Japanese-American Relocation Centers:

The Injustice

How would you feel if you and your family received a letter in the mail explaining that you had to move in less than a week to a small army barrack in the middle of a swamp or desert? This is the feeling Japanese-Americans had when they received a letter in the mail saying they had to pack their clothes and be ready move to a relocation center in 1942. Your mom and dad would lose their jobs, and you would leave your school and your friends. Your new "house" in the relocation center would be as small as your old living room was. You would have no freedom and little food to eat. You would be miserable.

United States Relocates Japanese-Americans

During the early spring of 1942, the United States government had to quickly decide if it should move all 110,000 Japanese-Americans that were living on the west coast of the United States (California, Washington, and Oregon) into relocation centers located between the Mississippi River and the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The United States moved them because Japan had already attacked Hawaii. America feared that Japan’s next attack would be somewhere along the west coast of the United States. The United States government moved the Japanese-American to relocation centers because they feared that they would be spies if Japan attacked the United States mainland.

President Roosevelt agreed with the idea of putting Japanese-Americans in relocation centers. He signed an executive order forcing Japanese-Americans to move to the relocation centers, built on government owned property in the middle of swamps and deserts.

The United States knew that a responsibility would come with the relocation of Japanese-Americans. The United States would have to pull each Japanese-American family out of their home and bring them to relocation centers. To do this job, the War Relocation Authority (WRA) was created on March 29, 1942. The WRA would provide the Japanese-Americans with food and shelter at every center, and it would also have to secure the centers 24 hours a day.

The Japanese-Americans thought that this was cruel and unfair. They demanded not to move, but they had no choice. They had to move into relocation centers no matter what. They knew they would be treated with no respect and lose many of their freedoms.

The WRA initially had plans to build relocation centers for a small part of the 110,000 Japanese-Americans. They had no clue that they would be required by the government to move so many people. The WRA hoped that some of the Japanese-Americans would move out of California and relocate to a different state that is not bordering the Pacific Ocean. In March 1942, 8,000 Japanese-Americans moved out of the relocation centers and settled again in other states that were not along the west coast.

In the centers, a family of five or six lived in one 20 by 25 foot room. Think of your whole family living just in your family room. That is exactly how they lived. They also had very little heat, no television, and no radio. The government only provided each family with standard army cots that were not comfortable at all. They also provided thin blankets and small heating stoves.

Japanese-Americans were miserable because their privacy, and there freedom was taken away. The standard of life in the relocation centers was never above the standard anywhere else in America. The streets were always crowded. In each center, there was one bath, one laundry room, and a few toilets for every block in the center. About 250 people shared every facility room on each block. Sometimes you had to wait in lines just to use the restroom!

The relocation centers were not like the Nazi concentration camps. The people in the Nazi concentration camps were treated a lot worse than the people were treated in Relocation Centers. In the Nazi concentration camps, you could not have a private job, and you were lucky if you had a meal once a day. The relocation centers were to get the Japanese-Americans away from the public so they did not pose a threat to United States citizens. While staying at the relocation centers, you could have a private job and make the same salary that you made before. Relocation camps were not fancy or fun in any way. A relocation center was a much better choice than the Nazi concentration camps, but I’m sure the first choice of the Japanese-Americans would have been to remain in their own homes.

After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the United States let the Japanese-Americans out of relocation centers. The United States apologized for how badly they treated them, but not until almost 40 years later. Along with its apology, the United States gave each Japanese-American family that had been forced to live in the relocation centers $20,000.

Despite the relocation centers, Japanese-Americans helped the United States by fighting in some battles in Europe as part of the all-volunteer 442^nd Regimental Combat Team. This team won the most medals in American military history.

Ambrose Stephen E. The Good Fight. New York: Atheneum books 2001.

"Japanese-Americans." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000.

Relocation of Japanese-Americans. <http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/Documents/wrapam.html> Last visited: January, 2002.

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