainly families, contained apartments ranging from 15 by 20 feet to 24 by 20 feet. There was hardly any privacy, as "rooms" in the apartments were cheap wooden partitions.
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These camps also significantly affected family dynamics. Men, who were traditionally the patriarchal leaders of the family, soon found their roles dampened by life in the internment camps. Also, tensions between first generation (Issei) and second generation (Nisei) were heightened by being confined in these centers. For example, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) encouraged Nisei children to rebel against their Issei parents by holding Americanized, patriotic activities in the camps. This overall encouragement widened the divide between generations and tore many Japanese American families apart.
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| A Japanese Internment Camp classroom |
Other government-provided facilities also greatly also the lives of children in these internment camps. For example, education resources were extremely scarce. The student-teacher ratio in elementary school was generally 48:1, making classrooms cramped and underfunded. Educational staff was roughly 12 people while there were up to 1774 pupils enrolled. This was a major concern and disappointment to many parents, as many of them saw education as a path for social advancement.
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| A baseball game at a California internment camp |
However, not all Japanese Americans relied on the facilities for entertainment- internees developed universal outlets such as sports for dealing with the depression of the camps. Baseball was especially popular in the spring and summer, football took over in the fall, and high school and community teams played against each other. Camp newspapers were also developed, often devoting full pages to sports scores.
While Japanese internment camps were underfunded, unkept, and overcrowded, people found ways to deal with the environment they were locked in. However, the unfair treatment of these innocent Japanese Americans should serve as a lesson to never again use fear as an excuse to force people into horrible living conditions.
Sources: http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/pages/exhibits/ww2/threat/camps.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html
https://dp.la/exhibitions/exhibits/show/japanese-internment
Sources: http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/pages/exhibits/ww2/threat/camps.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html
https://dp.la/exhibitions/exhibits/show/japanese-internment
Really informative post- I thought you did a great job summarizing the lives of the Japanese who lived in the internment camps. Adding on to what you mentioned about how the Japanese were able to find ways to deal with the obstacles that they faced in the camps, some things that the Japanese did to relieve their hardships were through playing sports such as baseball, where it brought children together; playing traditional Japanese games, and making art or paper flowers, which were taught by artists who offered art classes in the camps.
ReplyDeletesource: https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/manz/pastimes.html
This was a great read. It really helped me understand the in depth affects on the Japanese communities and families who had been brought here. It was interesting to read that just like the Americans in their hardships, the Japanese-Americans used sports and entertainment during their worst times to distract themselves from their hardships.
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