The+Camp+Experience

=The Camp Experience= "Imagine that one day you received notice that you and your whole family must be ready to move within 48 hours. You could take only the possessions you could carry and no one would tell you when you would be permitted to return home. Sound like a bad dream? This happened to over 100,000 United States citizens and legal residents during World War II. " ~ Martha Daly //Overview// 11,000 Japanese families had to sell their homes and businesses to relocate to the camps. Evacuees were allowed to take only what they could carry (not to exceed 100lbs). Japanese Americans were put on buses and shipped to one of 10 relocation centers around the United States. As the war continue the United States had developed 70 different camps around the United States. The barracks were surrounded by barbed wire and overseen by high wooden watchtowers. Privacy was almost nonexistent. Evacuees tried to make the best of it by living their lives with some degree of normalcy. Schools, libraries, sports teams, churches, and Americanization classes were created.

//Temporary Detention Camp//

From March, 1942 until mid-October, 1942, temporary detention center were established in the United States. Internees were moved to the ten more permanent internment prisons at this time. These temporary sites were mainly located on large fairgrounds or race tracks in visible and public locations. It would be impossible for locals to say that they were unaware of the removal and imprisonment of Japanese Americans at this time.

__TEMPORARY DETENTION CENTERS__ Fresno, California Manzanar, California Marysville, California Mayer, Arizona First Merced, California Pinedale, California Pomona, California Portland, Oregon Puyallup, Washington Sacramento, California Salinas, California Santa Anita, California. Stockton, California Tanforan, San Bruno, California Tulare, California Turlock, Byron, California

__JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INTERNMENT CAMPS__ Santa Fe, NM Bismarck, ND Crystal City, TX Missoula, MT Seagoville, Texas Kooskia, Idaho

//PERMANENT WRA CAMP//

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Permanent detention camps that held internees from March, 1942 until their closing in 1945 and 1946. The engineers designed the fenced camps in block arrangements wherein each block contained 14 barracks, 1 mess hall and 1 recreation hall on the outer edges, and ironing, laundry, and men's and women's lavatories on the interior. Households were assigned space in the spartan 100 by 20 foot family structures of wood and tar paper according to the number of people in their household. Other structures in the camp were designated for dry and cold warehouses, car and equipment repair and storage, administration, schools, canteens, library, religious services, hospitals, and post office.======

__ The Permanent WRA Camps: __ Amache (Granada), Colorado Tucson, AZ Federal Prison. Gila River, Arizona Heart Mountain, Wyoming Jerome, Arkansas Manzanar, California Minidoka, Idaho Poston (aka Colorado River), Arizona Rohwer, Arkansas. Topaz (aka Central Utah), Utah Tule Lake, California Heart Moutain, Wyoming

//Camp Life//

Anonymous Poem from Poem from University of Arizona Library THAT DAMNED FENCE They've sunk the posts deep into the ground They've strung out wires all the way around. With machine gun nests just over there, And sentries and soldiers everywhere. We're trapped like rats in a wired cage, To fret and fume with impotent rage; Yonder whispers the lure of the night, But that DAMNED FENCE assails our sight.

We seek the softness of the midnight air, But that DAMNED FENCE in the floodlight glare Awakens unrest in our nocturnal quest, And mockingly laughs with vicious jest.

With nowhere to go and nothing to do, We feed terrible, lonesome, and blue: That DAMNED FENCE is driving us crazy, Destroying our youth and making us lazy.

Imprisoned in here for a long, long time, We know we're punished--though we've committed no crime, Our thoughts are gloomy and enthusiasm damp, To be locked up in a concentration camp.

Loyalty we know, and patriotism we feel, To sacrifice our utmost was our ideal, To fight for our country, and die, perhaps; But we're here because we happen to be Japs.

We all love life, and our country best, Our misfortune to be here in the west, To keep us penned behind that DAMNED FENCE, Is someone's notion of NATIONAL DEFENCE!

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