Confinement and Ethnicity

This report provides an overview of the tangible remains currently left at the sites of the Japanese American internment during World War II. The main focus is on the War Relocation Authority's relocation centers, but Department of Justice and U.S. Army facilities where Japanese Americans were interned are also considered. The goal of the study has been to provide information for the National Landmark Theme Study called for in the Manzanar National Historic Site enabling legislation. Archival research, field visits, and interviews with former internees provide preliminary documentation about the architectural remnants, the archeological features, and the artifacts remaining at the sites. The degree of preservation varies tremendously. At some locations, modern development has obscured many traces of the World War II-era buildings and features. At a few sites, relocation center buildings still stand, and some are still in use. Overall the physical remains at all the sites are evocative of this very significant, if shameful, episode in U.S. history, and all appear to merit National Register of Historic Places or National Historic Landmark status.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.