Research by Subject: Japanese American Incarceration Camp Research Guide: What are some additional resources?

What Are Some Additional Resources?

Japanese-American Incarceration Camp Keyword Searches

The correct terminology is "incarceration camp" and not "internment camp" or "relocation center." Unfortunately, cataloging has not yet caught up with modern terminology, so most search results in Library of Congress, Scopus, and other databases will yield most of the results to keywords of "internment" or "relocation."

The following links are to searches done using terminology that yields results in the following sources.

Library of Congress: Japanese American Internment Camp keyword search
A research guide with the search term “japanese internment” from Library of Congress. It contains 11,340 items available online and 11,818 items in total. The overwhelming majority being newspaper articles. 9,962 of these articles are in english while 4,146 are in Japanese. LoC is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress. The newspaper search can be broken down by title, date, state, county, city, and even collection.
SDSU OneSearch: Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
WorldCat: Japanese Americans Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945.
A union catalog of many US and International libraries.
Hathi Trust: Japanese American Incarceration Camps
A digital library, offering the full-text of books and other print library materials, as well as primary sources.

Databases to Search, Using the Terminology

The correct terminology is "incarceration camp" and not "internment camp" or "relocation center." Unfortunately, cataloging has not caught up with modern terminology, so most search results in Library of Congress, Scopus, and other databases will yield most of the results to keywords of "internment" or "relocation."

America: History and Life, USE Internment of Japanese Americans
Journal articles, book and media reviews, and dissertations covering the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Uses index searching.
Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS), USE Japanese American AND Internment
This is the online version of the Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS), referencing principally western-language articles and book chapters on all parts of Asia published since 1971. Encompasses books, journal articles and chapters, conference proceedings, anthologies, festschriften, etc. of the annual printed books from 1971 to 1991. From 1992 to present, the Bibliography includes citations to all articles from the 100 most-used journals in Asian studies and a substantial number of additional citations from earlier years in South Asian studies. Includes Japan-related journals : Japan Echo (Tokyo), Japan Forum (Basingstoke, Hampshire, England; Philadelphia, PA), Japan Review: Bulletin of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies = Nichibunken (Kyoto), Japanese Journal of Religious Studies (Nagoya), Japanese Language and Literature (Boulder, CO), Journal of Japanese Studies (Seattle) and Monumenta Nipponica (Tokyo). Uses index searching.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Newspaper, magazine and journal articles from ethnic, minority and native presses. Uses index searching.
Historical Abstracts: Japanese American AND Internment
Scholarly journals, books, and dissertations covering the history of the world (excluding United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present. Uses Index searching.
JSTOR: Japanese Americans Evacuation and Relocation
A keyword searchable database that provides electronic access to the entire archives of core journals in the humanities, social sciences and sciences.
Project Muse: Japanese American Relocation
Project Muse is a multidisciplinary database.
ProQuest: Japanese Americans Incarceration
ProQuest provides full-text contents to 2,500 journals from 1972 onwards.

Collections of Documents, Photographs, Letters, Artifacts, etc.

Densho Digital Repository
Photographs, documents, newspapers, letters and other primary source materials from immigration to the WWII incarceration and its aftermath. Caitlin Oiye Coon is the digital archivist who developed and manages the digitization program. for a complete list of staff and board members, please use the following link:
https://densho.org/board-staff/
This is a digital collection.
Estelle Ishigo papers, 1941-1957
From Online Archive of California and curated by UCLA Library Special Collections. Documents, records, correspondence, photographs, paintings, pencils drawings and sketches related to Estelle Ishigo's life in the Pomona Assembly Center California and the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Wyoming.
This is a partly digital collection.
Japanese American Digital Archive
Project Mission: The central purpose of the California State University Japanese American History Digitization Project is to improve access to CSU archival collections about the history of Japanese Americans and to develop a functional model for ongoing planning and collaboration among the CSU archival and library community. The list of curators and participants is extensive. for a complete list, please refer to the following page:
http://csujad.com/participants.html
This is a digital collection.
Japanese American Incarceration Collection
From Washington State University. This digital collection of materials related to the Japanese American incarceration revolves around a handful of collections donated by individuals and families closely tied to the incarceration experience. The collections compliment the George and Frank C. Hirahara Collection. Dr. Trevor James Bond is the Associate Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections at the Manuscript, Archives, and Special Collections Branch of the Washington State University Libraries. Greg Mathews is the Special Collections Librarian. for a more complete list of staff please use the following link:
https://libraries.wsu.edu/masc/staff
This is a digital collection.
Japanese American National Museum Collections
features selected highlights from the permanent collection of over 60,000 unique artifacts, documents, and photographs. Jaime Henricks is the archivist.
This is a partly digital collection.
Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (JARDA)
The JARDA project began in 1998 with the goal of providing a single point of entry to materials held by California institutions on the subject of Japanese American relocation and incarceration during World War II. Historically, these materials had been heavily requested, but difficult to access since they were scattered across many California archives, libraries, oral history programs, and museums. A dedicated digitization project was undertaken by several institutions statewide, and the first version of the site was launched in November 2000. Now part of Calisphere, JARDA continues to grow as institutions continue to digitize and add content on the subject.
This is a digital collection.
National Park Service Virtual Museum Exhibit: Manzanar
This exhibit showcases Manzanar National Historic Site and its collections that tell the often painful story of relocation. Includes he War Relocation Center which confined more than 100,000 Japanese Americans from 1942-1945. Joan Bacharach is the Museum Curator and Project Manager.
Amber Dumler is the Visual Information Specialist and Scott William is the Photographer.
This is a digital collection.
Rohwer Reconstructed
University of Arkansas's Digital archive of the Rohwer Relocation Center in rural Desha County, Arkansas.
This is a digital collection.

