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The Camps

National Park Services

Photo Archives

Below: Block 39 Picnic at Gila Camp; Rivers, Arizona, Undated (Black and White Positive, 5" x 7")

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Save documents, citations, and highlights to Google Drive™

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The Camps

Heart Mountain

National Park Services

Wyoming History

Below: Heart Mountain Barrack

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hiroshima Survivor Remembers

Impact of the Atomic Bomb on Japan

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The Cry of the Kamikaze

Inter-Japan Magazine

Kamikaze Attacks

Memoirs of a Suicide Squadron Survivor

Remembering Japan's Kamikaze Pilots

This Day in History

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The Camps

Life at Manzanar

National Park Service

Relocation Center Records

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1946 Article in the New Yorker

Bureaucracy and Hiroshima

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Kamikaze Pilots Video - World War II - HISTORY.com

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The Camps

National Park Service

Tule Lake Committee

Tule Lake Unit

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George Takei Bio

How "America First" Puts Many Last

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ENGLISH_ Perspective, a 2-Part Assignment

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Adolph Eichmann

Churchill's Death Squad

Erich Priebke

Franz Stangl

Josef Mengele

Nuremberg

Office of Special Investigations

United Nations War Crimes Commission

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Nagasaki, the Forgotten City

The New Yorker Article

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Before the Attack

Diary of a Sailor

National Park Service

Pearl Harbor History

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Japan Launches a Surprise Attack

1941 Newsreel of Attack

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Consequences of Terror

FDR Authorizes Internment

Japanese American Redress Movement

Japanese Internment in America

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Allegiance the Musical

Playbill

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On December 7, 1941, at 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appears out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States irrevocably into World War II.

With diplomatic negotiations with Japan breaking down, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisers knew that an imminent Japanese attack was probable, but nothing had been done to increase security at the important naval base at Pearl Harbor. It was Sunday morning, and many military personnel had been given passes to attend religious services off base. At 7:02 a.m., two radar operators spotted large groups of aircraft in flight toward the island from the north, but, with a flight of B-17s expected from the United States at the time, they were told to sound no alarm. Thus, the Japanese air assault came as a devastating surprise to the naval base.
READ MORE: Why Did Japan Attack Pearl Harbor?
Much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless: Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and more than 200 aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded, many while valiantly attempting to repulse the attack. Japan's losses were some 30 planes, five midget submarines, and fewer than 100 men. Fortunately for the United States, all three Pacific fleet carriers were out at sea on training maneuvers. These giant aircraft carriers would have their revenge against Japan six months later at the Battle of Midway, reversing the tide against the previously invincible Japanese navy in a spectacular victory.

The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and declared, "Yesterday, December 7, 1941-a date which will live in infamy-the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." After a brief and forceful speech, he asked Congress to approve a resolution recognizing the state of war between the United States and Japan. The Senate voted for war against Japan by 82 to 0, and the House of Representatives approved the resolution by a vote of 388 to 1. The sole dissenter was Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a devout pacifist who had also cast a dissenting vote against the U.S. entrance into World War I. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States, and the U.S. government responded in kind.

The American contribution to the successful Allied war effort spanned four long years and cost more than 400,000 American lives.

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At 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber descends on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States into World War II.

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Internment: America's Great Mistake

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Pearl Harbor

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Hiroshima

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Okinawa

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Jimmy Murakami: Non Alien

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George Takei

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Take a look at the events leading to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which prompted President Roosevelt to declare war on the Japanese and enter World War II.

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Eleanor Speaks Against Internment

FDR Library Curriculum Guide

Newsweek Opinion Piece

Primary Sources from FDR Library

Termination of 9066

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Japanese-American Soldiers in WWII Video

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Japanese-American Soldiers in WWII Video

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Japanese-American Soldiers in WWII Video - World War II - HISTORY.com

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Senator Daniel Inouye fought to prove his American patriotism.

