Japanese Intern Camps

Barabara ni naru

Civilian Exclusion Order No. 79

Effective Friday 22 May 1942

On this fateful day the evacuation of 100,000(+) Japanese immigrants and Japanese American citizens during World War II were forced into incarceration (internment compounds). These compounds were placed inland throughout the Western

United States. The Japanese peoples of the greater Seattle and Puget Sound

areas were forced to leave their homes, schools, temples (and churches), and

shut down family businesses in Seattle's Nihonmachi (Japantown)

community area.

In the basement of the "Panama Hotel", at the corner of sixth and main street,

a time capsule of eight days of diaspora that scattered Japanese American

Heritage exsists. Because the Federal government acting upon President Roosevelt's signed Executive Order 9066, employed agencies including the FBI and the Army, giving those Japanese peoples only eight days to settle their personal affairs while processing

them for wholesale evacuation from Seattle's Nihonmachi community, and

forcing their culture into internal exile.

The internees were allowed to take only what they could carry with them.

All other items were to be discarded or left behind, such as the many

personal items placed into suitcases and trunks found in the basement

of the "Panama Hotel. In that darkened basement room, an accidental time capsule, can be seen worn suitcases and trunks adorned with travel tags from Tokyo or Kobe, along with stacks of other household belongings left behind 57 years ago when the American government incarcerated its own Seattle citizens and shipped them via truck, bus, and train to internment compounds like Idaho's Minidoka and yet closer to Seattle was the Puyallup Assembly Center.

More than, 7,000 Japanese spent the spring and summer of in the Puyallup Assembly

Center, an internment camp, located on the Washington State fair grounds.

They were greeted by barded wire and armed guards and placed into bad housing.

The whole fair grounds area was to house 7,000 (+) . Living in every space around the race track and under the grandstands. Japanese men were immediately employed

to build and set up further livingquarters, mess halls, and administrative buildings.

The living quarters were comprised of barracks that were 15 by forty feet buildings and each divided into 6 rooms, each room was 20 square feet. Each room would house a Japanese family. Euphemistically called "apartments" the furnishing consisted of army cots, family personal items and suitcases, one window and one light bulb hanging from the ceiling.

The apartment walls gave no privacy for they did not reach the ceiling. So the noise level all the time, talking, crying babies and snoring were some of the things that were

often heard. There was no running water. Toilets and showers were a walk away as were the mess halls and laundry rooms. Privacy was lacking in the toiletries and shower

facilities. Group showers were a normal routine until the inmates built on further

walls for themselves.

The camp (resettlement center) was actually a penitentiary, with armed guards in towers with Tommy guns and fifteen foot barbed wire fences surrounding the camp

The Japanese were confined to there quarters from nine'oclock and lights go out at ten. No one was allowed to take the two block walk to the latrines after nine what so ever.

Petty regulations ruled every day life; twice a day role calls, curfews, lights out, set meal times. Other regulations denied basic rights such as the right to assemble organizations, religious freedom, speech (Japanese material was confiscated) and privacy (police

could enter your room at any time). All radios and lights should be turned off no later that 10:30 PM. Lights should remain off through out the night until the

morning. Exceptions were made for the ill, pregnant women or other necessary cases.

All evacuees shall be in there rooms from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM. A daily door to door check of every evacuee in camp was a normal routine. The camp life during mess hall feeding times, consisted of six mess halls, serving 3 meals per day. Mess hall meal times were at 6:00 to 7:00 AM, lunch from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM, and dinner from 5:00 to 6:00 PM.

Lining up to eat every day became the rhythm of life for the Japanese.

Traditional Japanese food was not served, only replaced with Vienna sausages, stewed tomatoes and bread. Food later improved with fresh fruit and some Japanese dishes included rice. No second servings were served only bread and milk. There was not

Enough food to go around because there were more people that had come to the

Camp than expected. There were some instances were people went without meals.

Long lines outside the mess hall that bottle necked and lead to the scant portions

of canned wieners and boiled potatoes, hash for breakfast and beans for dinner.

The food and sanitation problems were the worst. There was no fresh meat,

vegetables or butter. Some families had to split up when it came time to eat

because the mess halls were to crowded. Milk was only for the kids, coffee or tea dosed with saltpeter and stale bread are the adults' staples. Many cooks were beginning

to

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