Welcome to Japanita

Madeline Antilla
Arcadia High School
Under Construction

 
Introduction:  On the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, thousands of Japanese-American fishermen, newspaper reporters, importers, Buddhist and Shinto priests, farmers, etc. were rounded up by the FBI from a list compiled months before. Because they had been born in Japan and were not allowed by law to become citizens, they were considered resident aliens of an enemy power, even though they had lived in the United States for many years and their children were born American citizens. Some had even been given citizenship by a special act of Congress because of their service in the armed forces during World War I. As a result of Executive Order 9066, this round-up was but a prelude. A few short months after Pearl Harbor, all residents of California, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Arizona who were as little as 1/6th Japanese were imprisoned on the basis of their ancestry. The vast majority of the internees were American citizens. None of them were ever proven guilty of any act of sabotage or espionage.
The War Relocation Authority (WRA) established "assembly" centers until permanent "concentration camps" (writings at the time refer to them as concentration camps) could be built in unpopulated areas east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. These assembly centers were large properties that could be enclosed in barbed wire, had power and water, and were close to large populations of Japanese Americans. Japanese Americans were assured that these assembly centers were not concentration camps but were "a convenient gathering point within the military area, where evacuees live temporarily while awaiting the opportunity for orderly, planned movement to a relocation center outside the military area" according to official WRA information (Deborah Geneway, Beyond Words, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987). Instead Japanese Americans found that these assembly centers were surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers with military police assigned to prevent the prisoners from escaping. Santa Anita Racetrack was designated Santa Anita Assembly Center and became largest and longest used assembly center. Close to 19,000 people lived there at one time between April and October of 1942 making it the 32nd largest city in California. Called "Japanita" by its residents, the Santa Anita Assembly Center was their first experience of what would become years of imprisonment in relocation camps because of their ancestry.
In the next few days, you and your group will learn about Santa Anita Assembly Center or "Japanita" and prepare a memorial to honor the residents who were forced to live there and to tell their story.

 Activities:
Note to the teacher:  Before starting the lesson discuss the language used in the handouts. Point out to the students that the term "Jap" was commonly used at the time, but would not be acceptable today. Ask the students what "evacuation" means to them. Generally students will respond that it is a term that may be used for moving people in danger. Also discuss the term "relocation." Point out that although the terms used for researching this subject are "Evacuation and Relocation" of Japanese Americans, much of the literature in 1942 called for incarceration or internment in "concentration camps." Point out that these camps cannot be compared to the concentration camps that the Nazis set up for Jews and other minorities.

Day One:  "A Day that will live in infamy. . ."

Day Two:  Welcome to Japanita

Day Three:  Life in Japanita

Day Four and Five: Japanita Remembered

Day Six:  Memorial Presentation

Lesson Information for the Teacher


Day One: "A day that will live in infamy. . ."

Read the student handout of the front page and page F of the Los Angeles Times, December 8, 1941.

Discussion questions:

  1. What important news stories are on the front page?
  2. Point out the news story, "Japanese Aliens Roundup Starts" and ask them to read it.
  3. What are aliens? (non-citizens)
  4. Why were they being arrested?
  5. When were the plans made for these arrests?
  6. What were the ultimate plans for this group according to the article?
  7. What indication does the article give that authorities and the may be over reacting to rumors and fear?
  8. How do you think the incarceration of the leaders of the Japanese American community would affect them in this crisis situation?
Hand out: Evacuation Poster

Have the students read it carefully.

  1. What dates are on this poster?
  2. To whom is this poster directed? (All people of Japanese ancestry)
  3. How does this differ from the roundup described in the news article?
  4. What does this poster direct them to do?
  5. Why?
  6. How do you think you would feel if this poster were directed toward you?
  7. What do you think could’ve happened to change attitudes to round up all Japanese Americans even citizens when no crimes were committed?
  8. Optional Activity: Handout a graphic organizer shaped like a suitcase and have students use words and pictures to determine what they would want to bring for an indeterminate stay.
Put a transparency of the cover to the pamphlet "Once a Jap Always a Jap" up on the overhead. Point out that this was widely circulated by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Have them read the quotation on the cover. Then show the transparency with the headlines from the Los Angeles Times from December 8, 1941 to February 23, 1942:

