Reparations and regret: a look at Japanese internment

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Reparations and regret: a look at Japanese internment

By Kate Pais

Twenty-five years ago today, President Ronald Reagan gave $20,000 to each Japanese-American who was imprisoned in an internment camp during World War II. Though difficult to imagine, the American government created several camps in the United States and the Philippines to lock away Japanese Americans under the guise of concern for their safety. We offer a brief slideshow of images from the time when thousands of people who were forcibly moved to camps, and the eventual response to this tragic grievance.

The movement begins
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Exclusion Order posted to direct Japanese Americans living in the first San Francisco section to evacuate. From the US Department of the Interior, 11 April 1942. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Japanese Americans in front of poster with internment orders. Photograph by War Relocation Authority. From the US Department of the Interior, National Archives. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Japanese family heads and persons living alone, form a line outside Civil Control Station located in the Japanese American Citizens League Auditorium at 2031 Bush Street, to appear for "processing" in response to Civilian Exclusion Order Number 20, San Francisco, 25 April 1942. From Central Photographic File of the War Relocation Authority. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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San Francisco, California. As a safeguard for health, evacuees of Japanese descent were inoculated as they registered for evacuation at 2031 Bush Street. Nurses and doctors, also of Japanese ancestry, administered inoculations. Evacuees were later transferred to War Relocation Authority centers for the duration, 20 April 1942. Photograph by War Relocation Authority. From the US Department of the Interior, National Archives. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Los Angeles (vicinity), California. Baggage of Japanese-Americans evacuated from certain West coast areas under United States Army war emergency order, who have arrived at a reception center at a racetrack, May 1942. Photography by the US Farm Security Administration. From the Library of Congress. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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San Francisco, California. Oldest member of the Japanese Methodist church, who came from Japan 50 years ago. He is at the Wartime Civil Control Administration station waiting for instructions regarding his evacuation to Tanforan Assembly center, 25 April 1942. Photograph by War Relocation Authority. From the US Department of the Interior, National Archives. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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World War II. Many of the Residents of Santo Tomas Internment Center built huts, called shanties, to escape crowded conditions in the dormitories. From US Army Signal Corps. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Florin, California. This American soldier of Japanese ancestry is shown at the railroad station of a small town in an agricultural community. He and nine other service men of Japanese ancestry received furloughs to enable them to come home to assist their families get ready for evacuation from their west coast homes. He is an older son, which, in the traditional Japanese family structure, means that much responsibility for their welfare depends upon him. He is the only American citizen in their family, 10 May 1942. Photograph by War Relocation Authority. From the US Department of the Interior, National Archives. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Granada Relocation Center, Amache, Colorado. Participants in the Bon Odori dance, August 14, sponsored by the Granada Buddhist Church, showing colorful kimonos. Spectators are in background, 14 August 1943. Photograph by War Relocation Authority. From the US Department of the Interior, National Archives. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The Roosevelts visit
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Eleanor Roosevelt at Gila River, Arizona at Japanese, American Internment Center, 23 April 1943. Photography by Franklin D. Roosevelt's Administration. From Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, National Archives. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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President Ronald Reagan signing the Japanese reparations bill, 1988. From the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Kate Pais joined Oxford University Press in April 2013. She works as a marketing assistant for the history, religion and theology, and bibles lists. If you’re interested in the history of Japanese Americans, learn more in Eiichiro Azuma’s Between Two Empires: Race, History, and Transnationalism in Japanese America.

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