Immigration, Racism, and the Internment of Japanese Americans

On February 19, 1942, then President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the U.S. government to forcibly remove thousands of American citizens who lived on the Pacific Coast and relocate them to concentration camps located inland in remote parts of Arizona, California, Idaho, and other states in the West. More than 120,000 people were relocated to these concentration camps and many lost their businesses, homes, and assets in addition to their freedom.

The incarcerated were forced to live in barracks-style buildings in camps surrounded by high fences. Families ate together at communal dining halls and children attended schools with few windows in blistering heat and teacher student ratio of 48:1. And on top of these conditions, the U.S. government hoped that the imprisoned could make the camps self-sufficient by farming to produce their own food, although the soil was not generally good for farming.

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