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Executive Order 9066

On February 19, 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 with the stated intention of preventing espionage on American shores.

Military zones were created in California, Washington and Oregon-states with a large population of Japanese Americans. Then Roosevelt's executive order forcibly removed Americans of Japanese ancestry from their homes. Executive Order 9066 affected the lives about 120,000 people-the majority of whom were American citizens.

Canada soon followed suit, forcibly removing 21,000 of its residents of Japanese descent from its west coast. Mexico enacted its own version, and eventually 2,264 more people of Japanese descent were forcibly removed from Peru, Brazil, Chile and Argentina to the United States.

Anti-Japanese American Activity

Weeks before the order, the Navy removed citizens of Japanese descent from Terminal Island near the Port of Los Angeles.

On December 7, 1941, just hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the FBI rounded-up 1,291 Japanese American community and religious leaders, arresting them without evidence and freezing their assets.

In January, the arrestees were transferred to prison camps in Montana, New Mexico and North Dakota, many unable to inform their families and most remaining for the duration of the war.

Concurrently, the FBI searched the private homes of thousands of Japanese American residents on the West Coast, seizing items considered contraband.

One-third of Hawaii's population was of Japanese descent. In a panic, some politicians called for their mass incarceration. Japanese-owned fishing boats were impounded.

Some Japanese American residents were arrested and 1,500 people-one percent of the Japanese population in Hawaii-were sent to prison camps on the U.S. mainland.

Photos of Japanese American Relocation and Incarceration

John DeWitt

Lt. General John L. DeWitt, leader of the Western Defense Command, believed that the civilian population needed to be taken control of to prevent a repeat of Pearl Harbor.

To argue his case, DeWitt prepared a report filled with known falsehoods, such as examples of sabotage that were later revealed to be the result of cattle damaging power lines.

DeWitt suggested the creation of the military zones and Japanese detainment to Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Attorney General Francis Biddle. His original plan included Italians and Germans, though the idea of rounding-up Americans of European descent was not as popular.

At Congressional hearings in February 1942, a majority of the testimonies, including those from California Governor Culbert L. Olson and State Attorney General Earl Warren, declared that all Japanese should be removed.

Biddle pleaded with the president that mass incarceration of citizens was not required, preferring smaller, more targeted security measures. Regardless, Roosevelt signed the order.

War Relocation Authority

After much organizational chaos, about 15,000 Japanese Americans willingly moved out of prohibited areas. Inland state citizens were not keen for new Japanese American residents, and they were met with racist resistance.

Ten state governors voiced opposition, fearing the Japanese Americans might never leave, and demanded they be locked up if the states were forced to accept them.

A civilian organization called the War Relocation Authority was set up in March 1942 to administer the plan, with Milton S. Eisenhower from the Department of Agriculture to lead it. Eisenhower only lasted until June 1942, resigning in protest over what he characterized as incarcerating innocent citizens.

Relocation to 'Assembly Centers'

Army-directed removals began on March 24. People had six days notice to dispose of their belongings other than what they could carry.

Anyone who was at least 1/16th Japanese was evacuated, including 17,000 children under age 10, as well as several thousand elderly and disabled residents.

Japanese Americans reported to "Assembly Centers" near their homes. From there they were transported to a "Relocation Center" where they might live for months before transfer to a permanent "Wartime Residence."

Assembly Centers were located in remote areas, often reconfigured fairgrounds and racetracks featuring buildings not meant for human habitation, like horse stalls or cow sheds, that had been converted for that purpose. In Portland, Oregon, 3,000 people stayed in the livestock pavilion of the Pacific International Livestock Exposition Facilities.

The Santa Anita Assembly Center, just several miles northeast of Los Angeles, was a de-facto city with 18,000 incarcerated, 8,500 of whom lived in stables. Food shortages and substandard sanitation were prevalent in these facilities.

