Internment Camp facts

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Norman Mineta's baseball bat was confiscated when he was sent to a Japanese American internment camp as a boy. As a Congressman, he was sent a $1500 bat, which he had to send back, as it exceeded a price limit on gifts. He was quoted as saying, "The damn government's taken my bat again."

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About Ralph Lazo, the only known non-spouse, non-Japanese American who voluntarily relocated to an internment camp. When Lazo learned that his Japanese American friends and neighbors were being forcibly removed, he was so outraged that he joined friends on a train that took hundreds to Manzanar.

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In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what were japanese internment camps like. Here are 50 of the best facts about Internment Camps Ww2 and Internment Camps Were Also Known As I managed to collect.

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Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi) spent his first 9 years of his life in a hospital and when he was finally well enough to leave, was sent to a Japanese internment camp in Arizona.
About James Okubo, a Japanese American who was in college when WWII started studying dentistry, he was kicked out and sent to a Japanese internment camp in CA for 2 years. He then joined the Army as a medic and saved 25 men in a battle in 1944, was posthumously awarded the medal of honor in 2000
The United States of America placed 120,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps. Their property was confiscated before they entered the camps. It was never returned. Tax records were destroyed which meant camp attendees could not claim compensation for property loss.
J. Edgar Hoover opposed Japanese Internment Camps. Saying the decision was “based on public and political pressure, not factual data”.
The 442nd Infantry Regiment, composed of largely Japanese American unit that served during WWII, did so while their families were held in internment camps. Their motto was "Go for Broke" and they were the most decorated unit in U.S. military history.
The first Japanese immigrant to the United States was known as The Wine King, and ran one of the most successful vineyards in Northern California, before his family lost it all when they were imprisoned in camps for years (interned) during WWII.
After bombing Pearl Harbor, a Japanese Pilot crashed on the nearby Ni'ihau Island, part of Hawaii. The local Japanese American residents freed the captured pilot, stole ammunitions, and took hostages. This was cited as a reason why Japanese internment camps were needed during WWII.
The city of Ontario, Oregon during WWII allowed Japanese Americans to settle in the city at the time when much of the West Coast supported their exclusion, and helped them escape internment camps. All thanks to then-mayor Elmo Smith.
About Frank Foley- the “British Schindler”. An intelligence officer in Berlin before WWII, he worked as a passport officer and is credited with saving “tens of thousands” of Jews by stamping as many of their passports as he could. He also went into internment camps and hid Jews in his home.

internment camp facts — What was the purpose of the internment camps?

Why internment camps?

You can easily fact check why japanese internment camps were necessary by examining the linked well-known sources.

Ralph Lazo, a 17-year old American student of Mexican and Irish descent, who voluntarily relocated to a World War II Japanese American internment camp, to provide moral support and share in his friends’ struggle; he would spend three years living there

The fortune cookie was created by Japanese Americans and originally associated with Japanese food. In WWII, Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps and Chinese American manufacturers took control of the market, which is why today fortune cookies are associated with Chinese food. - source

German man Oskar Speck kayaked from Germany to Australia over the period 1932-1939. On his arrival in Australia, shortly after the start of WWII, Speck was interned as an enemy foreigner. He remained in prisoner-of-war camps for the duration of the war, but stayed in the country after the war - source

After regretting supporting the internment camps, Dr. Seuss dedicated Horton Hears a Who to a Japanese friend as an apology.

A state agriculture inspector in California in the quit his job to manage farms owned by three Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during WWII. They told him he could keep all the money, but when they returned they found he saved half the profits for them. - source

When internment camps?

The International Red Cross visited the Concentration Camp Theresienstadt during WWII and - in a complete failure to recognize that the Nazis faked everything - reported life there being nearly "normal". 33,000 people died in Theresienstadt.

How many japanese died in internment camps?

The Nazis produced a film inside the Theresienstadt concentration camp to falsely show the International Red Cross that the inmates were being treated humanely, the camp was 'beautified' and wholesome activities were staged. After filming, most of the actors where sent to Auschwitz and executed.

In the British run German internment camps of WWI a German born member developed an exercise program that could be done using only one's own body-weight. His name? Joseph Pilates.

George Takei spent part of his childhood in an American internment camp.

The 442nd Infantry, a regiment in the US Army made up of soldiers of Japanese decent, many of whom were recruited from internment camps. It was the most decorated unit in WW2 for its size and length of service.

Exactly 70 years ago, on 27 January 1945, 60th Army First Ukrainian Front soldiers opened the gates of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, liberating the remaining 7,000 prisoners, mostly ill and dying. In 2005 the United Nations declared 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

When were japanese internment camps closed?

U.S. WWII internment camps didn't just hold American Japanese. U.S. citizens of Italian, Irish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Finnish ancestry; most arrested and detained as “Germans.”

George Takei (Sulu from TOS Star Trek) and his family where interned in a prison camp in the US during WW2, before being released and compensated 15 dollars.

Curd Jürgens (Actor who played a Bond Villian) was so critical of Nazis in his native Germany that in 1944, he was sent to an internment camp in Hungary as a "political unreliable"

How many japanese internment camps were there?

Richard Aoki was a Japanese/American raised in an internment camp and later became a Field Marshal of the Black Panther Party; active as weapons expert and armorer. After his 'suicide' it was learned he was an FBI informant since joining the US military.

In 1942 the government of Harlowton, Montana kept the U.S. government from relocating their Japanese American residents to internment camps.

During WWII there was a top-secret international spy academy in Canada (on Lake Ontario) called "Camp X". The camp was so secret that even the Canadian Prime Minister didn't have full knowledge of its purpose.

George Takei spent three years in a Japanese internment camp as a child during WWII. His father told him they were on a vacation.

During WWII, the US extracted accused Nazis from Latin America and put them in internment camps. But most were innocent, and some were actually Jews who had fled the Holocaust. They were all interned together, Jews trapped in American camps with Nazis who would harass and beat them.

5,766 Nisei prisoners renounced their American citizenship because they were sent to the internment camps. They were legal American citizens and even the courts had denied them their rights as such.

Canada also sent almost 23,000 Japanese-Canadians to internment camps in British Columbia.

It wasn"t until 1968, almost 24 years after the camps had been closed that the U.S. government decided to make reparations to those who had lost property due to their imprisonment.

The camps were located in areas that made farming difficult and the prisoners ate a lot of army grub-style food.

The internment camps had tarpaper barracks for housing, mess halls and schools. The adults were allowed to work if they chose for $5 per day.

Today, the four largest populations in the world of Japanese emigrants and descendants of Japanese live in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Peru.

During WWI, the remote Northern Ontario town of Kapuskasing was used as an internment camp. It housed over 1000 prisoners, and had minimal security due to its isolation. Any prisoners who tried to escape were turned back by endless muskeg, clouds of mosquitoes, and -40°C in the winter.

It was often too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter making life very difficult and uncomfortable.

There were 10 Japanese internment camps in the United States located in remote areas in seven western U.S. states including California, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona.

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