Photograph Collections

Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Incarceration at Manzanar
From Library of Congress: In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), America's most well-known photographer, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese-Americans incarcerated there during World War II.
This is a digital collection.
Finding Aid to War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, 1942-1945 circa 1941-1947
From UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library. Government photographs of the camps and incarceration program.
This is a partly digital collection.
Forrest E. LaViolette Slides and Photographs, April-October 1, 1943
The collection from Archives West consists chiefly of color slides documenting the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II. Specifically, the collection shows grounds, buildings, schools, residents, and activities of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. Forrest E. LaViolette donated the collection on April 1987. It was processed by Rebekah Dalby in 2002 and revised by Maureen Hogan in 2020.
This is a digital collection.
George and Frank C. Hirahara Photograph Collection, 1943-1945
From Washington State University. Considered the largest private collection of photos depicting life in the Japanese American incarceration camp at Heart Mountain Wyoming. Dr. Trevor James Bond is the Associate Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections at the Manuscript, Archives, and Special Collections Branch of the Washington State University Libraries. Greg Mathews is the Special Collections Librarian. for a completer list of staff please use the following link:
https://libraries.wsu.edu/masc/staff
This is a digital collection
Japanese American Incarceration Images, 1941-1946
Collection of photographs from the Hearst Collection of the Los Angeles Examiner in the USC Regional History Collection, documents the incarceration of Japanese Americans in California during World War II.
This is a digital collection.

Oral History

Manzanar National Historic Site collection
Contains text and audiovisual material (moving images and audio) from the 1940s to 2010s. A majority of the collection consists of filmed and recorded oral interviews with Japanese Americans interned at the Manzanar War Relocation Center during World War II. the following is a list of creators and contributors. Jane Lakeman is the curator.
This is a digital collection.

Papers, Diaries

Eleanor Roosevelt Papers
Eleanor Roosevelt’s papers/journal entries from the Columbian College of Arts and Science at George Washington University. Some of the papers discuss her feelings about the Japanese-American incarceration camps. Compare her papers as the wife of the man who signed order 9066 with actual Japanese-American prisoners and their feelings towards her. Curated by Christopher Brick, Editor and principles investigator of the papers, along with graduate fellows and affiliates.
This is a digital collection.

Newspapers

Internment of Japanese Americans
A small handle of important newspaper articles regarding Japanese-American incarceration, provided by Newspapers.com
This is a digital collection.
Japanese-American Internment Camp Newspapers, 1942 to 1946
From Library of Congress. Newspapers produced by the Japanese-Americans incarcerated at camps around the country during World War II. Read "Press Freedom in the Enemy's Language: Government Control of Japanese-Language Newspapers in Japanese American Camps During World War II" (found in Secondary Sources) in conjunction with newspapers from the collection to get a better understanding of press control in the camps.
This is a digital collection.

Government Records

Finding Aid to the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records 1930-1974
From UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library. Numerous records and reports from the administrators and staff of the camps.
This is a partly digital collection.

Scopus Top Cited Articles

It is recommended to discover other documents cited by the following articles, as they provide relevant information found in hidden places.

Altered Lives, Enduring Community: Japanese Americans Remember Their World War II Incarceration
Democratizing the enemy: The Japanese American internment
Brian Hayashi reevaluates the three-year ordeal of incarcerated Japanese Americans. Using previously undiscovered documents, he examines the forces behind the U.S. government's decision to establish incarceration camps.
Engineering Internment: Anthropologists and the War Relocation Authority
Reexamines a neglected chapter in the history of anthropology, the involvement of ethnographers in the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II
An integrative-sequential treatment model for posttraumatic stress disorder: A case study of the Japanese American internment and redress
Presents a clinical model that integrates classic victimization symptoms with multiple treatment interventions into a coherent process of recovery. Parallels are made between symptoms experienced by Vietnam veterans with PTSD and those of Japanese Americans who were interned in U.S. concentration camps during World War II.
Judgment without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment During World War II
Reveals that long before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the US government began making plans for the eventual internment and later incarceration of the Japanese American population.