Life in 'Assembly Centers'

Assembly Centers offered work to prisoners with the policy that they should not be paid more than an Army private. Jobs ranged from doctors to teachers to laborers and mechanics. A couple were the sites of camouflage net factories, which provided work.

Over 1,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans were sent to other states to do seasonal farm work. Over 4,000 of the incarcerated population were allowed to leave to attend college.

Conditions in 'Relocation Centers'

There were a total of 10 prison camps, called "Relocation Centers." Typically the camps included some form of barracks with communal eating areas. Several families were housed together. Residents who were labeled as dissidents were forced to a special prison camp in Tule Lake, California.

Two prison camps in Arizona were located on Native American reservations, despite the protests of tribal councils, who were overruled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Each Relocation Center was its own "town," and included schools, post offices and work facilities, as well as farmland for growing food and keeping livestock. Each prison camp "town" was completely surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers.

Net factories offered work at several Relocation Centers. One housed a naval ship model factory. There were also factories in different Relocation Centers that manufactured items for use in other prison camps, including garments, mattresses and cabinets. Several housed agricultural processing plants.

Violence in Prison Camps

Violence occasionally occurred in the prison camps. In Lordsburg, New Mexico, prisoners were delivered by trains and forced to march two miles at night to the camp. On July 27, 1942, during a night march, two Japanese Americans, Toshio Kobata and Hirota Isomura, were shot and killed by a sentry who claimed they were attempting to escape. Japanese Americans testified later that the two elderly men were disabled and had been struggling during the march to Lordsburg. The sentry was found not guilty by the army court martial board.

On August 4, 1942, a riot broke out in the Santa Anita Assembly Center, the result of anger about insufficient rations and overcrowding. At California's Manzanar War Relocation Center, tensions resulted in the beating of Fred Tayama, a Japanese American Citizen's League (JACL) leader, by six men. JACL members were believed to be supporters of the prison camp's administration.

Fearing a riot, police tear-gassed crowds that had gathered at the police station to demand the release of Harry Ueno. Ueno had been arrested for allegedly assaulting Tayama. James Ito was killed instantly and several others were wounded. Among those injured was Jim Kanegawa, 21, who died of complications five days later.

At the Topaz Relocation Center, 63-year-old prisoner James Hatsuki Wakasa was shot and killed by military police after walking near the perimeter fence. Two months later, a couple was shot at for strolling near the fence.

In October 1943, the Army deployed tanks and soldiers to Tule Lake Segregation Center in northern California to crack down on protests. Japanese American prisoners at Tule Lake had been striking over food shortages and unsafe conditions that had led to an accidental death in October 1943. At the same camp, on May 24, 1943, James Okamoto, a 30-year-old prisoner who drove a construction truck, was shot and killed by a guard.

Fred Korematsu

In 1942, 23-year-old Japanese-American Fred Korematsu was arrested for refusing to relocate to a Japanese prison camp. His case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where his attorneys argued in Korematsu v. United States that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment.

Korematsu lost the case, but he went on to become a civil rights activist and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. With the creation of California's Fred Korematsu Day, the United States saw its first U.S. holiday named for an Asian American. But it took another Supreme Court decision to halt the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Mitsuye Endo

The prison camps ended in 1945 following the Supreme Court decision, Ex parte Mitsuye Endo. In this case, justices ruled unanimously that the War Relocation Authority "has no authority to subject citizens who are concededly loyal to its leave procedure."

The case was brought on behalf of Mitsuye Endo, the daughter of Japanese immigrants from Sacramento, California. After filing a habeas corpus petition, the government offered to free her, but Endo refused, wanting her case to address the entire issue of Japanese incarceration.

One year later, the Supreme Court made the decision, but gave President Truman the chance to begin camp closures before the announcement. One day after Truman made his announcement, the Supreme Court revealed its decision.

