Behind Barbed Wire
(Left to right) George Oni, Georgette Chize, and Henry Oni ,1943, Smithsonian National Institute
(Left to right) George Oni, Georgette Chize, and Henry Oni ,1943, Smithsonian National Institute
"Santa Anita is the racetrack. We were given horse stalls in which to live, because they didn't have enough housing... My mother cried... She really cried. She was saying 'Why were we living like this?' We were poor. We didn't live well, but we didn't live like they did in horse stalls." |
In total, ten relocation camps were organized in America’s Midwest and West Coast. All of these camps were equipped with large searchlights, tall security towers, and surrounding the entirety of these camps were fences made of barbed wire. |
"The sound of the camp gates closing behind us sent a searing pain into my heart."
-Mary Tsukamoto, former internee
"Plate in hand, |
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"We saw all these people behind the fence, looking out, hanging onto the wire, and looking out because they were anxious to know who was coming in. But I will never forget the shocking feeling that human beings were behind this fence like animals [crying]. 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, former internee
"One man, he got too close to the barbed wires and the guard didn't understand him because he was one of our parents' age and he didn't understand English well, so the guard killed him - he shot him."
-Mary Murakami, former internee
"I was sick continually, with stomach cramps and diarrhea. At first it was from the shots they gave us for typhoid, in very heavy doses.... That knocked all of us younger kids down at once, with fevers and vomiting. Later, it was the food that made us sick, young and old alike. The kitchens were too small and badly ventilated. Food would spoil from being left out too long." |
"You run to the latrine. You run to take a shower. You run to get a washbasin to wash your clothes."
-Rose Nieda, former internee
"The showers were made facing each other, there were no doors, and there were partitions, but the toilets were the same way. Most of the toilets were facing each other and they didn’t have doors. My block was divided into 12 barracks and a show, mess hall, toilet facilities, and a laundry room. They had three rows of toilets; two were facing each other and the third was facing the wall. As a teenage girl, we all wanted to go to the one that was at least facing the wall, the last one. The Issei didn’t mind having toilets facing each other, but one family was kind enough to donate their bed sheet to shield one shower and get some privacy when we took a shower. I think the lack of privacy was very difficult as a girl in the camp."
-Mary Murakami, former internee in a personal interview
"Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, whenever ordered?"
-Question 27 of the "Statement of United States Citizenship of Japanese Ancestry"
In February of 1943, all internees over the age of 17 were required to complete an “Application for Leave Clearance” or “Statement of United States Citizenship of Japanese Ancestry" questionnaire. The government allowed those deemed loyal to America to permanently exit the internment camps. In order to leave, a female or first generation man would volunteer to move to the Midwestern or Eastern regions of the United States. A male Nisei, or second generation, whose results showed he was willing, could take a stand and volunteer to join an all Japanese American infantry force, the 442nd Regimental. Men whose results showed he was unwilling to fight were ostracized.
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"Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States....and forswear any form of allegiance to the Japanese emperor, to any other foreign government, power or organization?"
-Question 28 of the "Statement of United States Citizenship of Japanese Ancestry"
"They sent out the questionnaire, the question of loyalty. It was a long questionnaire, but there was a question, question 27 and 28 that really upset people. Because question 27, if you wanted your American citizenship back, if you phrased your answer for question 27 as, ‘If you give me back my civil rights, I will gladly fight in the army,’ that answer would be considered as a ‘no’. And 28 for the Issei, that would have left them without a country in the fact that Issei could not become US citizens."
-Mary Murakami, in a personal interview
"The ones in the 442nd volunteered to go, but the draftees had no choice. As they left the camp, they didn’t let the parents outside to say good bye. I remember we were on one side of the barbed wire and my brother was on the other side. It was very sad to see your parents behind barbed wires as they sent their son to serve. There was a high respect for anybody that went into the army at that time."
-Mary Murakami, former internee, in a personal interview