The site was composed of three separate camps arranged in a chain from north to south, three miles from each other. Internees named the camps Roasten, Toastin, and Dustin, based on their desert locations.[1] The Colorado River was about 3 miles (4.8km) to the west, outside of the camp perimeter.
Poston was built on the Colorado River Indian Reservation, over the objections of the Tribal Council, who refused to be a part of doing to others what had been done to their tribe. Army commanders and officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, though, overruled the council, seeing the opportunity to improve infrastructure and agricultural development (which would remain after the war and aid the reservation's permanent population) on the War Department budget and with thousands of "volunteers".[2]
The combined peak population of the Poston camps was over 17,000, mostly from Southern California. At the time, Poston was the third-largest "city" in Arizona. It was built by Del Webb, who later became famous building Sun City, Arizona, and other retirement communities. The Poston facility was named after Charles Debrille Poston, a government engineer who established the Colorado River Reservation in 1865 and planned an irrigation system to serve the needs of the Indian people who were to live there.[3]
A single fence surrounded all three camps, and the site was so remote that authorities considered building guard towers to be unnecessary.[1] The thousands of internees and staff passed through the barbed-wire perimeter at Poston I, which was where the main administration center was located.
Poston was a subject of a sociological research by Alexander H. Leighton, published in his 1945 book, The Governing of Men. As Time wrote, "After 15 months at Arizona's vast Poston Relocation Center as a social analyst, Commander Leighton concluded that many an American simply fails to remember that U.S. Japanese are human beings."[4]
Establishment of the camp
When Poston was chosen as the site for the relocation center, the Colorado River Indian Reservation Tribal Council adamantly opposed the use of their land because they did not want to be involved in inflicting the same injustice they had faced on the Japanese internees.[5] The council was soon overridden, and the BIA and WRA jointly took control of 71,000 acres (29,000ha) of tribal land and began construction in early 1942. Del Webb (Del E. Webb Construction Company) began building Poston I on March 27, and his workforce of 5,000 completed the first camp less than three weeks later. Construction on II and III began soon after, contracted to be finished within 120 days.[3] In the meantime, Poston was partially opened on May 8, as the Parker Dam Reception Center, one of two such sites that augmented the 15 temporary "assembly centers" where Japanese Americans waited to be transferred to the more permanent WRA camps.[6] Around two-thirds of Poston's population were brought directly from their homes to what was then Parker Dam, and many of these early arrivals volunteered to help complete the still-under-construction camps.[1][3]
Upon completion, the Poston site consisted of hundreds of residential barracks, a hospital, an administrative center, and guard and staff housing. The camp officially opened as the Colorado River Relocation Center on June 1, 1942, and the BIA relinquished its authority over Poston in 1943.[1][6]
Life at Poston for the Japanese internees was difficult from the start. Japanese Americans across the West Coast were uprooted from their lives and placed in different camps around the United States, including Poston. Hurried construction and lack of supplies made living conditions for internees barely suitable. Barracks were made with redwood, which shrunk more than expected and created cracks throughout the buildings.[7] A shortage of lumber led them to build using adobe.[citation needed] Weather also added to the difficulties of living in the camp because of its location in the desert. Extreme heat during the summer, reaching up to 115°F, and extreme cold in the winter, reaching as low as 35°F, added to the frustrations of internees.[8] Outbreaks of disease were another common factor across most camps that contributed to poor quality of life. Poston was not immune to disease outbreaks, and tuberculosis was rampant with 140 reported cases.[9] Care for these sick people was also lacking, which led to avoidable death or disability. By the end of 1942, heating systems were still not in place and clothing allowances still had not been delivered.[10]
Japanese Americans in Poston were becoming increasingly frustrated with their new lives in the internment camp. Rising tensions came to a head in November 1942, sparked by the beating of a suspected informer on Saturday evening November 14.[11] Two men suspected to have beaten the man were detained and under investigation. The community demanded the release of these two men, and their request was refused. Because of the denial of their request, workers went on strike on November 19. A compromise was reached by the director and the evacuees' Emergency Executive Council, ending the strike on November 24.[7]
Unlike the nine other concentration camps, the agricultural and animal-husbandry areas of Poston were within the perimeter fence.[1] Schools and a number of other buildings were constructed by the internees.[citation needed] Many of the inhabitants participated in and created recreational activities, such as the Boy Scouts, sports teams, and jobs.[citation needed] Baseball teams were very common among the internees, as leagues were set up soon after opening. Scores and game summaries were recorded in the Poston daily press bulletin, along with other daily news.[12] Some elements made life at Poston livable for internees, but their time at the camp was mostly filled with frustration and struggles to the end of their internment.
Written accounts
A camp newspaper, the Poston Chronicle (formerly Official information bulletin, then Official daily press bulletin) was published between May 1942 and October 1945.
