The Japanese internment camps during World War II housed over 120,000 Japanese Americans. The government's objectives were to eliminate Japanese competition on the West Coast and prevent potential espionage due to fears after Pearl Harbor. Camp conditions were poor, with families living in cramped quarters without plumbing or cooking facilities. Three representative camps discussed were Manzanar, Poston, and Tule Lake, which had extreme weather, riots, and were eventually closed after the war ended. Former internees struggled to return home and restart their lives after suffering emotional and economic damages from their internment experience.

1. JAPANESE INTERNMENT
CAMPS
BY: CATHERINE MCKAY

2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Historical Question: What were the objectives and
conditions of the World War II Japanese Internment
camps with in the United States?
• Learning Objectives:
• What were the government’s objectives for the camps?
• What were the living conditions like for the Japanese in
the camps?
• Locations: California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming,
Colorado, and Arkansas

3. http://wps.ablongman.com/lo
ng_divine_appap_7/0,9455,151
8971-content,00.html

4. GOVERNMENT OBJECTIVES
• Rumors after Pearl Harbor
• Eliminate Japanese
competition
• Fear of spies
• First generation- Issei
• Second generation- Nisei or
Sansei
• Politicians gain popularity
• Keep Japanese away from
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/17/4272434/unknown-
japanese-internment-people.html
Military Area

5. CONDITIONS OF CAMPS
• Families put in different camps
• Bring few possessions
• Communal areas
• Simple frames, no plumbing or
cooking facilities
http://questgarden.com/64/19 • No coals, few blankets
/3/080417100246/process.htm
• Families of four or up to ten people
in one room
• “cots and oil burning stoves for
heat”
• Used latrines
• Makeshift classrooms
• Gangs- Black Dragon Society, White
Terror and Blood Brothers
http://history.howstuffworks.com/world-war-ii/japanese-
internment-camp2.htm

6. Conditions of first three
Internment Camps

7. MANZANAR, CALIFORNIA
• Opened March 21, 1942
• Closed November 21, 1945
• Population: 10,046
• Located in Death Valley
• Japanese volunteered to help
finish build the camp
• Farmers tended orchards and
built an irrigation system
• “The doctors, nurses, and
dentists imprisoned in the camps
staffed small hospitals.”
• Churches, post offices, fire
departments, newspapers, http://www.ww2incolor.com/homefront/japanese-american-
camp banks and camp stores internment-camps.jpg.html
• Three men shot

8. POSTON, ARIZONA
• Opened May 8, 1942
• Closed November 28,
1945
• Population: 17,814
• August temperatures
130 degrees Fahrenheit,
• Sand storms would last
for several days
• Two soldiers denied http://www.raven1.net/mcf/images/poston.jpg
beating a third man
caused a strike.

9. TULE LAKE, CALIFORNIA
• Opened May 27, 1942
• Closed March 20, 1946
• Population: 18,789
• Located in Northern
California
http://www.momomedia.com/CLPEF/camps/tule.html • Mountains, no trees
• Minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit
• Violent riot- November 1942
• Resembled a prison
• High barbed wire
surroundings
http://www.colostate.edu/orgs/TuleLake/fence.jpg

10. GEORGE TAKEI
• An American actor
• Best known for role in Star Trek.
• Lived in Rohwer and Tule Lake
• Camp life became normal
• Tule Lake, in his opinion, harsher
than Rohwer.

11. RETURNING HOME
• Left the camps after WWII ended
• Happy to return home
• Properties destroyed
• Two years later Japanese American Evacuation
Claims Act of 1948
• 1988- Congress passed House Resolution 442
• People too old to start a new life
• Emotional and psychological damage

12. WORKS CITED
Cooper, Michael L. Fighting for Honor: Japanese Americans and World War II. New
York: Clarion, 2000. Print.
"George Takei." Archive of American Television. 27 Oct. 2004. Web. 09 May 2012.
"Japanese- American Relocation." Houghton Mifflin. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.
"Japanese Relocation Centers." Infoplease. Web. 22 Apr. 2012
"Rohwer Internment Camp." In Their Words. 2010. Web. 9 May 2012.
"World War Two - Japanese Internment Camps in the USA." History on the Net. Nov.
2000. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.