Courtesy of Rago Arts & Auction Center
Uprooted and vilified, Japanese Americans now faced a new and unwelcoming frontier within their own country. The 227 Japanese residents of Bainbridge Island were the first to be evacuated and displaced to Manzanar Relocation Center in California on March 30, 1942.
Camp Manzanar, courtesy of Library of Congress, Corbis, and Hulton-Deutsch
“But I will never forget the shocking feeling that human beings were behind this fence like animals. And we were going to also lose our freedom and walk inside of that gate and find ourselves…cooped up there…when the gates were shut, we knew that we had lost something that was very precious; that we were no longer free.”
- Mary Tsukamoto
"I felt like a prisoner because they had four watchtowers, and the soldiers with their guns, you know, was watching from on top of the tower. And anybody try to go out, not escaping, but try to go out, they shoot you, without giving any warning."
- Eddie Sakaoto
Over the following months, the remaining Japanese Americans across Washington state were evicted from their homes and brought to the Puyallup Assembly Center, coined "Camp Harmony", and later to Camp Minidoka in Idaho.
Courtesy of Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection
Courtesy of Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community
Courtesy of Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community
Camp Harmony, courtesy of Univeristy of Washington Libraries (left) and courtesy of MOHAI (midlde and right)
Conditions in the camps generated an inescapable, all-encompassing atmosphere of desperation, but the internees persevered.
"Several days ago, an order came through banning phonograph records. What a denial of freedom; more irksome restrictions in a concentration camp!!"
Letter from Kenji Okuda, July 26, 1942
"It has been requested...that the residents of this camp voluntarily hand in Japanese books, pamphlets, literature, records, which are considered as contraband at present, to the proper officials in their area."
- Minutes of Headquarters Staff Meeting, 1942
Under barbed wire and armed guards, life continued.
Sketches of Camp Harmony, courtesy of University of Washington
Within this frontier, Japanese American identities once again shifted. The unprecedented circumstances pioneered new social structures, where unlike traditional Japanese familial roles, the English-speaking Nisei were often given authority over older Issei.
"They were the heads of families, and then they found themselves not the heads of families anymore...that was very difficult for them to accept."
- May Sasaki
Attempting to retain normalcy under intense external hatred and internal cultural upsets, some Japanese Americans continued Nisei ideology, hoping to prove their allegiance to the U.S. by accepting their situation and joining or supporting the military.
"And, many of them [internees] have put in tiny Victory Gardens...Clarence Arai...has put in radishes, beets, Chinese lettuce and onions [in] his little plot"
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 25, 1942
Clarence Arai's Victory Garden, Courtesy of Museum of History and Industry, Seattle
“I thought maybe this [obedience] was the way we could show love for our country, and we should not make too much fuss or noise, we should abide by what they asked of us."
- Yuri Kochiyama
Yet, simultaneously, the accumulation of Japanese people within the camps brought many closer to their ancestral roots. Many Nisei experienced completely Japanese American communities for the first time. The organization of Sumo tournaments and Buddhist services allowed Nisei to connect with their heritage to a deeper extent than ever before.
Courtesy of University of Washington
Buddhist funeral during internment, courtesy of Duncan Williams
"The camp in which I live consists of about 2,900 Japanese. Really, I have not seen so many all together in all my life"
- Letter from Camp Harmony
Alongside cultural reconnection, the internment itself also brought about an amplification of anti-US sentiments.
"You hurt. You give up everything that you worked for that far...[a]nd then all that happens! You have to throw everything away. You feel you were betrayed."
- Yuri Tateishi
"Many Isseis are bitter because the American government feels so free about hurting their children...[They say] our children are Americans yet they are being kicked around like dogs..."
Letter from Camp Harmony
“We have no one to go to for help... Anything goes, now that our President Roosevelt signed the order to get rid of us. How can he do this to his own citizens? There's not a more lonely feeling than to be banished by my own country. There's no place to go.”
- Kiyo Sato
Amy Du, Antonia Kwan, and Brietta Yi
Senior Division
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Student Composed Words: 1199
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