A Life in the Relocation Centers

"The U. S. Army had moved the nearly 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans living in the western parts of the US into quickly created assembly centers. By November, they had all been transferred to the 10 long-term relocation centers built. One third were foreign-born Issei, prohibited from becoming citizens and many over 50 years old. The remaining two-thirds were Nisei, American citizens born in the United States, most under age 21. For the next two to three years, many evacuees would live in the centers.

When evacuees arrived at the camps, they found row on row of identical barracks in bleak settings of desert or swamp. Although they could do little about the extremes of heat and cold they encountered, they quickly found ways to improve and personalize their new lodgings, first to make them habitable, and later to make them into homes. They planted trees, hedges, flower borders, vegetables, gourds, vines, and cactus. Artist Kango Takamura was one of the first evacuees to arrive at Manzanar. He described what he found, and what happened: "Oh, it's really so hot, you see, and the wind blows. There's no shade at all. It's miserable, really. But one year after, it's quite a change. A year after they built the camp and put water there, the green grows up. And mentally everyone is better." Making physical changes in the environment was an important way to take some measure of control over their own lives and to create a sense of normality in their abnormal situation.

Anger and frustration and the physical and psychological disorientation brought on by the relocation took a toll on the evacuees. Most had supported the United States and were loyal and patriotic until their government decided that they were untrustworthy and guilty until proven innocent. In extreme cases, formerly loyal citizens renounced their citizenship. The most serious disturbance happened at Manzanar in December 1942. The confrontation ended when the director called in the military police who used tear gas to break up the crowd. When a truck was pushed toward the jail, the military police fired into the crowd, killing one and wounding at least ten others (one of whom later died).

Other evacuees remained loyal to the United States, in shock and disbelief at how they had been deprived of their homes and their freedom. Their major goal was to find ways to prove their loyalty. Many young men volunteered when the army announced in 1943 that it would accept volunteers for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an all-Nisei combat unit. Women volunteered for the Women's Army Corps and the Red Cross."

-Reading 3: A Life in the Relocation Centers, National Park Service