Clara Breed, a librarian from San Diego, made a point of maintaining contact with Poston camp children she had met in San Diego. She corresponded with many of them and sent them reading materials and other gifts. Their letters to her became an important record of life in the camps. Hundreds of "Dear Miss Breed" postcards and letters are now part of the permanent archives at the Japanese American National Museum[13] and were the basis for a 2006 book, Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference, by Joanne Oppenheim.[14]
Three reports ("Labor", "Leisure", and "Demands") and an autobiography written by Richard Nishimoto, an Issei worker for the University of California's Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study, were published in Inside an American Concentration Camp: Japanese American Resistance at Poston, Arizona.[15]
A novel by Cynthia Kadohata, Weedflower, illustrates the life of a Japanese-American girl and her family after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when they are incarcerated at Poston.[16] The book is fiction but contains facts from interviews of incarcerees and Mohave Indians who lived on the reservation.[16] The passage on the back of the book reads "Twelve-year-old Sumiko's life can be divided into two parts: before Pearl Harbor and after it. Before the bombing, although she was lonely, she was used to being the only Japanese American in her class and she always had her family to comfort her. When the government forces all of the Japanese Americans living in California into internment camps, Sumiko soon discovers that the Japanese are just as unwanted on the Mohave reservation they have been shipped to as they were at home. But then she meets a young Mohave boy, who, after initial resentment, becomes her first real friend. Together, they navigate the racial and political challenges of the times, and both help each other understand the true meaning of friendship."[16]
In Kiyo's Story, A Japanese American Family's Quest for the American Dream by Kiyo Sato,[17] the Japanese-American author writes about her family's time while incarcerated at the Poston camp during World War II. This memoir shows how the power of family, love, and relentless hard work helped to overcome the huge personal and material losses endured by internees. Sato went on to achieve professional distinction. She is a registered nurse with a master's degree in nursing and served in the USAF Nurse Corp during the Korean War, where she rose to the rank of captain.[18]
Passing Poston: An American Story is a documentary recounting the experiences of four Japanese Americans in Poston: Kiyo Sato, Ruth Okimoto, Mary Higashi, and Leon Uyeda. Kiyo Sato's story (recounted above) is from when she is a young girl, and has to face the tragedy of her citizenship being taken away. Ruth Okimoto gives an interesting perspective of the internment as a young girl, as well. She remembers soldiers coming to her front door with rifles to take them to Poston, and being behind barbed wire in the middle of the desert. She reflects on this time in her life filled with anxiety through art, and is trying to understand her feelings about such a surreal part of her life. Mary Higashi relives the moment she entered the barracks and realized she would have to live with almost nothing. She also talks about how this handicapped her for life, as she was never able to finish college. Lastly, Leon Uyeda gives the opposite side of the internment story, saying he somewhat enjoyed the camp. He liked being surrounded by other Japanese people, and not having to bombarded with racial hostility.[19]
The Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II, located in Washington, DC, features inscriptions of the names of those confined to the Poston center. Filmmaker Reed Leventis depicts the life at Poston camp through a short digital video "Poston: A Cycle of Fear". The video was supported by the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation and will be available for viewing by visitors of the Memorial in Washington, DC. http://www.njamf.com/Poston/
Memoirs of the Japanese relocation told by a teacher at Poston Camp 1, "Dusty Exile" by Catherine Embree Harris, published by Mutual Publishing, 1999, a softcover book, contains photos and illustrations of life in the Poston relocation center until it closed. Catherine Harris went on to work in the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC. She maintained contact with many of the people she met in Poston throughout her life and retirement in Honolulu, HI.
That Damned Fence (anonymous):[20] Poem from an internee about life at Poston.
They've sunk the posts deep into the ground They've strung out wires all the way around. With machine gun nests just over there And sentries and soldiers everywhere.
We're trapped like rats in a wired cage, To fret and fume with impotent rage; Yonder whispers the lure of the night, But that DAMNED FENCE assails our sight.
We seek the softness of the midnight air, But that DAMNED FENCE in the floodlight glare Awakens unrest in our nocturnal quest, And mockingly laughs with vicious jest.
With nowhere to go and nothing to do, We feel terrible, lonesome, and blue: That DAMNED FENCE is driving us crazy, Destroying our youth and making us lazy.
Imprisoned in here for a long, long time, We know we're punished—though we've committed no crime, Our thoughts are gloomy and enthusiasm damp, To be locked up in a concentration camp.
Loyalty we know, and patriotism we feel, To sacrifice our utmost was our ideal, To fight for our country, and die, perhaps; But we're here because we happen to be Japs.
We all love life, and our country best, Our misfortune to be here in the west, To keep us penned behind that DAMNED FENCE, Is someone's notion of NATIONAL DEFENSE!