JAP BOAT FLASHES MESSAGE ASHORE

ENEMY PLANES SIGHTED OVER CALIFORNIA COAST

TWO JAPS WITH MAPS AND ALIEN LITERATURE SEIZED

JAP AND CAMERA HELD IN BAY AREA

CAPS ON JAPANESE TOMATO PLANTS POINT TO AIR BASE

JAPANESE HERE SENT VITAL DATA TO TOKYO

CHINESE ABLE TO SPOT JAP

MAP REVEALS JAP MENACE

NETWORK OF ALIEN FARMS COVERS STRATEGIC DEFENSE AREAS OVER SOUTHLAND

(Roger Daniels, The Politics of Incarceration, p. 29)
 

Show the Superman comic. What justification does the comic give for the incarceration of Japanese Americans? What does the comic imply about the conditions in the fictional Camp Carok? What added authority does this comic give to the incarcerations?
 

Show quotation from the military commander, Lt. General John DeWitt. Discuss what the impact is of this man making the decision that the incarceration of Japanese Americans was a "military necessity." Point out that several government reports, including a report from the Department of Justice said that the Japanese Americans posed no risk. Point out that in Hawaii, where there was a different military commander, Japanese Americans were not rounded up (some leaders were arrested).
 

Journal Entry: How would the pamphlet, headlines, and comic contribute to suspicion against all people of Japanese ancestry?
 

Homework: Read "Internment of the Japanese Americans: Military Necessity or Racial Prejudice" http://www.odu.edu/~hanley/historical/klimov.htm
 
 



 

Day Two: Welcome to Japanita

Put a picture of Santa Anita Assembly Center in 1942 from National Archives on the overhead without telling students what they are viewing.

Discussion questions:

  1. Where was this picture taken?
  2. When do you think it was taken?
  3. What is happening in the photo?
  4. Who do you think took the picture?
  5. For what purpose do you think this photo was taken?
  6. How has Santa Anita Racetrack changed?
Put at least ten different pictures of Santa Anita Assembly Center around the class on the walls. The handout for day two includes diary entries, letters, and oral history interview excerpts by people who lived at "Japanita". Cut them apart and hand out at least one quotation to each student. Tell them to match the written entries to the most appropriate photograph arranged on the walls under these headings: "Departure (from home)/Arrival at Santa Anita", "Living Conditions/ Food", "Health/Sanitation," and "Work/Activities." When they are finished, have the students do a gallery walk to study the pictures and the written documents and complete the graphic organizer "Life at Japanita."
 

Discuss the gallery walk and discuss why some photos make the people seem so happy. Who is taking the pictures? Who is meant to see them? What is the purpose of the pictures? Why are some written entries so much more candid? Why do some of the entries contradict each other? What factors affected the information in the quotations? (Point out that each person’s view of the events depends on their experience, age, gender, and other factors). Discuss with the students what they think would be the worst thing about going to live at Santa Anita Assembly Center.
 

Journal Entry: Choose one of the photographs and write from the point of view of a person in the picture. "Today (April 7, 1942) we arrived at Santa Anita Assembly Center. Let me take a moment to describe what it is like. . ."
 

(Optional Activity) Living Tableau: Make an overhead transparency of one or more of the pictures. Have students stand in front of the projected transparency and tell the class what they are experiencing.
 

If you end at day two, have the class read the LA Times article, "Santa Anita Gates to Open to 1000 Japs." This article is a masterful piece of wartime propaganda and euphemistic phrases.


Day Three (optional): Life in Japanita

Each group will be given a packet of documents consisting of:

"Business in Evacuation Centers," Business Week, July 18, 1942
"Santa Anita Gates to Open to 1000 Japs" Los Angeles Times, April 4, 1942.
Excepts from Morning Glory, Evening Shadow
Excerpts from Amy Uno Ishii interview
Copies of Pacemaker, the Santa Anita Assembly Center newspaper, April to October, 1942

Online Resources:
Links from the Arizona State Library
http://www.library.arizona.edu/images/jpamer/internet.html
These include Ansel Adams photographs, information on Poston Relocation
Center, memoirs, and War Relocation Agency photographs.

