You could take only the possessions you could carry and no one would tell you when you would be permitted to return home. Sound like a bad dream? " Well, this is exactly what happened to over 127,000 Japanese-Americans and their families during World War II. These people, two thirds of whom were born in the United States and thereby native citizens, were forced to evacuate their homes, abandon their livelihood and essentially leave everything behind. They were left no choice but to sell their homes, businesses and any valuable assets they had due to the uncertainty of things to come. The Japanese- Americans were at the mercy of the United States government for seemingly doing nothing wrong, besides being of Japanese decent (Life in Japanese Internment Camps).
During the first phase of internment, internees were transported on trains and busses by military guard to hastily prepared temporary detention centers. From here, they were assigned and deported to permanent concentration camps of 10,000 to 18,000 people, most of which were located in remote and uninhabitable areas. For example, desert camps in Arizona and California often had daytime temperatures of over 100 degrees. Likewise, in the northern camps of Utah and Colorado, sub-zero temperatures were normal. In addition to battling hardships from weather, food rations were also barely sufficient for survival, housing conditions were terrible as families lived in single room cells and not surprisingly, there was little medical care. One survivor, Kinya Noguchi, likened the camps to prison. .
He says, "There was no freedom, no privacy and no America. Life began each day with a siren blast at 7:00 a.m., with breakfast served cafeteria style and work began at 8:00 a.m. When a human being is placed in captivity, survival is the key. We spent countless hours trying to defy or beat the system." Camps were also fenced in, arranged in a block system of 14 barracks with one mess hall and guards in gun towers watched the perimeter of camps and shot those who tried to escape (Life in Japanese Internment Camps).
