Throughout this week’s classes we discussed the Japanese internment camps that took place in the United States during World War II through letters. These letters were from Japanese teenagers and young adults writing letters to someone on the outside, Clara Breed. An advocate on the outside, Clara is a librarian, who strived to help her prior students out the best she could. All of the writers wrote differently in their own tones, although a common factor in many of them were the harsh conditions of the internment camps.
In the case of many of the internment camps, the United States government chose to locate them far away from civilization. Therefore the internment camps were situated in inadequate locations that most people would not settle in. One of these internment camps, Poston, was a recipient of extreme heat. Located in the Arizona desert, the camp’s temperatures frequently exceeded 100 degrees. According to one of the prisoners in Poston, Louise Ogawa: “One common thing you see while coming here is–the beds and beddings are all placed outside the homes. It has been said that the heat is so hot that the people all sleep outside.” Fusa Tsumagari, another prisoner of the Poston internment camp mentions in one of her letters: “One unfortunate incident occurred. The father of one of the contestants fainted from heat exhaustion and also heart failure. He died a few minutes later.” Another internment camp that had extreme heat was Manzanar, located in the desert of California. Here not only did they have extreme heat in the summer, but the prisoners also frequently faced below freezing temperatures in the winter. Another internment camp also facing below freezing temperatures was Topaz, located in Utah. This camp was located in the mountain tops, with an elevation of over 4,500 feet. Here snow would start to fall as early as October.
Among all of the internment camps located in the desert, such as Poston and Manzanar, the temperature was not the worst part about living there. The prisoners here often faced dust and sandstorms from the wind. The dust was difficult to combat as it would travel up and through the floorboards. As told by Louise Ogawa in Poston from one of her letters: “We have to mop the house every day because of the dust but it does not do any good because before you know it it’s dusty again.”
Besides the natural conditions, the living conditions the Japanese prisoners had to endure was still awful. Each of the barracks were split up into four sections that ranged from the sizes of 20′ x 16′ to 20′ x 25′. Although split, the barracks were still open, meaning all that was there to separate the families would be plywood partitions. These are thin dividers that were supposed to give the prisoners privacy; however, they did a very poor job as you could see and hear through them. In between blocks of these barracks would be facilities such as men and women’s bathrooms, laundry rooms, and ironing rooms. These had to be shared with all of the families who lived in the neighboring blocks of barracks. The conditions of the lavatories were quite poor, with no privacy between the toilets and showers, limited hot water, and much uncleanliness.
The area had a big prison-like feel to it. The internment camp had a barbed wire fence surrounding the whole area with watch towers frequently placed along the perimeter On the inside there was a large soldier presence, with them patrolling within. Similarly to normal prisons, there were jobs available but with extremely low wages. However, many people did these jobs as a good way to pass time. The internment camps also had poor sanitary conditions, as well as poor health care. This led to many Japanese people suffering and dying from illnesses and diseases.
Due to the combination of all of these conditions of the Japanese Internment Camps, the Japanese prisoners suffered immensely. They were struck with malnutrition, disease, heat stroke, mental illneses, and numerous other hardships because of the “Japanophobia” circulating the United States during World War II.
Sources:
- https://www.postonpreservation.org/poston-internment
- https://janm.emuseum.com/objects/12802/letter-to-clara-breed-from-louise-ogawa-poston-arizona-a?ctx=75547b9f216a0123e259e5caa8a850c6a7bee775&idx=12
- https://janm.emuseum.com/objects/18081/letter-to-clara-breed-from-fusa-tsumagari-arcadia-califor?
- ctx=8f4094bab0d09c7ef5d8de87e685f864c757a00f&idx=6
- https://www.nps.gov/manz/index.htm
- https://www.nps.gov/manz/learn/historyculture/japanese-americans-at-manzanar.htm
- https://topazmuseum.org/topaz-history/
- https://images.app.goo.gl/AYkXZLrEpdAVjLPNA
- https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-japanese-american-artist-who-went-to-the-camps-to-help