War Relocation Authority Camps in Arizona
http://www.library.arizona.edu/images/jpamer/wraintro.html

Japanese American Internment
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8420/main.html

Internment of San Francisco Japanese Americans
http://www.sfmuseum.org/war/evactxt.html

Manzanar
http://www.nps.gov/manz/

Japanese American Pamphlet
http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/Documents/wrapam.html

Japanese American War Veterans
http://www.cosmoslink.net/~jimy/index.html

Japanese American Internment Links
http://www.rr.gmcs.k12.nm.us/domagala.internment.htm

National Japanese American Historical Society
http://www.nikkeiheritage.org/

Japanese American Interment Links
http://www.oz.net/~cyu/internment/main.html

Japanese Americans-442nd
http://www.katonk.com/442nd/442nd.htm

Japanese American Internment During World War II
http://topcat.bridgew.edu/~kschrock/ED560/lamb/Japanese.htm

Japanese American National Museum
http://www.janm.org/

Santa Anita Assembly Center Photographs
http://www.oac.cdlib.org:28008/dynaweb/ead/calher/jvac/@Generic__BookTextView/108722;hf=0;nh=1;pt=108541?DwebQuery=Santa+Anita+
 

Each group will take notes on the following topics in their journals with these headings:
Housing and daily life
Work
Recreation
Education
Health and Food
 


Day Four and Five(optional): Japanita Remembered

Although Santa Anita Racetrack has been designated a California landmark, there is no plaque or monument there. The present owners of the racetrack want to disassociate Santa Anita from such an unhappy event in our history. Your job is to create a memorial commemorating the events at Santa Anita Assembly Center or "Japanita." The teacher should show pictures of successful memorials, including the one dedicated to Japanese Americans in San Jose on the Internet at URL http://scuish.scu.edu/SCU/Programs/Diversity/memorial.html and the Vietnam War Memorial.

Discuss what the purpose of what the memorial should be. Ideas for the purpose of the memorial may include: to provoke emotion, to honor an event, to educate, etc. Solicit from the students ways that they can achieve these goals through quotations, pictures, shape, structure, tone, color, use of positive and negative space, etc. Each cooperative group will create a memorial dealing with at least 4 of the topics from day three. Develop a rubric for grading the memorial with the class prior to its creation based on exhibiting the knowledge they gained from their research in visual, written, and symbolic representations.



 

Day Six (Optional): Memorial Presentation

Have each group will present their Santa Anita Assembly Center Memorial to the class and explain what they have achieved in their design.
 



 
 

Independent Work:

Have students research one of the relocation camps that Santa Anita residents were assigned to when the center closed in October of 1942: Manzanar, Heart Mountain, Poston, Topaz, Gila, Rohwer, Granada, and Jerome. (One or two exceptions were sent to Tule Lake and Minidoka.) Online Resources

Show excerpts from the movie "Come See the Paradise," Twentieth Century Fox, An Alan Parker Film, 1990. (This film has some scenes shot at Santa Anita Racetrack).

Take a field trip to Santa Anita Racetrack. Students may use a map to try to figure out where the barracks were. They may also want to take photographs using the same views as the 1942 WRA photos to compare how this have changed.

Have students create a web page with their research information and photos from the National Archives and Records Administration.
 


Assessment:

Students will write an article about the conditions at Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Arcadia Tribune. Each student will take the role of an undercover reporter assigned to determine what the living conditions of the Japanese Americans imprisoned in Arcadia were and if their human rights have been violated. Using the knowledge that they have gained from this lesson about the causes and effects of what happened to American citizens during World War II, they will write an news story exposing the conditions at Santa Anita Assembly Center and discuss the Constitutional issues involved.




