Cover Page

Table of Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Essay

Brief History

Gila River

Granada

Heart Mountain

Jerome

Manzanar

Minidoka

Poston

Rohwer

Topaz

Tule Lake

Isolation Centers

Add'l Facilities

Assembly Centers

DoJ and US Army Facilities

Prisons

References

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites by J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord, and R. Lord

Chapter 1 (continued)
Sites of Shame: An Introduction

Report Structure

In this report Chapter 2 is a first-hand contemporary report of one relocation center by an outside observer: Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Gila Relocation Center in 1943 to investigate charges that the evacuees were being "coddled." Roosevelt, whether by design or chance, did happen to visit the relocation center with slightly more substantial construction than most, but could not find any evidence of coddling. Chapter 3 is a brief overview of the history of the relocation and internment. Chapters 4 through 13 summarize the individual history at each relocation center, the physical layout, and the current condition and access. Chapter 14 discusses the Moab and Leupp Isolation Centers; Chapter 15 describes other temporary facilities operated by the War Relocation Authority. Chapter 16 describes the assembly centers. Chapter 17 describes Department of Justice and U.S. Army internment camps where non-citizen Japanese Americans were held. Chapter 18 discusses three Federal prisons where a few hundred Japanese American citizens were incarcerated for protesting the relocation.

Terminology

The War Relocation Authority used euphemisms such as "relocation center" and "evacuees." The relocation centers certainly fit the dictionary definition of a concentration camp and use of that term for the relocation centers has many historical precedents (Uyeda 1995:57). However, the term "concentration camp" has since become almost synonymous with Nazi death camps. Even the use of the relatively benign term "internees" in reference to Japanese Americans has resulted in controversy (e.g., Baker 1994:23-24). When discussing the relocation centers this report to a great extent uses the terminology originally coined by the War Relocation Authority. In this we follow the use of the terms used by the National Park Service in its interpretation at Manzanar National Historic Site (Manzanar Committee 1998:iii-iv). The terms are not presumed to be an accurate definition of the events, attitudes, or facts of the relocation. They are used because they are most common in the historical records and may reflect the contemporary subjective context.

Last Modified: Fri, Sep 1 2000 07:08:48 pm PDT
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