Reparations

The last Japanese internment camp closed in March 1946. President Gerald Ford officially repealed Executive Order 9066 in 1976, and in 1988, Congress issued a formal apology and passed the Civil Liberties Act awarding $20,000 each to over 80,000 Japanese Americans as reparations for their treatment.

Sources

Japanese Relocation During World War II. National Archives.
Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites. J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord and R. Lord.
Lordsburg Internment POW Camp. Historical Society of New Mexico.
Smithsonian Institute.

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Japanese Internment Camps: WWII, Life & Conditions | HISTORY

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Japanese internment camps were established during World War II by President Franklin D. Roosevelt through his Executive Order 9066. From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent, including U.S. citizens, be incarcerated.

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About the Digital Archive

The Bancroft Library's documentation of the Japanese American experience during World War II includes over 250,000 pages from an extensive collection of manuscripts and photographs. The materials in the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Digital Archive are pulled from our voluminous holdings and reveal the multifaceted experience from this complex time in US history. We invite you to explore these personal materials and recount the daily lives of Japanese Americans while in the confinement sites during World War II. Access to this material is provided through the Online Archive of California and Calisphere websites.

Digitized objects in Calisphere
Calisphere provides searchable access to the individual primary sources digitized through the Voices in Confinement: A Digital Archive of Japanese-American Internees project. The digital archive makes accessible a wide range of papers, maps, artworks, and photographs created by government agencies, advocacy groups, and personal works from authors, artists, and teachers whose documents reflect their experience during the war.

Collections in the Online Archive of California
The Bancroft has published a number of detailed collection guides about the Japanese confinement on the Online Archive of California. These guides provide descriptions of the contents of an archival collection and, when present, have links to digitized objects from that collection. Several collections have been digitized entirely, while for others only selected materials about the confinement have been digitized.

Relocation Centers

These two entry points serve as guided searches into the sites represented in the Japanese American Internment collections at The Bancroft Library.

Multimedia

A selection of audio and video collections related to Internees and their experiences.

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The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive - The Bancroft Library - UC Berkeley Library

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The Bancroft Library's documentation of the Japanese American experience during World War II includes over 250,000 pages from an extensive collection of manuscripts and photographs. The materials in the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Digital Archive are pulled from our voluminous holdings and reveal the multifaceted experience from this complex time in US history.

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BBC Hiroshima: Dropping the Bomb

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Hiroshima: Dropping The Bomb - Hiroshima - BBC

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Office Timeline

Padlet Timeline

SUTORI

Tiki Toki

Time Toast

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Racism in Propaganda

Racism in WWII

Tokyo Rose

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Anti-Japanese Propaganda

Anti-Japanese Signs

The Influence of Racism

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U.S. war department anti-Japanese propaganda film 1945

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Help us caption and translate this video on Amara.org: http://www.amara.org/en/v/B1rL/ Clip from an archival 1945 World War II propaganda film released by the U.S. War Department entitled "Know Your Enemy: Japan." You can watch the hour-long film in its entirety for free at the Media Burn Archive: http://mediaburn.org/video/know-your-enemy-japan/ Help us caption & translate this video!

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George Takei discusses The Twilight Zone - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG

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the encounter - clip from twilight zone 1964  with George Takei

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Check this list before you submit your work! 

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Check this list before you submit your work! 

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The Last Nazi Hunters

NPR Megapage on Nazi War Criminals

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The Legacy of Nuremberg

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"Who today remembers the Armenians?" said Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) when asked about his plan to exterminate the Jews. He was referring to the Armenian Genocide, a series of systematic killings conducted by the Ottoman Empire during the early 20th century. These killings peaked between 1915 and 1917. The Armenian Genocide is one of the most well-known genocides in history, second only in infamy to Hitler's Holocaust (1941-1945). Today, the Armenian Genocide remains a controversial international issue, because some countries-including Turkey-refuse to recognize it.