Handout-Living in Japanita
 
 

"We were confined to horse stables. The horse stables were whitewashed. In the hot summers, the legs of the cots were sinking through the asphalt. We were given mattress covers and told to stuff straw in them. The toilet facilities were terrible. They were communal. There were no partitions. Toilet paper was rationed by family members. We had to, to bathe, go to the horse showers. The horses all took showers in there, regardless of sex, but with human beings, they built a partition. . .The women complained that the men were climbing over the top to view the women taking showers. (When the women complained) one of the officials said, are you sure you women are not climbing the walls to look at the men." (Personal Justice Denied, p. 139).
 
 

"It had extra guard towers with a searchlight panoraming (sic) the camp, and it was very difficult to sleep because the light kept coming into our window. . .I wasn’t in a stable area, . . .(but) everyone who was in a stable area claimed that they were in the stall that housed the great Sea Biscuit."(Personal Justice Denied, p 139).
 
 

"At Santa Anita, hospital records show that about 75% of the illnesses came from occupants of the horse stalls." (Personal Justice Denied, p. 144).
 
 

"Some of the families were separated after they reached the centers. A seventeen-year-old who sneaked away from Santa Anita to go to the movies one night was apprehended. He was sent away to a different camp and did not see his family for three years" (Personal Justice Denied, p. 141).
 
 

"(W)e stood two hours three times a day with pails in our hands like beggars to receive our meals. There was no hot water, no washing or bathing. It took about two months before we lived half way civilized" (Personal Justice Denied, p. 141).
 
 

"The assembly centers had been organized to feed the evacuees in large messhalls (sic). At Santa Anita, for example one evacuee recalls three large messhalls (sic) were meals were served in three shifts of 2,000 each. Where shift feeding was instituted, a system of regulatory badges prevented evacuees from attending the same meal at various messhalls (sic). Lining up and waiting to eat is a memory shared by many: We stood in line with a tin cup and plate to be fed. I can still vividly recall my 85- year-old grandmother gravely standing in line with her tin cup and plate" (Personal Justice Denied, p.141).
 
 

"The community feeding weakened family ties. At first families tried to stay together; some even obtained food from the messhall (sic) and brought it back to their quarters in order to eat together. In time, however, children began to eat with their friends" (Personal Justice Denied, p. 141).
 
 

"Santa Anita’s camouflage net project produced enough to offset the cost of food for the whole camp. Limited to American citizens, the project attracted more than 800 evacuees. The camouflage net factory was the site of the only strike in the assembly center, a sit-down protest over working conditions, including insufficient food" (Personal Justice Denied, p. 146).
 
 

"Santa Anita evacuees vividly recall the ‘riot’ of August 4, 1942. The uproar began with a routine search for contraband, particularly electrical hot plates, which in some cases had been authorized. [Some] of the searchers became over-zealous and abusive. When the evacuees failed for several hours to reach the chief of internal security, rumors began to spread and crowds formed. The searchers were harassed, though none was injured. At this point, the military police were called in with tanks and machine guns, ending the ‘riot’" (Personal Justice Denied, p. 147-148).
 
 

"At Santa Anita, each family was allowed only one visitor’s permit per week, and visitors were limited for 30 minutes" (Personal Justice Denied, p. 148).
 
 

"Food became controversial at Santa Anita, where a camp staff member was apparently stealing food. A letter writing campaign began and, at one point, a confrontation with the guards was narrowly avoided when evacuees tried to halt the car of a Caucasian mess steward who they believed was purloining food. Following an investigation, the guilty staff member was dismissed" (Personal Justice Denied, p. 142).
 
 

"Unofficial blackouts are uncalled for at Santa Anita. . .the reason for this condition, they [camp officials] said, is that the electrical system throughout the Center provides for only one 40-whatt globe to each room. This is the maximum carrying load" (Pacemaker, May 1, 1942).
 
 

"[W]e were taken to Santa Anita Racetrack where all of our belongings were unloaded. . .We were given a family number and a family barrack, a unit. Then they opened all of our belongings, inspected everything to see that there was no contraband, and then they made us tie them up again. Then we were told to find our barrack. If you don’t think that was one big circus!" (Japanese American Oral History Project: Internees, Amy Uno Ishii, pages 64-65).
 
