Japanese American Incarceration Facts
By Lloyd Kajikawa



Precis

During WWII the US Government forcibly removed over 120,000 Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast. These individuals, two-thirds of them US citizens, were sent to ten concentration camps built throughout them western interior of the US. The Japanese Americans of Hawaii were not forcibly removed because they were such a large proportion of the territory population.



Initial Authorization

Executive Order 9066, February 19, 1942 (see page 10) authorized the military to exclude any persons from military areas without trial or hearings. Executive Order 9012, March 18, 1942 established the War Relocation Authority (WRA) which administered the concentration camps.



Agencies Involved in Incarceration

Western Defense Command was an army command consisting of eight western states. Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) was responsible for the “assembly centers” evacuation. War Relocation Authority ran the concentration camps.



Supreme Court Decisions

Hirabayashi v. United States (1943) upheld the legality of using racial criteria in the military’s curfew order. Korematsu v. United States (1943) upheld the constitutionality of the military detention process. Ex Parte Endo (1944) found that the WRA could not detain US citizens who were shown to be loyal, effectively ending incarceration.



Assembly Center Locations and Dates of Operation (1942)

These 16 centers, run by the US Army, were where Japanese Americans were sent in preparation for eventual removal from the Pacific Coast.

  • Puyallup, WA (4/28 - 9/12)
  • Marysville, CA (5/8 - 6/29)
  • Tanforan, CA (4/28 - 10/13)
  • Turlock, CA (4/30 - 8/12)
  • Salinas, CA (4/27 - 7/4)
  • Tulare, CA (4/20 - 9/4)
  • Pomona, CA (5/7 - 8/24)
  • Manzanar, CA (3/21 - 6/2)
  • Portland, OR (5/2 - 9/10)
  • Sacramento, CA (5/6 - 6/26)
  • Stockton, CA (5/10 - 10/17)
  • Merced, CA (5/6 - 9/15)
  • Fresno, CA (5/6 - 10/30)
  • Santa Anita, CA (3/27 - 10/27)
  • Mayer, CA (5/7 - 6/2)
  • Pinedale, CA (5/7 - 7/23)



Concentration Camp Locations and Dates of Operation

The 10 concentration camps were where Japanese Americans were housed behind barbed wire and watched over by armed guards. The camps were run by the WRA.
  • Central Utah (Topaz, UT, 9/42 - 10/45)
  • Colorado River (Poston, AZ, 5/42 - 11/45)
  • Gila River (Rivers, AZ, 7/42 - 11/45)
  • Granada (Amache, CO, 8/42 - 10/45)
  • Heart Mountain, WY, (8/42 - 11/45)
  • Jerome (Denson, AK, 10/42 - 6/44)
  • Manzanar, CA (6/42 - 11/45)
  • Minidoka, CA (Hunt, ID, 8/42 - 10/45)
  • Rohwer, AK (9/42 - 11/45)
  • Tule Lake (Newell, CA, 5/42 - 3/46)



Justice Department Camps

Internees from the internment camps that the WRA labeled as “trouble-makers” and who were not US citizens were placed in these camps.
  • Santa Fe, NM
  • Bismarck, ND
  • Crystal City, TX
  • Missoula, MT



Citizen Isolation Camps

Internees from the internment camps that the WRA labeled as “trouble-makers” and who were US citizens were sent to these camps.
  • Moab, UT
  • Leupp, AZ



Reparations and Redress

Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act of 1948 paid a total of $38 million, less than 10 cents for every dollar lost. In 1983 the Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians published Personal Justice Denied which recommends compensating all living victims of the incarceration. Civil Liberties Act of 1988 mandated a formal government apology for the internment and a payment to all living inmates.