Armenia converted to Christianity during the 4th century. It did so while surrounded by powerful Muslim countries. This made Armenia the target of Muslim conquests. It eventually became part of the Ottoman Empire by the 15th century....

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"Who today remembers the Armenians?" said Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) when asked about his plan to exterminate the Jews. He was referring to the Armenian Genocide, a series of systematic killings conducted by the Ottoman Empire during the early 20th century. These killings peaked between 1915 and 1917.

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Overview

The German National Socialist politician Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) commanded the SS, Hitler's elite troops, and was head of the Gestapo. He was perhaps the most powerful and ruthless man in Nazi Germany next to Hitler himself.

Born in Munich, Bavaria, on October 7, 1900, Heinrich Himmler was the son of the former tutor of one of the Bavarian princes. In World War I, he took his first opportunity to join the army (1917), but owing to his frail health, he never reached the front. Yet he continued soldiering in veterans' bands after the war while a student at the university in Munich, and in November of 1923, he marched in Hitler's ill-fated Beer Hall Putsch. After a brief flirt with...
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The German National Socialist politician Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) commanded the SS, Hitler's elite troops, and was head of the Gestapo. He was perhaps the most powerful and ruthless man in Nazi Germany next to Hitler himself. Born in Munich, Bavaria, on October 7, 1900, Heinrich Himmler was the son of the former tutor of one of the Bavarian princes.

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Overview

The Soviet statesman Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) was the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union and the leader of world communism for almost 30 years.

Under Joseph Stalin the Soviet Union greatly enlarged its territory, won a war of unprecedented destructiveness, and transformed itself from a relatively backward country into the second most important industrial nation in the world. For these achievements the Soviet people and the international Communist movement paid a price that many of Stalin's critics consider excessive. The price included the loss of millions of lives; massive material and spiritual deprivation; political repression; an untold waste of resources; and the erection of an inflexible authoritarian system of rule thought by some historians to be one of the most...
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The Soviet statesman Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) was the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union and the leader of world communism for almost 30 years. Under Joseph Stalin the Soviet Union greatly enlarged its territory, won a war of unprecedented destructiveness, and transformed itself from a relatively backward country into the second most important industrial nation in the world.

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Indian removal was a policy adopted by the U.S. government, under President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), during the 1830s. Under this policy, Native American tribes were forced to give up their ancestral lands in the southern United States and were moved to locations west of the Mississippi River (present-day Oklahoma).

Thousands of Native Americans died from hunger, exhaustion, cold, and disease on the way to the designated Indian territory. For this reason, their long and difficult journey is called the "Trail of Tears."

Conflicts between Native Americans and whites had existed since the arrival of the first white settlers in North America. Most whites feared and resented the Native Americans, whom they regarded as a strange people who occupied lands that...

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Indian removal was a policy adopted by the U.S. government, under President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), during the 1830s. Under this policy, Native American tribes were forced to give up their ancestral lands in the southern United States and were moved to locations west of the Mississippi River (present-day Oklahoma).

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Cherokee Historical Association

History.com- Trail of Tears

National Park Service- Trail of Tears

U.S. History- Age of Jackson

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BBC Teach- Stalin

History.com- Stalin

Jewish Virtual Library- Stalin

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BBC- Himmler

Holocaust Museum- Himmler

Jewish Virtual Library- Himmler

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Armenian Genocide 1915-1923

Armenian Genocide Museum Institute

History.com- Armenian Genocide

Holocaust Museum- Armenian Genocide

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WATCH: Armenian Genocide (video) | Khan Academy

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For centuries, the Ottoman Empire had operated with many different ethnicities within its borders. These different ethnicities, or "millets", had some autonomy and maintained their own religions and languages. During the First World War, a new government in Istanbul carried out attacks on Armenian communities, claiming that they were a threat to national security.

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15 Strategies for Giving Oral Presentations

Good/Bad Examples Video

How to Do a Presentation in Class

WellCast Video on Public Speaking

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