LibGuides: Primary Sources: America in World War II: Japanese Americans Internment during World War II

Japanese Americans Internment during World War II

During World War II, the United States government implemented a policy of mass internment targeting Japanese Americans, a grave violation of civil liberties and human rights. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced relocation and incarceration of over 120,000 individuals of Japanese descent, the majority of whom were American citizens.

Under this order, Japanese Americans living on the West Coast were forcibly removed from their homes and communities and relocated to hastily constructed internment camps located in remote and desolate areas across the country. Families were forced to abandon their homes, businesses, and possessions, facing uncertainty and hardship as they were subjected to harsh living conditions behind barbed wire fences and under armed guard.

The internment of Japanese Americans was fueled by racism, xenophobia, and wartime hysteria, as well as economic and political motives. Despite the lack of evidence of widespread disloyalty or sabotage, Japanese Americans were unjustly scapegoated and subjected to mass incarceration solely based on their ethnicity.

The internment experience had profound and long-lasting impacts on Japanese American communities, causing psychological trauma, economic loss, and the erosion of trust in the government. Despite these injustices, many Japanese Americans demonstrated resilience and perseverance, rebuilding their lives and advocating for redress and reparations in the decades following the war.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, formally apologizing for the internment and providing reparations to surviving internees. The internment of Japanese Americans stands as a dark chapter in American history, serving as a reminder of the dangers of prejudice, fear, and the erosion of civil liberties in times of crisis.