 

"Shown to their barracks [at Santa Anita], each family was presented with a broom with a mop, and a bucket-when they were lucky-for most of the camps were inconceivably dusty" (The Great Betrayal, p. 148).
 
 

"Tekeshi and Ellen Shibuya boarded the train for Santa Anita at Mountain View. ‘The soldiers came aboard, and all had their guns. The window shades were drawn. We didn’t know where we were going. I was a horrible feeling, because we didn’t know what was happening to us.’ Another woman recalls, ‘I was pregnant. I was supposed to be ordered a berth, or was it just a seat? I didn’t get my berth. There was an army officer or a nurse or someone who had that berth, and we had a big argument about that, I remember, because pregnant women were supposed to have special accommodations. I remember I thought it was terrible. I don’t know whether I cried or not. The train trip is a perfect blank too me’" (The Great Betrayal, p. 143).
 
 

"Doctors accompanied the trains. One of the sick passengers in a Pullman enroute (sic) to Santa Anita became worse in the night and was taken off the train at Santa Barbara where he died in a hospital. His family was not allowed to accompany him to the hospital" (The Great Betrayal, p. 143).
 
 

"What struck most of the internees was the sudden horror of the watchtowers, the soldiers with bared bayonets, and the searchlights at night ceaselessly playing over the grounds. A Nisei wrote to a friend. . .’This evacuation did not seem too unfair until we got right to the camp and were met by soldiers with guns and bayonets. Then I almost started screaming. . ."’ (The Great Betrayal, p. 147).
 
 

"Living quarters were often a considerable distance from the restrooms, showers, and laundry rooms. This was tiring for mothers with babies who had to wash diapers every day. There were no washing machines, and clothes were scrubbed on washboards. If the faucets in the showers were too high, the laundry tubs were too low. A (N)isei college girl described the laundry room at Santa Anita: ’There are two long tables, and underneath there is a sort of water trough. On both sides of the tables are faucets and little platforms to put your tub or bucket. The people who built them must have thought the Japanese women were awfully short for they’re only eighteen inches form the ground’" (The Great Betrayal, p. 167).
 
 

"We went without lunch the day we arrived here [Santa Anita Assembly Center]; at 5 p.m. much hoped for supper came. But alas the Mess Hall sounded like a battle, with booming and banging of metal dining service; the worst was yet to come: the supper consisted of a small quantity of baked spaghetti, a small potato, and a little rice and water. What a come down for a professor! Our living quarter is a small portion of wood-shed of the cheapest type, very poorly constructed; we hear everything that goes in on either side and more. There is no privacy of any kind. In short the general conditions are bad without any exaggeration; we are fast being converted into veritable Okies" (Morning Glory, Evening Shadow, pages 105-106).
 
 

"Yesterday the new arrivals were filmed, which will doubtless impress the public favorably; but it was dramatized for the purpose. Soldiers appeared on the train platform and assisted the aged and young. When we arrived, we were forced to hunt for our luggage scattered on the half-mile long platform and not a soul to help. We stood there before our luggage was carried to our shed. What a difference! Why not film the true picture? No American visitors are permitted to enter the camp; interviews are held outside. The conditions cannot stand inspection" (Morning Glory, Evening Shadow, p. 106).
 
 

"Mr. Ichihashi has written about some of our experiences during our terrible trip from San Jose to Santa Anita. We were vaccinated and inoculated on Thursday, a day after our arrival; Mr. Ichihashi has thus far escaped from any suffering; but I developed a fever and suffered. I am much better now, although I cannot still use my right hand." (Morning Glory, Evening Shadow, p. 106).
 
 

"First of all, whether it was so intended or not, the Wartime Civil Control Administration under the Army’s authority, has established a truly classless community. . .Residents (inmates more appropriately) are not recognized as individuals; we are numbered for identification and treated exactly alike except babies one year and younger as regards for foods. We are fed, quartered and forced to do our own washing, including sheets, shirts, and what not. Washing facilities are wholly inadequate. They do not allow washing done by a laundry outside. Why I do not know. Criticisms relative [to] any matter are not tolerated by the management; a few days [ago] a doctor was railroaded from here because he, as a scientist, has tried to bring about improvements. It is very dangerous for any individual to try [not to go] along the line" (Morning Glory, Evening Shadow, p. 109).
 
