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Showing posts from December, 2010

"December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy..."

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Incarceration and seeking further education outside of the camps *NOTE FROM DENSHO: Japanese-American Legacy Project "Today is the anniversary of a date that causes discomfort for many Japanese Americans. It is a date that reminds Japanese Americans of the wartime hysteria and prejudice that led to the removal and incarceration of people of Japanese descent from the West Coast during World War II. Since 1941 much has been researched, written and learned about the injustice of what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II. But what still needs to happen is to apply these learnings to divisive issues facing our country today. During peacetime many racist tendencies exist only as slumbering thoughts, but they emerge during wartime into vicious words and hurtful actions because of fear and ignorance. Through education Densho hopes to make things better during the next crisis by helping Americans to be a little more informed, a little more thoughtf

Concentration Camps in North American during WWII

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA While this event is most commonly called the  internment  of Japanese Americans, in fact there were several different types of camps involved. The best known facilities were the  Assembly Centers  run by the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA), and the  Relocation Centers  run by the  War Relocation Authority  (WRA), which are generally (but unofficially) referred to as "internment camps." The  Department of Justice  (DOJ) operated camps officially called  Internment Camps , which were used to detain those suspected of actual crimes or "enemy sympathies."  German American internment  and  Italian American internment  camps also existed, sometimes sharing facilities with the Japanese Americans. The WCCA and WRA facilities were the largest and the most public. The WCCA Assembly Centers were temporary facilities that were first set up in horse racing tracks, fairgrounds and other large public meeting places to assemble and organize