"We saw all these people hanging onto the wire, and looking out because they were anxious to know who was coming in. But I will never forget the shocking feeling that human beings were behind the fence like animals. And we were going to also lose our freedom and walk inside of that gate and find ourselves...cooped up there...when the gates were shut, we knew that we had lost something precious; that we were no longer free." - Mary Tsukamoto, Japanese American Educator and Activist
More than 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned in the following 10 camps during WWII:
Amache (Granada), CO Peak population: 7,318
Gila River, AZ Peak population 13,348
Heart Mountain, WY Peak population 10,767
Jerome, AR Peak population 8,497
Manzanar, CA Peak population 10,046
Minidoka, ID Peak population 9,397
Poston (Colorado River), AZ Peak population 17,814
Rohwer, AR Peak population 8,475
Topaz (Central Utah), UT Peak population 8,130
Tule Lake, CA Peak population 18,789
"These barracks looked just like the concentration camp barracks in pictures from Germany. Just line after line, after line, of these wooden barracks; hastily built barracks, not well built at all." -Tony Ishisaka, A Japanese American whose family was held in an Internment Camp
Conditions of Japanese Interment Camps were anything but pleasant. For the first several months after the Japanese Americans were evacuated, they were temporarily warehoused while the army rushed to build barracks in designated relocation areas. Japanese Americans were sleeping in horse stables or living on race tracks in tents. Once the Internment Camps were ready for use, the Japanese Americans were sent to live in dusty, cramped conditons. They endured blazing heat or freezing cold, and were treated more as prisoners than citizens. Internment Camps were surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards in towers. Some Japanese Americans died due to emotional stresses and inadequate medical care, or were killed by military guards for allegedly resisting orders. Internees lost their identity, privacy, and dignity.
"Living in the horse stables with those double swinging doors was one of the worst experiences many would never forget." - Takeo Kaneshiro, Author