 

"The Camp has a population of 18,400, each of which is numbered for identification; for instance I am No. 556IA, which is required for every transaction in the Camp; of course aside from mails, we have no contact with the outside world"(Morning Glory, Evening Shadow, p. 109).
 
 

"In management of the classless community, the government has apparently adopted the lowest conceivable standard of treating human beings; thousands are still housed in stables; a stable for one animal is now occupied from five to six persons. They are still odorous and poor ventilation. Of course, barracks are constructed exactly like our old fashioned wood-shed; each barrack is partitioned into six sections so that inmates have 4 walls, all constructed of rough pine boards nailed in a manner so that on the average [there is] ½ inch of spaces between these wall boards; you can not only hear what goes on in the barrack, but can see, if you want, what goes on next door. There is no privacy anywhere; we have become veritable animals as far as our living is concerned" (Morning Glory, Evening Shadow, p. 109-110).
 
 

"Because of the coarseness of the foods, digestive organs have a hard time functioning properly. Diarrhoea (sic) is prevalent, often causing panics in the lavatories, and this is no exaggeration" (Morning Glory, Evening Shadow, p. 110).
 
 

"Yet we are forced to face the shortage of medics and drugs and other necessary elements: there is one doctor to each 3,000 persons and only 3 dentists and some nurses. . .Emergency cases are frequent. So far one death has occurred, but babies are born every day, often three to four; there are 800 potential mothers among the inmates" (Morning Glory, Evening Shadow, p. 110).
 
 

"Learned that 50 cents per capita-per day is appropriated [from the government], which is sub-divided under 3 categories as follows: 40 cents for meals, 6 cents for room, and 4 cents for ‘miscellaneous’ (unknowables)" (Morning Glory, Evening Shadow, p. 111).
 
 

"Toilets in my section are kept orderly and clean; others are not, even showing the evidence of leakage into streets (14 paces wide). Barracks and toilets are closely located. Waste water from showers and washing forms a large quantity, but is run in an open ditch which runs in the middle of the camp. It emits odorous gas very bad" (Morning Glory, Evening Shadow, p. 111).
 
 

"Camouflage net-making (no aliens) is being done by citizens (the pay being $8.00 [per month] as unskilled); workers are supposed to be volunteers, but were practically drafted" (Morning Glory, Evening Shadow, p. 112).
 
 

"Evacuees are paid in cash for their work at the centers, and they are permitted to bank such savings by mail. At the relocation centers, they get paid $12 a month for unskilled labor, $16 for semi-skilled, and $19 for skilled or professional services. In addition residents get coupons. . .$2.50 a month for individual adults, $4 for a married couple, $1 for children under 16; no family receives more than $7 a month" (Business Week, July 18, 1942, p. 20).
 
 

(In response to the question, "How big a living space did you have as a family?") ". . .I know we had to crawl over and around the beds. In fact, the joke there was that you had to back out of your room to make the bed, because we had so many beds in our barracks. But after awhile, after they got all the people in. . .they were able to find that they could double up a lot of the bachelors and the old maids to make space. They eventually got around to giving the mother of the larger families and the real small, grammar school children one unit. . .But we still all went to the same latrines, mess halls, laundries, and showers. This was what you would call total communal living." (Interview with Amy Uno Ishii).
 
 

"We were allowed to take approximately a hundred pounds per person or as much as each individual could carry, and they told you the kinds of things you could bring. . .The evacuation poster will tell you. At the bottom it said, "Things that you will need to bring.’ Like very personal, private things that you need: a cup or a mug, a plate, a fork, a spoon and a butter knife, no sharp-edged knives, bedding enough for each person, changes of clothing—be prepared for pioneer living, and things like that. . .We were only allowed to bring what was absolutely necessary." (Interview with Amy Uno Ishii).
 