E-Books

Looking After Minidoka: An American Memoir
In this book, the camp years become a prism for understanding three generations of Japanese American life, from immigration to the end of the twentieth century. Nakadate blends history, poetry, rescued memory, and family stories in an American narrative of hope and disappointment, language and education, employment and social standing, prejudice and pain, communal values and personal dreams
Manzanar Historic Resource Study/Special History Study
Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II
Nikkei Baseball: Japanese American Players from Immigration and Internment to the Major Leagues
Examines baseball's evolving importance to the Japanese American community and the construction of Japanese American identity.
Taken From The Paradise Isle – The Hoshida Family Story
An intimate account of the anger, resignation, philosophy, optimism, and love with which the Hoshida family endured their separation and incarceration during World War II
A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America
The first book to analyze official policy toward West Coast Japanese Americans within a North American context.

Print Books

The Art Of Gaman: Arts And Crafts From The Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946
More than 150 examples of art created by the internees along with a history of the camps. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
Farewell to Manzanar
Memoir of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s imprisonment with her family at the Manzanar camp in central California. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
From Our Side of the Fence: Growing Up in America's Concentration Camps
Contains the first-person accounts of eleven former internees who recall their memories of youth in America's concentration camps. This collection traces each author's personal journey through war, giving voice to a history that has been silenced. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
The Japanese American Cases- The Rule of Law in Time of War
Focuses on four Nisei, second-generation Japanese Americans, who, aided by a handful of lawyers, defied the government and their own community leaders by challenging the constitutionality of the government's orders. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
The Little Exile
Autobiographical fiction based on the author’s own experience as a wartime internee, told from the point of view of a child. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
Nisei Naysayer: The Memoir of Militant Japanese American Journalist Jimmie Omura
Among the fiercest opponents of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II was journalist James "Jimmie" Matsumoto Omura. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
Only What We Could Carry
Anthology of primary sources regarding the Japanese American camps during WWII. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
Reflecting on WWII, Manzanar and the WRA
Told from the first-hand experiences of the teenage son of two Incarceration camps employees, focuses on the complexities of life within Manzanar camp. Find in CSU+.
Reluctant Samurai: Memoirs of an Urban Planner, From Tule Lake to Bunker HIll
Kawaratani shares his life growing up on a farm, Word War II internment, recovery and training, marriage and family, his central role in the redevelopment of Downtown Los Angeles and his present retirement as a civic volunteer. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
Stanley Hayami: Nisei Son—His Diary, Letters, & Story
Hayami left Heart Mountain in June 1944 to join the U.S. Army and was killed in combat in Northern Italy on 23 Apr. 1945, while trying to help a fellow soldier.
Surviving Minidoka: The Legacy of WWII Japanese American Incarceration
Presents 10 intriguing essays about one of the largest and most remote of America's concentration camps. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
They Called Us Enemy
In this graphic novel, George Takei revisits his haunting childhood in American concentration camps, as one of 120,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned by the U.S. government during World War II. One Book One San Diego Winner 2020. NOTE: NOT LOANABLE at SDSU. Also on CSU+.
Tule Lake Revisited
Tule Lake Concentration Camp was one of 10 camps used to unjustly imprison Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. It is unique in that it was the only camp converted into a maximum security segregation center after the "loyalty questionnaire" separated those who answered "no-no" from those considered "loyal." Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
Uprooted: the Japanese American Experience During World War II.
Uprooted examines the relationship of racism in the Unties and the connection between the United States and Japan, due to the bombing of Peal Harbor.

US Presidential Documents

Proclamation No. 2714
Proclaimed by President Harry S. Truman on December 31, 1946 as an oath of cessation of hostilities towards enemies.
Executive Order 9066 Termination
The executive order that Gerald Ford signed which officially terminated Executive order 9066. Note that it wasn’t signed until the 1970s.

US Government Publications

The Japanese-American internment during WWII: a discussion of civil liberties then and now.
"This event is a production of the LegiSchool Project : a civic education collaboration between California State University, Sacramento and the California State Legislature."

What Are Primary Sources?

Primary sources are materials that provide first-hand documentation or knowledge, usually of people, places, events or time periods. Primary sources enable the researcher to trace a research subject to its origin, potentially supporting new interpretations or revealing previously undocumented knowledge of that subject. Just a few examples of primary sources include diaries, oral histories, fossils, DNA, correspondence, speeches, interviews, court cases, or scientific studies.

