What were the conditions like in Japanese internment camps?

After Pearl Harbor, American military forces sent Japanese into internment camps all across the US because they were afraid of Japanese Americans spying for Japan. read more

Housing conditions for Japanese Americans in internment camps were very different from the average home. Japanese were housed in barracks; sometimes entire families live in one room cells (McGill). Internment camps were sometimes located in remote areas where weather conditions weren’t always favorable, such as Manzanar and Tulelake in California ("Relocation Camps"). read more

When you also look at what came out of these Internment camps, The Japanese/American Infantry Division, 442, these Japanese Americans went to war in Europe, and won more unit citations, than any other in the European Theater of Operations. read more

Lots of Japanese Americans didn’t want to be in the camps so some took the challenge of joining the U.S. Army, but some people wanted to stay longer because they didn’t have anything to go home to. The motor pool, warehouses, and administrative office were located off the camp. Search lights swept the grounds between the two places. read more