Life in the Camps

The defining experience of the war years for most Japanese Americans was life behind barbed wire in the “Assembly Centers” and permanent concentration camps where many of them were incarcerated. Conditions among the different camps varied somewhat, and individual experiences also varied, but the constants of incarceration were the same across all the camps—frustration, boredom, alienation, depression, anger, sadness, hopelessness, the disruption of family life, and economic devastation.

For a compelling overview of camp life, watch this short film:

The Densho YouTube channel on Life in America’s Concentration Camps offers video recordings of many first-hand recollections of life in the camps.

Rudy Tokiwa and his family were incarcerated both at the Salinas “Assembly Center” and at Poston. For a detailed discussion of the Salinas facility, see this Densho’s Encyclopedia entry:

https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Salinas_(detention_facility)/

For much more about Poston see this entry:

https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Poston%20(Colorado%20River)

This entry focuses on aspects of life that were particular to Poston:

https://densho.org/ten-things-that-made-poston-unique/