Poston today
A number of buildings built for the concentration camps are still in use today. Others, while still intact, are seriously deteriorated and in desperate need of maintenance. Most were removed after the camp closed, and the land was returned to the Colorado River Indian Tribes, and many are still in use as utility buildings in surrounding areas, while the former residential areas have been largely converted to agricultural use. The Poston Memorial Monument[21] was built in 1992, on tribal land with tribal support, and still stands today.[1]
Gallery
Construction of the Poston War Relocation Center in 1942.
An irrigation canal at the Poston Center on April 10, 1942.
Apaches unloading bed frames for Japanese internees on April 29, 1942.
The community store on its opening day in 1942.
The first customer to use the post office.
Japanese internees holding their first religious services meeting at the Poston Center.
The kitchen in 1942.
Front row: Hideko Kimoto, Marianne Nosui, Aki Sakuma, Tadako Yoshwaru, George Fujii. Back row: Hidio Zumo. The legal staff at Camp 1 of the Poston Center, photographed on January 4, 1943.
The Poston Center in September 1945, after it was turned over to the Colorado River Indians.
Hopi Indians at the Poston Center in September 1945.
Notable Poston internees
Jack Fujimoto (born 1928), the first Asian American to become president of a higher-education institution in the mainland United States
Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. "This order authorized the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to "relocation centers" further inland—resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans." Two-thirds of them were U.S. citizens, born and raised in the United States.
Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, it was one of the smaller internment camps. It is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California's Owens Valley, between the towns of Lone Pine to the south and Independence to the north, approximately 230 miles (370 km) north of Los Angeles. Manzanar means "apple orchard" in Spanish. The Manzanar National Historic Site, which preserves and interprets the legacy of Japanese American incarceration in the United States, was identified by the United States National Park Service as the best-preserved of the ten former camp sites.
During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and incarcerated at least 125,284 people of Japanese descent in 75 identified incarceration sites. Most lived on the Pacific Coast, in concentration camps in the western interior of the country. Approximately two-thirds of the inmates were United States citizens. These actions were initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt via Executive Order 9066 following Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.
The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a United States government agency established to handle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, which was the only refugee camp set up in the United States for refugees from Europe. The agency was created by Executive Order 9102 on March 18, 1942, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and was terminated June 26, 1946, by order of President Harry S. Truman.
The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, named after nearby Heart Mountain and located midway between the northwest Wyoming towns of Cody and Powell, was one of ten concentration camps used for the internment of Japanese Americans evicted during World War II from their local communities in the West Coast Exclusion Zone by the executive order of President Franklin Roosevelt.
The Gila River War Relocation Center was an American concentration camp in Arizona, one of several built by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) during the Second World War for the incarceration of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. It was located within the Gila River Indian Reservation near the town of Sacaton, about 30 mi (48.3 km) southeast of Phoenix. With a peak population of 13,348, it became the fourth-largest city in the state, operating from May 1942 to November 16, 1945.
The Tule Lake National Monument in Modoc and Siskiyou counties in California, consists primarily of the site of the Tule Lake War Relocation Center, one of ten concentration camps constructed in 1942 by the United States government to incarcerate Japanese Americans forcibly removed from their homes on the West Coast. They totaled nearly 120,000 people, more than two-thirds of whom were United States citizens. Among the inmates, the notation "鶴嶺湖" was sometimes applied.
Minidoka National Historic Site is a National Historic Site in the western United States. It commemorates the more than 13,000 Japanese Americans who were imprisoned at the Minidoka War Relocation Center during the Second World War. Among the inmates, the notation 峰土香 or 峯土香 was sometimes applied.
The Amache National Historic Site, formally the Granada War Relocation Center but known to the internees as Camp Amache, was a concentration camp for Japanese Americans in Prowers County, Colorado. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese Americans on the West Coast were rounded up and sent to remote camps. Among the inmates, the notation "亜町" was sometimes applied.
The Topaz War Relocation Center, also known as the Central Utah Relocation Center (Topaz) and briefly as the Abraham Relocation Center, was an American concentration camp that housed Americans of Japanese descent and immigrants who had come to the United States from Japan, called Nikkei. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, ordering people of Japanese ancestry to be incarcerated in what were euphemistically called "relocation centers" like Topaz during World War II. Most of the people incarcerated at Topaz came from the Tanforan Assembly Center and previously lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. The camp was opened in September 1942 and closed in October 1945.
The Jerome War Relocation Center was a Japanese American internment camp located in southeastern Arkansas, near the town of Jerome in the Arkansas Delta. Open from October 6, 1942, until June 30, 1944, it was the last American concentration camp to open and the first to close. At one point it held as many as 8,497 detainees. After closing, it was converted into a holding camp for German prisoners of war. Today, few remains of the camp are visible, as the wooden buildings were taken down. The smokestack from the hospital incinerator still stands.
