Japanese Camps in the U.S. , What Were They?
These camps were put in order by the executive order 9066. What was the order 9066? It was the order President Roosevelt put into place to put Japanese-Americans into camps. These camps held 127,000 Japanese-Americans in 10 internment states. This order was put into place in 1942, and the last camp closed in 1946. The Japanese-Americans were forced to sell their homes, possessions, and land for a very small sum of money. They were then put into stables at local racetracks or temporary sheds until the camps were finished being built. Most of the Japanese-Americans went into war to escape being in these camps. If they tried to flee the concentration camps, they were shot by the workers at these camps. These camps did not have as high of a death count as the Nazi concentration camps, but was still a dark spot in American history. After the all the camps were closed in 1946, the government started giving camp survivors a sum of $20,000 dollars to make up for the years they spent in internment camp. A 1948 law reimbursed camp survivors with the money and land they lost before they were evacuated and moved to these camps. This did not make up for the time the Japanese-Americans spent in the camps, but it was one of the only times the American government owned up to putting their citizens in bad situations and worked hard to make up for it. There are many Japanese-Americans still alive that was evacuated to the camp today. Here are some primary sources that go along with order 9066 and the Japanese internment camps of 1942.