Online Sources: Japanese Americans Internment during World War II

Activities and entertainment at Heart Mountain Relocation Center Photographs, 1942-1943 Guide to the Activities and entertainment at Heart Mountain Relocation Center Photographs 1942-1943
Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar (Library of Congress) "In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), America's most well-known photographer, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese-Americans interned there during World War II. For the first time, digital scans of both Adams's original negatives and his photographic prints appear side by side allowing viewers to see Adams's darkroom technique, in particular, how he cropped his prints."
Bainbridge Review, 1941-1946 (Kitsap Regional Library) "The Bainbridge Review, a weekly newspaper edited and published by Walt and Milly Woodward, has earned national recognition for its coverage of the forced removal of more than 200 Bainbridge Island residents of Japanese descent. The Woodwards editorialized against the removal and devoted space in the newspaper to reports about their lives in the camps."
Benji Okubo Collection (Japanese American National Museum) "he online collection of artist Benji Okubo (1904-1975) features sixteen paintings dating from Okubo's prolific period of the late 1920s to the mid-1940s, including several works created in Heart Mountain concentration camp, Wyoming. While Okubo's pre-war pieces demonstrate a unique blend of color juxtaposition and surrealism, his works completed in camp are notable for their commentary on militarism, isolation and political upheaval fused with a mythic sensibility. "
Celebration of the Human Spirit: Japanese-American Relocation Camps in Arizona The Inspiration The inspiration for this exhibit came from the discovery of five exquisite watercolors by Kakunen Tsuruoka during a routine inventory of collections. Removed from their deteriorating frames, the fine quality of the artwork was readily apparent. None of the works are titled. One is painted on a fragment of curtain, the others are on paper. They had been presented as a gift to Wade Head, Poston camp Administrator upon his resignation in 1944. Once the watercolors were framed to museum standards, the hunt for the artist and his family was launched. This became an odyssey over many months, leading from one coast to the other. It involved querying national databases, acclaimed experts in Japanese-American camp art, and dead ends too numerous to mention. Finally, contact was made in New York with Ted Tsuruoka, the artist's grandson, who graciously provided us with biographical information and photographs. The Synergy While the artist search was on, it was obvious that there was sufficient material in the Japanese-American camp collections to support both a virtual and a library exhibit. Further, these collections remained largely hidden and unknown. They clearly deserved a larger audience. "This grew into a broader collaboration between the ASU Libraries' Archives and Special Collections and the Arizona Historical Foundation." Other interests in the Japanese-American experience during WWII converged.
Clara Breed Collection (Japanese American National Museum) The online collection of Clara Breed, or "Miss Breed" as she was known by her young library patrons, includes over 300 letters and cards received by Breed from Japanese American children and young adults during their World War II incarceration. Miss Breed was the children's librarian at San Diego Public Library from 1929 to 1945. When her young Japanese American patrons were forced into concentration camps with their families in 1942, Breed became their reliable correspondent, sending them books, assisting with requests for supplies, and through her actions, serving as a reminder of the possibility for decency and justice in a troubled world. Years later, Breed passed on the collection of letters she received to Elizabeth Kikuchi Yamada, one of the original correspondents. Ms. Yamada, in turn, donated them to the Japanese American National Museum. The online collection includes digital facsimiles of the correspondence as well as full transcriptions of the letters.
Confinement in the Land of Enchantment: Japanese Americans in New Mexico During World War II New Mexico is known as the Land of Enchantment for its picturesque and dramatic landscapes, its deep and rich history, and the diversity of peoples who have called it home. Yet anyone who has spent time in the Land of Enchantment knows that it is also a land of contested pasts, and that New Mexicans are no strangers to the power of history to tell us who we have been and who we are today. This Story Map chronicles the experiences of Japanese Americans in New Mexico just before, during, and after World War II. Although the histories we've presented here continue to shape the cultural identity of the Land of Enchantment, they remain largely unknown or misunderstood by many New Mexicans. These are histories that are tragic, hopeful, heartbreaking, and inspiring; they are stories that inform us about past and present meanings of identity, citizenship, and civil rights.
CSU Japanese American History Digitization Project Japanese American History Digital Collection The California State University System has an enrollment close to 437,000 students at 23 university campuses throughout the state of California. It is the largest university system in the United States. All of these campuses are defined by their community and take an abiding interest in the people and history of those communities. Throughout the last 40 years CSU Libraries and Archives have focused attention on the history and progress of Japanese Americans in their communities. As a result, the collections that have been accumulated at CSU Libraries have a highly local flavor and remarkable depth. The Archives at several different CSU institutions, including those in Dominguez Hills, Fresno, Fullerton, Northridge, Sacramento, San Jose, Sonoma, and San Francisco have collaborated on the initial planning grant to create a digital archive of the CSU's holdings on this subject. San Diego, Bakersfield, and San Bernardino have also contributed materials.
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project, digital archive of video oral histories of Japanese-Americans incarcerated or interned during World War II, Japanese-American internment stories "Densho's mission is to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. We offer these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy and promote equal justice for all."
Estelle Ishigo Collection (Japanese American National Museum) "The online collection of Estelle Peck Ishigo (1899-1990) covers life in the Pomona detention center in California and in the Heart Mountain, Wyoming camp during World War II. Includes 120 drawings, sketches, and watercolors. "