 

"We were told to assemble at the Centenary Methodist Church on the corner of Thirty-fifth and Normandie. . . Depending on where you lived you were told to be at a particular place by 9 a.m. on a particular day. Then the trucks and the buses would roll up and take all your belongings. They tagged everything with your name. Then you got on trucks and buses. From the minute we left our home to the time we arrived at Santa Anita Racetrack, we had no idea where we were going." (Interview with Amy Uno Ishii).
 
 

"A Japanese-American was approached by a Caucasian truck diver who had entered the Santa Anita center on a delivery job. ‘Why don’t you guys go back where you came from?’ asked the trucker belligerently. ‘What!’ exclaimed the Japanese in mock horror, ‘Go back to Iowa? No! No! Anything but that!’" (Business Week, July 18, 1942, p. 19)
 
 

"I have had our military authorities on the West Coast investigate the reported unsanitary condition (at Santa Anita Assembly Center), and while I have been assured that the existing conditions do not endanger the health of the community, work is now under way at Santa Anita to improve the method used to dispose of kitchen, laundry and bath water. When this work in completed this waste water will be run into large settling tank where it will be given a heavy treatment of chlorine (sic). . .This will eliminate the use of the open ditch to carry off this water. . .I assure you that while the Santa Anita property is occupied, the Army will do everything possible to protect the health of the citizens in the surrounding communities." (Letter from John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War to Mrs. Frantress, a resident of Arcadia, July 17, 1942)
 
 
 

"Multimillion-dollar Santa Anita track-the world’s most luxurious racing plant-yesterday opened its gates as an assembly station for Japanese evacuees. Into the verdant grounds of the establishment, nestled amid ancient oaks and peppers at the foot of the lofty San Gabriels, the initial contingent of 1000 aliens-removed from the bustling San Pedro-Long Beach harbor area-filed to take up temporary abode. . .On the vast garden plot surrounding the imposing grandstand and clubhouse, where a year ago movie stars in silver fox rubbed shoulders with hang-tail followers in checkered coats, has been erected as far as the eye can see, apartment dwellings to house the ‘guests’. . . Most of the new arrivals took to the place at first glance, expressing open admiration at the beauty of the surroundings, their faces wreathed in smiles" ("Santa Anita Gates Open to 1000 Japs" Los Angeles Times, April 4, 1942)
 
 

Poem by Masao Keneda at Santa Anita Assembly Center
Received by NJASRC offices November 2, 1942
I know I’m only a Japanese
My skin in darker than yours.
But still I can love the U.S.A.
Whatever our country endures.
 I’d fight for "freedom and liberty"
I’d die with the best of you.
But here behind this barbed wire fence
What can a patriot do?
 I know no flag but the "Stars and Stripes"
Your songs are the songs I sing.
My tongue knows only the words you speak.
But what do my loyalties bring:
I have full faith in most of you.
You have full trust in me.
But some of you hold me in open scorn
In this land of the "equal and free."
 A citizen-loyal and true-am I.
Test me however you may!
But give me the chance to prove my worth.
Please don’t just chuck me away!
(Modern American History, p. 66)





 
 
 
 
 

Los Angeles Times from December 8, 1941 to February 23, 1942:

JAP BOAT FLASHES MESSAGE ASHORE
 
 

ENEMY PLANES SIGHTED OVER CALIFORNIA COAST
 
 

TWO JAPS WITH MAPS AND ALIEN LITERATURE SEIZED
 
 

JAP AND CAMERA HELD IN BAY AREA
 
 

CAPS ON JAPANESE TOMATO PLANTS POINT TO AIR BASE
 
 

JAPANESE HERE SENT VITAL DATA TO TOKYO
 
 

CHINESE ABLE TO SPOT JAP
 
 

MAP REVEALS JAP MENACE
 
 

NETWORK OF ALIEN FARMS COVERS STRATEGIC DEFENSE AREAS OVER SOUTHLAND


Quotation From Lt. General John DeWitt

"We are at war and this area. . .has been designated as a theater of operations

. . .[There are] approximately 288,000 enemy aliens. . . which we have to watch

. . . I have little confidence that the aliens are law-abiding or loyal in any sense of the word. Some of them yes; many, no. Paricularly the Japanese. I have no confidence in their loyalty whatsoever. I am speaking now of the native born Japanese-117,000 and 42,000 in California alone." (comments by Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt, head of the Western Defense Command, January 4, 1942)*

*Takaki, Ronald. Strangers from a Different Shore, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1989, p. 387.


