Did you know?
Internment camps held
selected enemy aliens
deemed dangerous and
prisoners of war under
rules of international law.
The terms “internment”
or “internment camps”
should not be used in
reference to the mass
incarceration of Japanese
Americans, which was
not sanctioned under
international law and
involved United States
citizens.
No Japanese American
was ever convicted of
espionage or sabotage
against the U.S. The few
Americans who were
found guilty of spying
for Japan were all of
European descent.
In 1942, interracial
marriages were rare,
and even illegal in most
states. A few non-
Japanese Americans
“voluntarily” joined
their Japanese American
spouses in the camps.
Orphaned Japanese
American children were
taken from institutions
on the West Coast
and placed in a special
orphanage at the
Manzanar, California
camp because of
“military necessity.”
Some 23,000 Japanese
Americans (out of a
total population of
around 300,000)
served in the U.S.
armed forces during
World War II, despite
the fact that many
of their families
were incarcerated.
A coalition of
church groups and
educational leaders
helped some 4,000
Japanese Americans to
leave the camps early
to attend college.
Although the U.S. was
at war with Germany
and Italy, and despite
the fact that there
were known German
American spy rings
in the U.S., there
was no mass removal
or incarceration of
German Americans
or Italian Americans.
Dozens of terrorist
attacks — including
shots fired into homes
at night — greeted
Japanese Americans
returning to the West
Coast in 1945.
Acknowledgements
Funding for this publication was generously provided by the Atsuhiko & Ina Goodwin Tateuchi Foundation.
The information about Chloe in the opening story came from,
This American Life
,
show 445: Ten Years In
, originally broadcast
on Sept. 9, 2011. Transcript at
thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/445/transcript
This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any
opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
This material received federal financial assistance for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where
Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior
prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally funded projects.
If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity or facility as described above, or if you desire
further information please write to:
Office of Equal Opportunity
National Park Service
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240
Preserving the past, inspiring the future
Densho (a Japanese term meaning to pass stories to
the next generation) is a Seattle-based non-profit that
encourages the examination of democracy, intolerance,
wartime hysteria, civil rights and the responsibilities of
citizenship in our increasingly global society. Densho does
this through a close examination of the World War II
incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Densho provides teacher workshops in Washington,
Oregon, California, Idaho and Hawaii. Email
for more information. Densho
has also created an online archive of first-person
narratives, historic photographs and documents such
as personal letters, diaries, government documents
and newspapers around the World War II experiences
of Japanese Americans. If you have historical materials
you would like to share or a person to nominate to
interview please email
For additional information, please go to:
Densho.org/Times
Presented by:
031210995_01
8
Only one percent of
the Japanese American
population in Hawaii
was removed and
incarcerated, despite
the fact that it had
actually come under
enemy attack, that
there were more
Japanese Americans
in Hawaii than in the
continental U.S., and
that it is over 2,000
miles closer to Japan
than the West Coast.
To learn more about our
Newspapers In Education program,
email
or call
206/652-6290
Courtesy of Roger Shimomura