Estelle Ishigo Papers, 1941-1957 (Heart Mount Relocation Camp) (Online Archive of California) Estelle (Peck) Ishigo (1899- ) was born in Oakland, California. She attended Otis Art Institute where she met and married San Franciscan Nisei, Arthur Ishigo (ca. 1929). Following Pearl Harbor, both were fired from their jobs and Arthur was ordered to a concentration camp. Estelle voluntarily accompanied him, and they were eventually assigned to Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming. Estelle documented life at the camp through her artwork. The collection consists of documents, records, correspondence, photographs, paintings, pencil drawings and sketches, and watercolor sketches related to Estelle Ishigo's life in the Pomona Assembly Center, California and the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Wyoming. There is also material related to the Ishigo's postwar resettlement in Southern California.
Evacuation and Internment of San Francisco Japanese - 1942 (The Museum of the City of San Francisco) "The San Francisco News, for the first six months of 1942, carried almost daily reports of FBI and police sweeps, and the various proclamations, plans - and restrictions to civil liberties - issued by Lieutenant-General John L. DeWitt at the Presidio of San Francisco. "
Executive Order 9066: Resulting in the Relocation of Japanese (1942) (National Archives) "Issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, this order authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland."
Executive Order 9066: The President Authorizes Japanese Relocation (History Matters) "In an atmosphere of World War II hysteria, President Roosevelt, encouraged by officials at all levels of the federal government, authorized the internment of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident aliens from Japan. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, dated February 19, 1942, gave the military broad powers to ban any citizen from a fifty- to sixty-mile-wide coastal area stretching from Washington state to California and extending inland into southern Arizona. The order also authorized transporting these citizens to assembly centers hastily set up and governed by the military in California, Arizona, Washington state, and Oregon. Although it is not well known, the same executive order (and other war-time orders and restrictions) were also applied to smaller numbers of residents of the United States who were of Italian or German descent. For example, 3,200 resident aliens of Italian background were arrested and more than 300 of them were interned. About 11,000 German residents—including some naturalized citizens—were arrested and more than 5000 were interned. Yet while these individuals (and others from those groups) suffered grievous violations of their civil liberties, the war-time measures applied to Japanese Americans were worse and more sweeping, uprooting entire communities and targeting citizens as well as resident aliens." GMU History Matters
FDR and Japanese American Internment Materials (Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum) The documents contained in this selection are from the collections of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and are intended to reflect the many sides of this issue
Flaherty Collection - Japanese Internment Records (SJSU King Library Digital Collection) "The King Library Digital Collections includes all of the 135 photographs in the Flaherty Collection, which document the experience of Japanese-Americans in assembly centers and relocation camps in California, Oregon, and other Western states. For additional information about using images in the collection, contact the SJSU Special Collections Department."
From Confinement to College: Video Oral Histories of Japanese American Students in World War II (U. Mass Boston) "Video oral histories with Japanese Americans who were students during World War II and their first-hand accounts of being incarcerated and leaving internment camps to attend college. These interviews also document the impact that these students’ wartime experiences had on their later commitments to certain causes and organizations such as the NSRCF (Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund)."
George and Frank C. Hirahara Photograph Collection, 1943-1945 (Heart Mountain Internment Camp) (Washington State University) The George and Frank C. Hirahara Collection is considered the largest private collection of photos depicting life in the Japanese American incarceration camp at Heart Mountain Wyoming. This collection contains over 2000 images taken and processed from January 1943 to November 1945. George Hirahara and his son Frank captured images of camp life and special family milestones such as engagement celebrations, weddings, and family portraits. Patti Hirahara, Frank’s daughter, donated this significant collection of original black and white photographs and negatives to the Washington State University (WSU) Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) Department.
George Hoshida Collection (Japanese American National Museum) "The online collection of George Hoshida (1907-1985) includes 260 drawings and watercolors drawn from his visual diary covering his incarceration for the duration of World War II in the Kilauea Military Camp and Sand Island in Hawai'i, in Justice Department internment camps at Lordsburg and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in WRA camps in Jerome, Arkansas and Gila River, Arizona." Japanese American National Museum
Henry Sugimoto Collection (Japanese American National Museum) "The online collection of Henry Sugimoto (1900-1990) includes 137 paintings dating from the 1930s to the 1950s. Sugimoto's works depict Arkansas, California, New York, Mexico, and France. His paintings of Fresno detention center in central California and Jerome and Rohwer concentration camps in Arkansas illustrate clearly his feelings about internment."
Images of Internment: Dorothea Lange's World War II photos (National Archives / YouTube) Images of Internment: The Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II - exhibit opens February 19, 2017 at FDR Presidential Library & Museum, Hyde Park, NY. This year marks the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which led to the incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese descent during World War II, including approximately 80,000 American citizens.
