Japanese-American Relocation Center Newsletters, 1942-1943

After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, domestic policies and orders issued by the United States were formulated around avoiding future threats. This was especially prevalent along the Pacific Coast, where both citizens and government feared potential attacks. After receiving calls for the removal of Japanese citizens from Secretary of War Henry Stimson and local leaders on the West Coast, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. This order led to the assembly and evacuation and relocation of nearly 122,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry on the west coast of the United States. Most people evacuated under Executive Order 9066 were United States citizens that had never previously displayed any actions that were considered disloyal.

To enforce the Executive Order, the War Relocation Authority (WRA) was created in March 1942 “to provide for the removal from designated areas of persons whose removal is necessary in the interests of national security.” Designated people included ancestry considered to be a threat to the United States during World War II – Japanese, German, and Italian Americans. The WRA evacuated citizens from their homes in California, Oregon, and Washington and removed them to assembly centers, relocation centers, and internment camps among desolated areas throughout the United States. Relocation centers were mostly located in the western states (California, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona) but also in Arkansas. Once in place, the WRA supervised all activities, living conditions, and employment of internees.

During internment, families worked, studied, and lived their lives in small quarters of the relocation centers. These camps, some of which housed up to 8,000 people, functioned as small communities. The United States government provided medical care, schooling, food, and shelter to internees. Adults often held employment at their camp in food service, agriculture, medical clinics, teachers, and other jobs required for daily life.

Living conditions inside of the centers and camps were partially documented through local newsletters and newspapers created within each location. The writers and editors for these local papers were primarily Japanese-American internees. These newspapers occasionally included an article from the camp’s director. While these newsletters were written and edited by Japanese-American internees, these publications existed with funding and oversight of the WRA. These newsletters were intended to provide an account of daily happenings to the residents of these camps. The newspapers purposely did not recount particular hardships internees faced in the camps. Newspapers were printed in both English and Japanese.

Japanese-Americans lived at these relocation centers until 1944, when President Roosevelt rescinded Executive Order 9066 and began a six month process of shutting down the camps. Internees were returned to normal living conditions over the next two years. Almost one year after the completion of World War II, the government shut down the last relocation center, Tule Lake, located in northern California, in March 1946.