Minidoka

Minidoka Internment National Monument National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior War Relocation Centers Manzanar Tule Lake Location: Inyo County, California Environmental Conditions: Located at 3,900 feet at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada in the Owens Valley. Temperatures reach well over 100 degrees in summer and below freezing in winter. Strong winds and dust storms are frequent. Acreage: 6,000 Opened: March 21, 1942 (Owens Valley Reception Center); June 1, 1942 (Manzanar War Relocation Center). Closed: November 21, 1945 Max. Population: 10,046 (September 22, 1942) Demographics: Most internees were from the Los Angeles area, Terminal Island, and the San Fernando Valley. Others came from the San Joaquin Valley and Bainbridge Island, Washington; the latter transferred to Minidoka in 1943. Location: Modoc County, California Environmental Conditions: Tule Lake War Relocation Center was located at an elevation of 4,000 feet on a flat and treeless terrain with sandy soil. Winters are long and cold and summers hot and dry. Vegetation is sparse. Acreage: 7,400 Opened: May 25, 1942 Closed: March 20,1946 Max. Population: 18,789 (December 25, 1944) Demographics: Originally, more than 3,000 people were sent directly to Tule Lake from the Sacramento, Pinedale, Pomona, Salinas, and Marysville assembly centers. Once Tule Lake became a segregation center, the population came from all five western states and Hawaii. Topaz (Central Utah) Location: Millard County, 16 miles NW of Delta, UT. Environmental Conditions: elevation 4,600 ft, within the Sevier Desert – high desert brush with high winds and temperatures ranging from 106 degrees in summer to –30 degrees in winter. Acreage: 19,800 Opened: September 11, 1942 Closed: October 31, 1945 Max. Population: 8,130 (March 17, 1943) Demographics: Internees were primarily from the San Francisco Bay Area, predominantly from Tanforan Assembly Center. Heart Mountain Location: Park County, Wyoming Environmental Conditions: Located on the terrace of the Shoshone River at an elevation of 4,700 feet. The terrain was open sagebrush desert. Acreage: 20,000 Opened: August 11, 1942 Closed: November 10, 1945 Max. Population: 10,767 (January 1, 1943) Demographics: Most people came from Los Angeles, Santa Clara, and San Francisco counties in California and Yakima and Washington counties in Washington. Many came through the Santa Anita and Pomona assembly centers in California. Minidoka (Hunt) Granada (Amache) Location: Jerome County, Idaho Environmental Conditions: elevation 4,000 ft – high desert. Temperatures ranged from the low 100s in summer to –30 in the winter. When the rains came in autumn the entire camp turned to mud, often knee deep. Acreage: External boundaries included 33,000 acres. Administration and residential areas included 950 acres in the west-central portion. Opened: August 10, 1942 Closed: October 28, 1945 Max. Population: 9,397 (March 1, 1943) Demographics: Internees primarily came from Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, and surrounding areas. In 1943, 1,900 internees from Tule Lake and 227 internees from Manzanar (originally from Bainbridge Island, WA) were transferred to Minidoka at their request. Additionally, approximately 200 Japanese Alaskans were interned at Minidoka. Location: Prowers County, Colorado Environmental Conditions: Located on a hilltop at 3,500 ft., Granada was arid and dusty. Acreage: 10,500 Opened: August, 27, 1942 Closed: January 27, 1946 Max Population: 7,597 (October 1942) Demographics: Most internees came from Los Angeles, Sonoma, Yolo, Stanislaus, Sacramento and Merced counties via the Merced and Santa Anita assembly centers. The population was equally split between urban and rural backgrounds. Gila River Location: Southern Arizona Environmental Conditions: Located in the desert, temperatures reached 125 degrees, with summer temperatures consistently over 100 degrees. Dust storms were also a frequent problem. Opened: July 10, 1942 Closed: Canal Camp: September 28, 1945 Butte Camp: November 10, 1945 Max. Population: 13,348 (November 1942) Demographics: Internees primarily came from Fresno, Santa Barbara, San Joaquin, Solano, Contra Costa, Ventura and Los Angeles Counties via the Turlock, Tulare, and Santa Anita assembly centers. Three thousand people came directly to Gila River from their West Coast homes. Rohwer Location: Desha County, Arkansas Environmental Conditions: Rohwer War Relocation Center was located five miles west of the Mississippi River in a swampy area intertwined with canals, creeks, and bayous. Forests had once covered the area, but by 1940 had been replaced by agricultural fields. Rohwer was at an elevation of 140 feet. Acreage: 10,161 Opened: September 18, 1942 Closed: November 30, 1944 Max. Population: 8,475 (March 11, 1943) Demographics: Most people interned at Rohwer War Relocation Center came from Los Angeles and San Joaquin counties in California via the Santa Anita and Stockton assembly centers. Poston (Colorado River) Location: La Paz County, AZ (Yuma County during WWII and until 1983) Environmental Conditions: elevation 320 ft – lower Sonoran desert – perhaps the hottest of all the camps. Acreage: 71,000. Poston was the largest of all the camps. Opened: BIA administered the center when it was an assembly center, and after it became a relocation center until December 1943 when WRA took full control. Date of first arrival was May 8, 1942 Closed: November 28, 1945 Max. Population: 17,814 (September 2, 1942) Demographics: Internees were from Kern County, Fresno, Monterey Bay Area, Sacramento County, southern Arizona, southern CA (including San Diego). They came from the Mayer, Salinas, Santa Anita and Pinedale assembly centers. Jerome Location: Chicot and Drew Counties, Arkansas Environmental Conditions: Jerome War Relocation Center was located 12 miles from the Mississippi River at an elevation of 130 feet. The area was once covered with forests, but is now primarily agricultural land. The Big and Crooked Bayous flow from north to south in the central and eastern part of the former relocation center. Acreage: 10,000 Opened: October 6, 1942 Closed: June 1944 Max. Population: 8,497 (November 1942) Demographics: Most people interned at Jerome War Relocation Center came from Los Angeles, Fresno, and Sacramento counties in California, through the Santa Anita and Fresno assembly centers. 811 people came from Hawaii. For more information, please visit our website at www.nps.gov/miin. 10/04 U.S. Department of Justice & Army Facilities During World War II, over 7,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese from Latin America were held in internment camps run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, part of the U.S. Department of Justice. There were twenty-seven Department of Justice Camps, eight of which (in Texas, Idaho, North Dakota, New Mexico, and Montana) held Japanese Americans. The camps were guarded by Border Patrol agents rather than military police and were intended for non-citizens including Buddhist ministers, Japanese language instructors, newspaper workers, and other community leaders. In addition, 2,210 persons of Japanese ancestry taken from 12 Latin American countries by the U. S. State and Justice Departments were held at the Department of Justice Camps. Approximately 1,800 were Japanese Peruvians. The U.S. intended to use them in potential hostage exchanges with Japan. After the war, 1,400 were not allowed to return to their Latin American homes and more than 900 Japanese Peruvians were “voluntarily” deported to Japan. Three hundred fought deportation in the courts and were allowed to settle in the U.S. At least 14 U.S. Army facilities also held Japanese Americans during World War II. Four of the facilities were in Hawaii, one was in Alaska; the remaining nine facilities were within the contiguous United States.