Internment of San Francisco Japanese (The Museum of the City of San Francisco) The San Francisco News, for the first six months of 1942, carried almost daily reports of FBI and police sweeps, and the various proclamations, plans - and restrictions to civil liberties - issued by Lieutenant-General John L. DeWitt at the Presidio of San Francisco. A road was named for him, by the Army, near the former Letterman Army General Hospital, to honor his contributions during World War II. At the same time, San Francisco business and government leaders began planning to physically clear the Japanese community from the Western Addition by declaring it a "slum area." This planning began one month before the last Japanese residents were forced from the so-called "Little Tokio," or Japantown, district. When reading these articles it must be understood that they reflect their time; words and ideas repugnant and appalling to us today are used, and discussed, freely, in the News' columns. It should also be noted that some news articles were approved by military censors before publication. In addition, every newspaper editor was excessively careful about printing information of potential use to the enemy.
Interrupted Lives: Japanese American Students at the University of Washington Primary source materials used in the digital exhibit "Interrupted Lives: Japanese American Students at the University of Washington"
Jack Iwata Collection (Japanese American National Museum) "he online collection of photographer Jack Iwata includes 166 photographs and copy negatives taken at Manzanar and Tule Lake concentration camps between 1942 and 1945."
Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II (National Archives) In his speech to Congress, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was "a date which will live in infamy." The attack launched the United States fully into the two theaters of World War II – Europe and the Pacific. Prior to Pearl Harbor, the United States had been involved in a non-combat role, through the Lend-Lease Program that supplied England, China, Russia, and other anti-fascist countries of Europe with munitions. The materials in this digital collection were digitized by the Arkansas State Archives as part of the second phase of a joint project entitled “Rohwer Reconstructed,” overseen by the University of Arkansas’ Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies and funded in part by a grant from the National Park Service through the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program. Project contributors include: the University of Arkansas’ Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST); the UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture; University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections; Arkansas State Archives; Arkansas State University; and the Central Arkansas Library System Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. The Rohwer Reconstructed site provides increased access for researchers, students, and citizens to the archival materials housed at the participating historical repositories. Primary source materials relating to Japanese-American internment in Arkansas from the Arkansas State Archives will be added to the Rohwer Reconstructed site in the coming year. The Arkansas State Archives digital collection includes materials from school administrators and superintendents, pastors, teachers, social welfare workers and WRA administrators associated with the internment camps, Homer Adkins’ gubernatorial papers, articles from the McGehee Times and Dermott News, and the official closing roster of the Rohwer Relocation Center, and will continue to grow as more materials are added to it. The name of the collection, "You Fought Prejudice and Won," comes from the words spoken by President Harry S. Truman upon welcoming home the 100th Infantry Battalion, which was largely made up of Japanese-American soldiers and represented the first group of Japanese-American soldiers to see combat in WWII. The quote, "“You not only fought the enemy... you fought prejudice and won," is engraved upon the Go For Broke memorial honoring the soldiers of the 100th Infantry Battalion.
Japanese-American Internment Camp Newspapers, 1942 to 1946 (Library of Congress) "Produced by the Japanese-Americans interned at assembly centers and relocation centers around the country during World War II, these newspapers provide a unique look into the daily lives of the people who were held in these camps. They include articles written in English and Japanese, typed, handwritten and drawn. They advertise community events, provide logistical information about the camps and relocation, report on news from the community, and include editorials."
Japanese-American Internment Collections (University of the Pacific) "From the spring of 1942 through 1946, the United States government relocated over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry from Pacific coast states to War Relocation Centers. These collections document the relocation experience with an emphasis on San Joaquin County evacuees."
Japanese American Confinement Oral Histories (Berkely Library) "In 2011, the Bancroft Library was awarded its first grant by the National Park Service's Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program. What started as a two-year digitization project flourished into a now multi-grant digitization project digitizing nearly 250,000 primary source materials that focuses on Japanese-American experience during WWII. The selections consist of institutional records, personal documents, and formats like moving-image film, audio, maps, and artworks. Access to the digitized content is provided by the Online Archive of California, and Calisphere."
Japanese American Internment Collection (Washington State University) Japanese American Incarceration During World War II In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and decades of discrimination against Asian Americans, President Roosevelt enacted Executive Order 9066 (EO 9066) on February 19, 1942. This order followed the Department of Justice’s initial arrest of Japanese American community leaders and individuals deemed potential threats to national security. Ultimately, EO 9066 led to the mass removal of nearly 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent from western Washington and Oregon, southern Arizona, and all of California. This action by the government against Japanese Americans is often referred to as "internment." Those removed from the West Coast were sent to incarceration camps (officially named Relocation Centers) located in remote and often inhospitable sections of the nation’s interior. Many living in the camps worked on projects to improve local infrastructure or worked on land reclamation projects. In addition, many provided farm labor at a time when the war effort taxed America’s resources. In 1943, the U.S. military expanded the draft to the camp populations. While many opposed military service based on the injustice of the West Coast exclusion, others felt it an opportunity