Lesson Information:
Lesson Title: Welcome to Japanita

Suggested Time Period: 2-6 class periods

Framework/Standards Connection and Geography Theme/ Standards:
Grade eleven of the California History-Social Science Framework calls for the study of the relocation and internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans in the World War II unit as a violation of their human rights.
National Geographic Standard number 13: "How the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of earth’s surface." This lesson addresses the themes of place and movement.

The 1998 History-Social Science Content Standards specifies:
"11.7 Students analyze the American participation in World War II, in terms of…

    1. the constitutional issues and impact of events in the U.S. home front, including the internment of Japanese Americans. . ."
(California History-Social Science Content Standards, 1998) Focus Questions:
  1. Why were Japanese-Americans interned at Santa Anita Racetrack?
  2. What were the conditions at Santa Anita Assembly Center?
  3. How were their human rights violated?
Outcomes:


Primary Sources/Literature:

California Heritage Collection http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingAids/dynaweb/calher/jvac/figures/

Hansen, Arthur A. "Amy Uno Ishii." Japanese American World War II Evacuation Oral History Project, Part I: Internees. Westport, CT: Meckler, 1991.

"Japanese Aliens’ Roundup Starts," Los Angeles Times, December 8, 1941.

National Archives and Records Administration http://monitor.nara.gov:80/cgi-bin/starfinder/17659/standard.txt

Pacemaker, the Santa Anita Assembly Center newspaper, April to October, 1942. UCLA University Research Library, microfilm collection.

"Santa Anita Gates Open to 1000 Japs" Los Angeles Times, April 4, 1942

Van Fleet, T.S. Once a Jap Always a Jap. Special collections UCLA, Japanese American Research Project, Box 345 (anti-Japanese folder).

Yamato, Ichihashi. Morning Glory, Evening Shadow Yamato Ichihashi and His Internment Writings, 1942-1945. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.
 

Bibliography:

Bailey, Paul. City in the Sun. Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1971.

Burke, Robert (ed.). Modern American History. Washington: A Garland Series.

"Business in Evacuation Centers," Business Week, July 18, 1942.

Daniels, Roger. The Decision to Relocate the Japanese Americans. Malabar, Florida: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Co., 1986.

Daniels, Roger. The Politics of Incarceration, New York: Hill and Wang, 1993.

"Evacuation Poster" UCLA Special Collections, Japanese American Research Project, Box 158.

Girdner, Audrie and Anne Loftis. The Great Betrayal, the Evacuation of Japanese-Americans During World War II. London: The MacMillan Company, 1969.

Hansen, Arthur A. "Amy Uno Ishii." Japanese American World War II Evacuation Oral History Project, Part I: Internees. Westport, CT: Meckler, 1991.

"Japanese Aliens’ Roundup Starts," Los Angeles Times, December 8, 1941.

Klimova, Tatiana A. "Internment of the Japanese Americans: Military Necessity or Racial Prejudice" URL http://www.odu.edu/~hanley/historical/klimov.htm, July 27, 1998.

Lehman, Anthony L. Birthright of Barbed Wire. Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1970.

Pacemaker, the Santa Anita Assembly Center newspaper, April to October, 1942. UCLA University Research Library, microfilm collection.

Personal Justice Denied: Commission Report on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Washington, D.C.: Commission, 1983.

"Santa Anita Gates Open to 1000 Japs" Los Angeles Times, April 4, 1942

Van Fleet, T.S. Once a Jap Always a Jap. Special collections UCLA, Japanese American Research Project, Box 345 (anti-Japanese folder).

Yamato, Ichihashi. Morning Glory, Evening Shadow Yamato Ichihashi and His Internment Writings, 1942-1945. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.