After Pearl Harbor in World War II, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 making Japanese-Americans who lived in the Pacific Coast states leave their homes and businesses. They were moved and confined to one of the ten different internment camps located throughout the Western United States. These resources will help you learn more about this unfortunate era in Pacific Northwest history.
Northwest US Places You Can Visit to Learn about Japanese-American Internment
Bainbridge Island Historical Museum
The Japanese-American residents of Bainbridge Island were among the first to be rounded up and placed in internment camps. The citizens of Bainbridge Island remained strong advocates for their friends and neighbors of Japanese descent. The Bainbridge Island Historical Museum has some interesting exhibits related to this era of island history, including newspapers, photos, and documents.
Detention Center at Fort Missoula
The Rocky Mountain Museum of Military History at Fort Missoula is home to information about this facility that detained both Japanese-American and Italian people. The actual Alien Detention Center building is located east of the museum buildings.
Heart Mountain Relocation Center
Located near Powell, Wyoming, the Heart Mountain Relocation Center has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. An interpretive learning center is currently being developed at the site.
Minidoka National Historic Site
The Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in Idaho offers exhibits and information about the Minidoka Relocation Center. The actual Minidoka Relocation Center was located in Jerome County, Idaho, 15 miles east of Jerome and 15 miles north of Twin Falls. The barracks and camp structures have been removed over the years; the site is currently marked with interpretive signs.
Nidoto Nai Yoni Memorial on Bainbridge Island
The site of the former dock where Japanese-Americans were boarded the ferry that took them away from their Bainbridge Island homes is being transformed into a memorial park that will include an interpretive walkway and visitor center.
Films Where You Can Learn about Japanese-American Internment
Children of the Camps
The companion web site to "Children of the Camps", a 1999 PBS documentary regarding the experiences of 6 Japanese Americans who were detained in internment camps as children.
Rabbit in the Moon
The tensions and generational strife of Japanese Americans detained in internment camps is the subject of "Rabbit in the Moon",a PBS documentary film and web site.
Resources Where You Can Learn about Japanese-American Internment
Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites
This multi-page article from the NPS covers the status of the historical remains of the various relocation and assembly centers.
"Camp Harmony" - Puyallup Assembly Center
The web site is on on-line exhibit of data, photographs, personal accounts, and internment camp descriptions that provide a realistic picture of the reality of life at "Camp Harmony". Archival data includes camp newsletters, documents, and correspondence.
Japanese American Exhibit & Access Project
This University of Washington web site offers access to an extensive archive of WWII interment camp documents, detailed information about Camp Harmony, and resources about Japanese Canadian interment.
Japanese American Interment Resources
A collection of links to web sites and web-based documents covering all aspects of Japanese American internment during World War II.
Japanese Canadian Internment
The University of Washington presents this information about internment camps in British Columbia, including a bibliography of primary source materials.
Japanese Internment Camps Remembered
Cabrillo Community College has prepared this collection of information related to Japanese American interment camps in the West.
Japanese-Americans Internment Camps during WWII
A special collection of photographs from internment camps, featuring living, labor, buildings, and education at the Tule Lake and Topaz camps.