to improve the standing of Japanese Americans in the eyes of other Americans. In this way, the draft proved to be a source of pride and controversy amongst those incarcerated. The War Relocation Authority, the agency governing the camps, attempted to decrease the population by encouraging resettlement to areas outside the restricted zones along the West Coast and southern Arizona starting in 1943. Ultimately, the lifting of the West Coast ban in December 1944 served as the lynchpin to decreasing the population of the camps. Between the summer of 1944 and the spring of 1946, all ten "relocation camps" run by the War Relocation Authority closed its doors. This digital collection of materials related to the Japanese American incarceration revolves around a handful of collections donated by individuals and families closely tied to the internment experience. The collections listed below compliment the George and Frank C. Hirahara Collection, which is comprised largely of photographs taken when the Hirahara family was incarcerated at Heart Mountain Relocation Center in northwest Wyoming.
Japanese American Relocation Collection (University of Southern California) Photos and other materials related to the relocation of Japanese Americans during WWII. Over 2000 images
Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (JARDA) (University of California) "contains thousands of Japanese American internment primary source materials"
Japanese American Relocation during World War II (Online Archive of California) Click the link that says "Online items available" "The collection consists of correspondence, magazines, newspaper and journal articles clippings, and publications from the War Relocation Authority, religious groups, as well as civil liberties organizations. It also has a series of correspondence to and from Occidental President Remsen Bird's office, and meeting minutes and other publications from the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council." Provided by Occidental College Library
Japanese Internment Camp Collection (ASU) (Arizona State University Digital Repository) "The internment of Japanese-American's during World War II continues to be a painful memory for many of our citizens, but now the stories available in this collection make vivid the daily life of this exiled community and their extraordinary patriotism and sacrifice. This collaboration between the ASU Library Arizona Collection and the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records started in 2005 and we thank them for their assistance in compiling and digitizing over 5,000 pages of bi-lingual camp newsletters, which are now text searchable in monthly cumulations. The collection includes bilingual internment camp newsletters and photographs of the Rivers camps in Arizona."
Korematsu v. U.S. 323 U.S. 214 "In an opinion written by Justice Black, the Court ruled that the evacuation order violated by Korematsu was valid. The majority found that the Executive Order did not show racial prejudice but rather responded to the strategic imperative of keeping the U.S. and particularly the West Coast (the region nearest Japan) secure from invasion. The Court relied heavily on a 1943 decision, Hirabayashi v. U.S., which addressed similar issues. Black argued that the validation of the military's decision by Congress merited even more deference. Justice Frankfurter concurred, writing that the “martial necessity arising from the danger of espionage and sabotage” warranted the military’s evacuation order. Justice Jackson dissented, arguing that the exclusion order legitimized racism that violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Labor Administration and Social Security: A Woman's Life An interview with Helen Valeska Bary, 1888-1973 which includes topics such as: The National Recovery Administration, 1934-1935; The Social Security Board, 1935-1948; The Politics of Public Assistance: A Case Study of Colorado, 1935-1936; . & Japanese Relocation: View from a Regional Office, 1941-1942. Additional documents are provided in the appendix section.
Mori Shimada Collection (Japanese American National Museum) "This collection, originally in scrapbook form, features 108 photographs of friends, family, and social and sporting events in Heart Mountain concentration camp taken by Mori Shimada between 1942 and 1945.
Online Archive of the Japanese American Relocation During World War II (Occidental College) The Library of Occidental College seeks to make known its unique collection of materials regarding the Japanese American relocation and evacuation during World War II. These historical documents were preserved through the efforts of President Remsen DuBois Bird and College Librarian, Elizabeth McCloy, in the mid-1940’s. An initial grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation’s Archival Grants Program in 2004 partially funds the Library’s digital archive project to preserve, digitize and distribute a selection of the letters, materials and newspapers published in the Japanese internment camps during World War II. The online digital archive, launched in June 2005, offers a representative selection of these historic materials in digital formats for research. The complete collection of primary materials is preserved in the Special Collections department of the Library and is available for research by appointment. The online Website offers an overview of the collection, including a comprehensive research guide, links to selected resources, and a representative selection from the collection. The digital archive is a searchable database of letters, papers, brochure, newspaper articles and other examples of primary source materials. Most prominent are the Letters and Papers of Remsen Bird. The correspondence offers a rich resource for learning more about the issues of higher education, civil liberties and actions of individuals during the forced evacuation of the Japanese Americans during World War II. Of particular note is the correspondence of Occidental President Remsen Bird, College Librarian Elizabeth McCloy, faculty, and Occidental’s Japanese American students. The students attending in 1942 are Sinpachi Kanow, Mary Kariya, Russell Nakata, John Nishiyama, Ted Tajima, and Iko Tanzawa. Alumni are Shizona Tanaka (’26) and Sophie Tagima Toriumi (‘38) and prospective students are Helen Matsunaga and Akira Shiraishi.
Oral history interview with Ai Tanaka (Florin Japanese American Citizens League) The Florin Japanese American Citizens League oral histories chronicle the story of Japanese Americans in the once thriving community of Florin, Sacramento from 1869 through post World War II. The oral histories focus on immigration and settlement, the World War II internment period, redress and reparations. This is a transcript of the audio recording digitized in 2016 by the California Audiovisual Preservation Project. Ai Tanaka, Kibei female, was born in Loomis, California on 11/18/1918 to farm laborers.