The Rohwer War Relocation Center was a World War II Japanese American concentration camp located in rural southeastern Arkansas, in Desha County. It was in operation from September 18, 1942, until November 30, 1945, and held as many as 8,475 Japanese Americans forcibly evacuated from California. Among the inmates, the notation "朗和" was sometimes applied. The Rohwer War Relocation Center Cemetery is located here, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992.
The Salinas Sports Complex is a sporting complex located in Salinas, California on the Central Coast. The main feature of the complex is a 17,000-seat stadium for California Rodeo Salinas. Soccer, football, and rugby was also played at the main stadium before the opening of Rabobank Stadium next door.
Miné Okubo was an American artist and writer. She is best known for her book Citizen 13660, a collection of 198 drawings and accompanying text chronicling her experiences in Japanese American internment camps during World War II.
Michi Nishiura Weglyn was an American author. Her book Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps, which was published in 1976, helped fuel a movement leading to reparations for Japanese Americans interned during World War II. She was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for this work in 1977. Weglyn was also a vocal advocate for those denied redress under the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 and for the more than 2,200 Japanese Peruvians who were taken from their homes by the U.S. government and used in a hostage exchange program with Japan.
Dillon Seymour Myer was a United States government official who served as Director of the War Relocation Authority during World War II, Director of the Federal Public Housing Authority, and Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the early 1950s. He also served as President of the Institute of Inter-American Affairs. He is the subject of Keeper of Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Myer and American Racism by Richard T. Drinnon.
The Poston Elementary School, Unit 1, Colorado River Relocation Center is a historic complex of school buildings in Poston, Arizona. This nationally significant complex was built in the 1940s on the grounds of the Poston War Relocation Center, a Japanese-American internment camp operated by the Office of Indian Affairs of the United States government during World War II. The complex is the only surviving school built in one of the ten camps, and it was designed and built by Japanese-American internees living at the camp. It was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 2012.
The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS) was a research project funded by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), an agency responsible for overseeing the relocation of Japanese Americans, The University of California, the Giannini Foundation, the Columbian Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation with the total amount of funding reaching almost 100,000 U.S. dollars. It was conducted by a team of social scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. The team was led by sociologist Dorothy Swaine Thomas, a Lecturer in Sociology for the Giannini Foundation and a professor of rural sociology, and included anthropologists John Collier Jr. and Alexander Leighton, among others. The study combined each of the major social sciences such as sociology, social anthropology, political science, social psychology, and economics to effectively illustrate the effects of internment on Japanese Americans. The terminology of "relocation" can be confusing: The WRA termed the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast an "evacuation" and called the incarceration of these people in the ten camps as "relocation." Later it also applied the term "relocation" to the program that enabled the evacuees to leave the camps (provided they had been certified as loyal.
Tamie Tsuchiyama, a Nisei woman, was the only Japanese-American to work full time for the Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement Study. She kept a wide-range sociological journal and ethnographic reports while she was in Poston War Relocation Center. In 1947, she worked with the U.S. government overseas operation that was run by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) as a researcher. Due to the stress from gathering information, Tsuchiyama resigned in July 1944, and sought to join the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). Since she knew German, French and Spanish, she was assigned to Japanese language school and military intelligence assignment translating official Japanese documents.
The Merced Assembly Center, located in Merced, California, was one of sixteen temporary assembly centers hastily constructed in the wake of Executive Order 9066 to incarcerate those of Japanese ancestry beginning in the spring of 1942, following the attack on Pearl Harbor and prior to the construction of more permanent concentration camps to house those forcibly removed from the West Coast. The Merced Assembly Center was located at the Merced County Fairgrounds and operated for 133 days, from May 6, 1942 to September 15, 1942, with a peak population of 4,508. 4,669 Japanese Americans were ultimately incarcerated at the Merced Assembly Center.
1 2 3 Burton, J.; Farrell, M.; Lord, F.; Lord, R. Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites: "Poston Relocation CenterArchived 2012-10-05 at the Wayback Machine " (National Park Service, 2000). Retrieved 2014-08-07.
↑ Burton, Jeffery; Farrell, Mary; Kashima, Tetsuden; Lord, Richard (2003). Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites. Seattle: University of Washington Press. p.215.
A. A. Hansen and B. K. Mitson, 1974. Voices Long Silent: An Oral Inquiry into the Japanese Evacuation. This study and many others interviewing former internees at several relocation centers are part of the research of the Japanese American World War II Evacuation History Project, at California State University, Fullerton. Professor Hansen has published extensively in this research arena.
For a historical interpretation by a tribal member of the Colorado River Indian Reservation, see his chapter on Poston: Dwight Lomayesva, 1981. "The Adaptation of Hopi and Navajo Colonists on the Colorado River Indian Reservation," Master of Social Sciences Thesis (Fullerton, CA: California State University, Fullerton).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
