Remembering Japanese Americans

Shortly after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the United States government uprooted 120,000 people of Japanese descent from their homes and banished them to 10 remote internment camps.

Approximately two-thirds of those sent to the 10 relocation camps were American citizens. The camps were operated by the War Relocation Authority mostly in the western interior of the country, including Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Kansas. Internment was intended to mitigate a security risk which Japanese Americans were believed to pose.

Internees were prohibited from taking more than they could carry into the camps, and many were forced to sell some or all of their property, including their homes and businesses. At the camps, which were surrounded by barbed wire fences and patrolled by armed guards, internees often lived in overcrowded barracks with minimal furnishings.

Japanese Americans were initially barred from U.S. military service, but by 1943, they were allowed to join, with 20,000 serving during the war. Over 4,000 students were allowed to leave the camps to attend college.

President Jimmy Carter opened an investigation to determine whether the decision to put Japanese Americans into concentration camps had been justified by the government. In 1983 the government’s report concluded that there was little disloyalty at the time and the government's actions were based on "race, prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”

In 1988 the government officially apologized for the incarceration and authorized a reparation payment to each former detainee who was still alive.

Learn more about this tragic time in American history through the following resources.

Books and websites

Friends of the Edgewater Library Chicago Public Library resource list

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/worldwarii/confinement.htm

Videos, archives and exhibits at the Japanese American Service Committee

https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/gallery

https://jasc-chicago.org/legacy-center-archive-library/

https://jasc-chicago.org/legacy-center-archive-library/exhibits/