Preserving Japanese American stories of the past for the generations of tomorrow. (Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project) Densho documents the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. We offer these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy and promote equal justice for all. Densho is a Japanese term meaning “to pass on to the next generation,” or to leave a legacy. The legacy we offer is an American story with ongoing relevance: during World War II, the United States government incarcerated innocent people solely because of their ancestry.
Stanley Hayami Diary (Online Archive of California) Click the link Online items available for access. "Stanley Hayami (1925-1945) was a student from Los Angeles who attended high school at the Heart Mountain Concentration Camp in Wyoming. Hayami left Heart Mountain in June 1944 to join the U.S. Army and was killed in combat in Northern Italy on April 23, 1945, while trying to help a fellow soldier. He was nineteen years old. "
Tom Oishi: Rosie The Riveter World War II American Home Front Oral History Project (Berkeley Library) "Native of Richmond, Oishi grew-up on the southside of town where his family operated a carnation nursery. He was part of the first group of workers to be employed by the Kaiser shipyards. Upon graduation from Richmond High, Oishi received training to become a welder and began work at Kaiser by late 1941. All of Richmond's Japanese families, including the Oishis, were forced to move to the Tanforan Race Track in San Bruno, where they stayed until being relocated to internment camps throughout the west. The Oishi were interned at Topaz, Utah. Oishi found he was able to work in a nursery in Chicago during the war, and was among the first in his family to return to their nursery in Richmond in 1944. In 1945 Oishi was drafted by the army and served at P.O.W. camps in Virginia and California. He continued to work in the nursery Commerce, Industry, and Labor up until the 1990s. Discusses: growing up in Richmond's Japanese community, attending various city schools, the cut flower Commerce, Industry, and Labor, work at the shipyards, the Japanese internment, life after the war."
Topaz Oral Histories (University of Utah) "The Topaz oral history project collection interviews were conducted by Sandra Taylor, of the University of Utah's Department of History. The interviews were part of her research for Jewel of the desert: Japanese American internment at Topaz (1993). Also included are correspondence, news clippings, published and unpublished articles, and research files.; The Topaz oral history project collection contains transcripts of tapes, and related transcription materials of a collection of 70 oral history interviews which document the lives of Japanese Americans who were interned at the Topaz, Utah, camp. The interviews were conducted by Sandra Taylor of the University of Utah"
Tosh Yasutake and Mitsuye May Yamada Discuss Tosh’s Decision to Join U.S. Army (History Matters) "Tosh Yasutake is a Nisei (second generation) Japanese American born in 1922 in Seattle. His sister Mitsuye May (Yasutake) Yamada is a Nisei born in Japan in 1923. Their father, Jack Kaichiro Yasutake, was employed by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service as an interpreter for twenty years. On December 7, 1941, the father was arrested and interned as an enemy alien at a Department of Justice camp, along with other Issei (first generation) community leaders. Tosh attended the University of Washington before being removed from Seattle with his mother, May, and two brothers in spring 1942. The family was held at Puyallup Assembly Center, Washington, and then the Minidoka, Idaho, incarceration camp. Tosh worked as a hospital attendant and laboratory technician in Minidoka. In the first interview excerpt with Tosh, he explains his decision to volunteer for the U.S. Army in March 1943. In the second excerpt, Tosh and May recount how they received permission to travel from Minidoka to visit their father at U.S. Department of Justice internment camp in Lordsburg, New Mexico, before Tosh reports for duty. While serving as a medic with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Tosh was wounded during combat in southern France in 1944. May left Minidoka to attend college in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1944, their mother and younger brother joined their father at the Crystal City, Texas, internment camp."
Walter Muramoto Collection (Japanese American National Museum) "This collection of 361 black and white photographs taken by Walter Muramoto depict daily life in camp in Rohwer, Arkansas. Muramoto and his family were incarcerated in Rohwer from 1942 to 1945. "
The War Relocation Authority (Harry S. Truman Library) "This collection focuses on The War Relocation Authority and The Incarceration of Japanese-Americans During World War II. It includes 14 photographs, 62 documents comprising 911 pages, a chronology of events spanning the years 1941-1998, excerpts from Oral Histories, and Lesson Plans." Harry S. Truman Library & Museum
War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement 1942-1945 (Online Archive of California) Photographs document the evacuation of Japanese Americans and their life in various Relocation Camps across the United States. Post-war resettlement activities are also recorded.
Witness: Japanese Internment (BBC) "In February 1942 all Japanese Americans were ordered to internment camps. They were viewed as a threat to US security during World War II." From the BBC
World War II - Documents (Illinois State Library) "This collection contains United States and Illinois government documents on subjects relating to World War II, including: rationing and conservation, women's work, civil defense, the Japanese interment, the development of the United Nations, and more."
World War II Films (Ball State Library) "The World War II Films digital collection consists of short films and news clips, primarily in black and white, documenting Allied operations and activities during WWII. In addition to footage of campaigns in Europe and in the Pacific, the films document activities on the homefront, including the efforts of African American colleges and farmers, the relocation and internment of Japanese civilians, and the victory garden program sponsored by the U.S. Office of Civilian Defense. The films are housed in Ball State University Libraries Educational Resources Collections."
World War Two - Japanese-American Internment - Old Magazine Articles The website provides newspapers and magazines from the era on the topic of internment.

