One Book

Gaman: the Japanese word that means to bear the seemingly unbearable with dignity and patience. In the Japanese internment camps, internees used found objects and scraps to make objects to beautify their surroundings. This collection features furniture, tea pots, jewelry, art pieces, and more.

This collection contains images related to the planning, design and construction of sites of Japanese American confinement during World War II, specifically the sites named Relocation Centers.

Interactive map of War Relocation (WRA) Center images, including architectural drawings, objects, engineering plans, and maps.

Interactive galleries of images, music, text, and first person accounts. Viewers may share their own memories and responses. Artifacts are available to view through Collection Search , and the Resources page contains related activities, links, a bibliography, and more.

Manzanar National Historic Site's story is one of recurring relocations, including that of Japanese Americans. This online exhibit tells the story of each era of relocation, focussing on the Japanese American experience. Exhibit sections include the war, exclusion & racism, camp life, and remembrance.

The online collection of photographer Jack Iwata includes 166 photographs and copy negatives taken at Manzanar and Tule Lake concentration camps between 1942 and 1945.

The online collection of Estelle Peck Ishigo (1899-1990) covers life in the Pomona detention center in California and in the Heart Mountain, Wyoming camp during World War II. Includes 120 drawings, sketches, and watercolors.

The online collection of George Hoshida (1907-1985) includes 260 drawings and watercolors drawn from his visual diary covering his incarceration for the duration of World War II in the Kilauea Military Camp and Sand Island in Hawai'i, in Justice Department internment camps at Lordsburg and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in WRA camps in Jerome, Arkansas and Gila River, Arizona.

Includes sixty-three oil paintings painted by artist Hisako Hibi at Tanforan Assembly Center in California and Topaz concentration camp in Utah from 1942 to 1945. Subjects include various daily activities, still lifes, and landscapes.

Four exhibitions of primary sources related to Japanese internment: People, Places, Everyday Life, and Personal Experiences. Includes photographs, paintings, and documents.

Densho is a nonprofit organization started in 1996, with the initial goal of documenting oral histories from Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II. This evolved into a mission to educate, preserve, collaborate and inspire action for equity. Densho uses digital technology to preserve and make accessible primary source materials on the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. Site includes information, an encyclopedia, archives, a learning center, a blog, and news.

Books, links, resources courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum.

Database that contains detailed information of Japanese Americans removed from their homes and relocated to concentration camps. Provides instructions on how to search the War Relocation Authority Records for records.

Provides instructions on how to order and obtain paper copies of War Relocation Authority
Evacuee Case Files, World War II Alien Enemy Detention and Internment Case Files and
Compensation and Reparation Case Files for the Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Contains links to government documents, articles, oral histories, and other scholarly resources
related to Japanese internment in Australia, Canada, Latin America, and the United States.

The Go For Broke National Education Center provides educational resources about Japanese
American soldiers during World War II, Japanese American incarceration, and the civil liberties
issues raised by these events. Website includes oral histories and historical information.

Stanley Hayami was a Japanese American student from Los Angeles who attended high school at the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming. Hayami left Heart Mountain in June 1944 to join the U.S. Army and was killed in combat in Northern Italy on April 23, 1945, while trying to help a fellow soldier. He was nineteen years old. This is his diary.