How were conditions for Japanese-Americans in internment camps during World War 2?

Internment Camps

Most camps were very hard to live in. People had small houses that could have anywhere from 1-3 families living in them. Most camps had very little food that was given out to people in very small amounts for 48 cents per meal. Because of this, many people were close to starvation. When they left for the camps, they could only bring what they were wearing and what they could carry.

Here is another side to the story from another FAQ Farmer:

Nobody died in the US camps where Japanese people were held during the war. Nobody was beaten to death, nor were they forced to work as slave labour. Nobody was executed for being "lazy". Nobody went blind from vitamin deficiency, or lost a leg to gangrene.

The American, British, Canadian, Australian, and Indian soldiers who were prisoners of the Japanese government WERE beaten to death, and starved to death, and worked to death, and so were the civilian women and children that were also captured by the Japanese army.

The difference in treatment was huge and the number of western POWS who died in Japanese camps was a disgrace.

To make it seem that the US camps were bad is to be completely dis-respectfull to the memories of those POWS who died in Japanese controled camps. The American Government has no reason to make any apologies, as long as the current Japanese Government refuses to apologise to the few remaining POWS who are still alive, today.

Many of todays big Japanese companies, like Suzuki, Honda, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, and Hitashi, used slave workers during WW2 who were western POWs.

And here is more input:

• I don't recall ever hearing that anyone was close to starving in the "camps"; sounds like an exaggeration. However, these internment camps were surrounded by barbed-wire fences and guard towers. There were armed guards. The barracks were hastily-constructed tar-paper covered structures with multiple families assigned to live together with no privacy. Meals were eaten in mess halls. Toilet facilities were in a separate building, with no partitions between them. Yes, if you're going to compare prison camps, conditions for the JAs during WWII were not as bad. They made the best of their forced situation by trying to create a sense of normalcy with sports and dances for the kids. But to say "The American Government has no reason to make any apologies"? is to ignore these facts: Many lost their homes and businesses. Higher education or career paths were interrupted or abandoned due to circumstances. They were looked upon as traitors in their own country, where not even a single incident of treason was found to be committed by Japanese Americans.

• Certainly less than the suffering of Americans in Japanese POW Camps in The Philippines during WW 2.

-62% of the people held in the Japanese concentration camps were United States Citizens. They were not soldiers sent to our country to kill us unlike the people held in internment camps in Japan. You can try to deny this fact but they definitely weren't there to serve them milk and cookies.

The United States government actions were un-American more importantly unconstitutional, regardless of the ruling of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. The government owes those people who were held in these camps an apology now.

First answer by Chris. Last edit by HHLM1212. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 81 [recommend question]