Book Sources: Japanese Americans Internment during World War II

Click the title for location and availability information.

Camp Notes and Other Writings by Mitsuye Yamada
Call Number: Jupiter General Collection PS3575.A4 C3 1998
ISBN: 081352606X
Publication Date: 1998
The children of Topaz : the story of a Japanese-American internment camp : based on a classroom diary by Michael O. Tunnell; George W. Chilcoat
Call Number: Jupiter General Collection D769.8.A6 T86 1996
ISBN: 0823412393
Publication Date: 1996-04-01
Citizen 13660 by Miné Okubo; Christine Hong (Introduction by); Miné Okubo
Call Number: Comics 1st Floor West D769.8.A6 O38 2014
ISBN: 0295993545
Publication Date: 2014-02-26
Citizen Internees: a Second Look at Race and Citizenship in Japanese American Internment Camps by Linda L. Ivey; Kevin W. Kaatz
Call Number: View Online
ISBN: 9781440837012
Publication Date: 2017-03-27
Dear Miss Breed : true stories of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II and a librarian who made a difference by Joanne Oppenheim
Call Number: Children's Literature D769.8.A6 O67 2006
ISBN: 9780439569927
Publication Date: 2006-02-01
Documents of Japanese American Internment by Linda L. Ivey; Kevin W. Kaatz
Call Number: View Online
ISBN: 9781440853890
Publication Date: 2020-12-02
Farewell to Manzanar : a true story of Japanese American experience during and after the World War II internment by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection E184.J3 H63 1995
ISBN: 0808510894
Publication Date: 2004-03-01
Imprisoned apart : the World War II correspondence of an Issei couple by Louis Fiset; Roger Daniels (Foreword by)
Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection D769.8.A6 F49 1997
ISBN: 0295976454
Publication Date: 1998-03-01
Morning Glory, Evening Shadow: Yamato Ichihashi and His Internment Writings, 1942-1945 by Gordon H. Chang (Editor)
Call Number: View Online
ISBN: 9780804736534
Publication Date: 1999-02-01
Moving images : photography and the Japanese American incarceration by Jasmine Alinder
Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection D769.8.A6 A64 2009
ISBN: 9780252033988
Publication Date: 2009-01-21
Personal Justice Denied by United States. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians
Call Number: View Online - Gov Docs
ISBN: 029597558X
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei; Justin Eisinger; Steven Scott; Harmony Becker (Illustrator)
Call Number: Diversity Burrow 1st Floor West D769.8.A6 T355 2019
ISBN: 9781603094504
Publication Date: 2019-07-16
To the stars : the autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek's Mr. Sulu. by George Takei
Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection PN2287.T138 A3 1994
ISBN: 0671890085
Publication Date: 1994-10-01
Whispered silences : Japanese Americans and World War II by Gary Y. Okihiro; Joan Myers (Illustrator) A brief history of Japanese immigration to the United States precedes this account of the relocation of 110,000 Japanese Americans to 10 concentration camps in California, Washington, Oregon, & Arizona during World War II, & the racial enmity experienced by Japanese Americans.
Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection D769.8.A6 O36 1996
ISBN: 9780295974972
Publication Date: 1996-05-01