-SDSU Archivist Amanda Lanthorne

Video: Primary Sources Learn the purpose and characteristics of primary sources in order to help you identify the most appropriate type of source for your research needs.

Secondary sources build upon or extrapolate information derived from primary sources, and the distinction between the two can be quite fluid depending on one's area of study. In most contexts, however, a primary source is understood to be a point of origin, or a piece of raw data, for a research subject

-SDSU Archivist Amanda Lanthorne

What Are Secondary Sources?

"Secondary sources were created by someone who did not experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions you’re researching. For a historical research project, secondary sources are generally scholarly books and articles.

A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. These sources are one or more steps removed from the event. Secondary sources may contain pictures, quotes or graphics of primary sources.

Some types of secondary source include: Textbooks; journal articles; histories; criticisms; commentaries; encyclopedias

Examples of secondary sources include:

A scholarly journal article about the history of cardiology
A book about the psychological effects of WWI
A biographical dictionary of women in science
An April 2007 newspaper or magazine article on anti-aging trends

For a historical research project, secondary sources are most often scholarly books and articles."

-A definition from Harvard Library

Citing Sources for History Papers

The Chicago Manual of Style
Historians most commonly use Chicago's note-style citation, based in the Chicago Manual of Style. The print version of the Chicago Manual of Style is the most authoritative source for this mode of citation.
Chicago Manual of Style Online
Online version of the Chicago Manual of Style.
In-Depth guide on CMS citation
An In-Depth guide on Chicago Manual Style citation, presented by Purdue University's Online Writing Lab.

Articles, Chapters, and Websites

Milestones in California History: Executive Order #9066 (Feb. 19, 1942)
Short summary of EO 9066 and the push for enactment, mostly by California. Highlights the fact that California residents of Korean, Chinese, and Filipino ancestry also supported the order, and that Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson recommended it.
The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History: Internment and World War II History
Traces major themes and debates around which the historiography of incarceration and World War II history has evolved since the mid-1940s.
Press Freedom in the Enemy's Language: Government Control of Japanese-Language Newspapers in Japanese American Camps During World War II
This article examines how the federal government controlled the Japanese "enemy language" newspapers in Japanese American concentration camps during World War II.
Wikipedia: Internment of Japanese Americans
This Wikipedia article is a great starting point for a quick overview of the event. It also provides a bibliography, further reading, Archival sources of documents, photos, and other materials, and other sources.

Media

And Then They Came for Us
"Featuring George Takei and many others who were incarcerated, as well as newly rediscovered photographs of Dorothea Lange ... brings history into the present, retelling this difficult story and following Japanese Americans as they speak out against the Muslim registry and travel ban"--Container.
Blossoms and Thorns
This film covers the experience of Richmond's Japanese American citizens who were incarcerated during the Second World War. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
A Challenge to Democracy
This documentary discusses the how the internment camps challenged American democracy.
Days of Waiting: The Life and Art of Estelle Ishigo
A poignant documentary about an extraordinary woman, artist Estelle Ishigo, one of the few Caucasians to be interned with 110,000 Japanese Americans in 1942.
Fumiko Hayashida: The Woman Behind the Symbol
Both a historical portrait of Fumiko Hayashida, her family and the Bainbridge Island Japanese American community in the decades before World War II as well as a contemporary story which follows 97-year old Fumiko and her daughter Natalie as they return to the site of the former Minidoka incarceration camp, their first trip back together in 63 years.
Life interrupted: Reunion & Remembrance in Arkansas
In September 2004, more than 1,300 people embarked on a transformative journey to Little Rock, Arkansas. Former internees and their families, students and educators gathered to examine and reflect upon the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. This DVD features the stories, history and emotions of a community forged in the remote Arkansas swamps more than 60 years ago. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
Meeting at Tule Lake
Seven former internees of Tule Lake Segregation Center discuss their past and how they came to terms with their identity, politically and socially, both during and after their camp experience.
Pilgrimage
The first film to show how the WWII camps were reclaimed by the children of its victims and how the Manzanar Pilgrimage now has fresh meaning for diverse generations of people who realize that when the U.S. government herded thousands of innocent Americans into what the government itself called concentration camps, it was failure of democracy that would affect all Americans.
Prisoners and Patriots: The Untold Story
This documentary is based on 20 hours of exclusive interviews with former Santa Fe survivors and their families, declassified government documents and private photographs. This film tells a story that, in many cases, fathers never told their own children after the war. Santa Fe's prisoners were all men -- some Japanese nationals, some U.S. citizens. Find in CSU+. Allow three weeks for delivery.
Resistance at Tule Lake
Tells the suppressed story of the 12,000 Japanese Americans who resisted incarceration during World War II.