Japanese American Internment Camps: Not "Parts," But a Network of 10 Isolated Prisons

The Japanese American internment camps (officially "War Relocation Centers") were not a single facility divided into parts. They were 10 separate, remote camps scattered across the U.S. West and Arkansas, each a self-contained, barbed-wire-enclosed compound guarded by military police.

The 10 WRA Camps (1942–1945)

1. Manzanar — California (Owens Valley)
2. Tule Lake — California (became maximum-security segregation center)
3. Minidoka — Idaho
4. Heart Mountain — Wyoming
5. Topaz — Utah
6. Gila River — Arizona
7. Granada (Amache) — Colorado
8. Rohwer — Arkansas
9. Jerome — Arkansas
10. Poston — Arizona (on Colorado River Indian Reservation)

Two smaller assembly centers (Manzanar and Poston initially) and temporary "assembly centers" (like Santa Anita racetrack) preceded the WRA camps.

Conditions & Legacy

Over 120,000 Japanese Americans — two-thirds U.S. citizens — were incarcerated without due process. Camps were overcrowded, with tarpaper barracks, communal latrines, extreme temperatures, and inadequate medical care. Yet internees built schools, farms, newspapers, and baseball leagues — asserting dignity amid injustice.

In 1988, the U.S. formally apologized and paid reparations. Today, sites like Manzanar and Minidoka are National Historic Sites, preserving the memory of a constitutional failure driven by "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."