Video Sources: Japanese Americans Internment during World War II

Japanese American Internment during World War II (Playlist with 26 videos)

The links below are videos taken from the database listed below. They will require you to be affiliated with Florida Atlantic University with an active username/password to log in and view them.

American History in Video This link opens in a new window
American History in Video provides the largest and richest collection of video available online for the study of American history. The collection allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and the presentation of historical events over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries.

A Challenge to Democracy - Streaming Video Online Database This documentary discusses the how the internment camps challenged American democracy.
Asian Americans. Episode two, A question of loyalty - Streaming Video Online Database This series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, and cultural innovation. It is a timely look at the role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation. An American-born generation straddles their birth country and their familial homelands in Asia. Family loyalties are tested during WWII when Japanese Americans are held in detention camps and brothers are on opposite sides of the battle.
A personal matter : Gordon Hirabayashi versus the United States - Streaming Video Online Database During WWII, Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese American, refused to be interned in U.S. concentration camps on the grounds that Executive Order 9066 violated his Constitutional rights. This acclaimed video takes a personal look at basic protections of the Constitution such as the due process of law and individual rights.
Tanforan: Race Track to Assembly Center The Tanforan Race Track was the site of an assembly center in 1942, where thousands of Japanese Americans lived for as long as six months while the more permanent World War II concentration camps were being built inland. This is the first in-depth study of an assembly center and the beginnings of new cultural and social systems, which were developed then transferred to the permanent camps. Interviews with ex-internees tell compelling stories of the hardships and losses they endured during this period. Rare film footage, photographs and artwork are also featured.
Minidoka : an American concentration camp - Electronic Gov. Docs Video Learn about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, the experiences of survivors and their descendants, and the site's relevance to the complicated issues Americans face today.
The first battle : the battle for equality in war-time Hawaii - Streaming Video Database A mix of archival footage and historical recreations tells the story of the Japanese Hawaiians' efforts to maintain equal rights and fair treatment during World War II. Fearing that Japan's involvement in the war would stoke racial hatred, Americans of Japanese descent living in Hawaii effectively anticipated and countered the type of harsh treatment that forced Japanese-Americans on the U.S. mainland into internment camps.
Children of the Camps - Streaming Videos Databases Children of the Camps is a one-hour documentary that portrays the poignant stories of six Japanese Americans who were interned as children in US concentration camps during W.W.II.
Resettlement to redress : rebirth of the Japanese-American community - Streaming Video Database RESETTLEMENT TO REDRESS takes a close look at the long and difficult journey Japanese Americans faced as they transitioned from being forcibly removed from their homes and imprisoned in concentration camps during World War II, to readjustment to society upon their release. Some never returned to their previous homes, settling instead in other parts of the U.S., including Salt Lake City, Denver, and Seabrook, New Jersey. As many tried to bravely move forward, taking advantage of new career choices and educational opportunities, racism and memories of the past were never far away, even as they sought to assimilate themselves into American culture. Eventually though, pilgrimages to relocation centers and the empowering activist climate of the 1960s played a key role in bringing people together, building increasing momentum to seek redress from the U.S. government.

Primary Sources: America in World War II

Why I Love a Country that Once Betrayed Me

Japanese Internment pics

Japanese Americans Internment during World War II

Online Sources: Japanese Americans Internment during World War II

Book Sources: Japanese Americans Internment during World War II

Video Sources: Japanese Americans Internment during World War II