Densho Blog

Ten Little Known Stories About Topaz Concentration Camp

The “Central Utah Relocation Center”—more popularly known as Topaz—was located at a dusty site in the Sevier Desert and had one of the most urban and most homogeneous populations of the camps, with nearly its entire inmate population coming from the San Francisco Bay Area. Topaz is perhaps best known as the site of the fatal shooting of an inmate by an overzealous camp sentry in April 1943 and for its art school, which included a faculty roster of notable Issei and Nisei artists. It was also the site of significant protest against the “loyalty questionnaire” in the spring of 1943 and of a variety of labor disputes. 

A new book claims WWII incarceration wasn’t about racism. It’s wrong.

Guest post by Eric Muller, Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Cambridge University Press recently published Roger W. Lotchin’s Japanese American Relocation in World War II: A Reconsideration. The book’s goal is to correct what the author characterizes as several ubiquitous and mistaken findings in the literature on the removal and confinement of people of Japanese ancestry in World War II (hereinafter “Japanese removal”). The most important of the findings that Lotchin seeks to “correct” is that racism was a key cause of the removal, though ample historical evidence attests that indeed it was.   

10 TV Shows That Depicted Japanese American Incarceration, For Better or For Worse

On August 12, the second season of AMC’s The Terror drops, set against the backdrop of the World War II removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. (Full disclosure: Densho aided background researchers for the show.) While The Terror is arguably the highest profile TV depiction of this experience — at least in the U.S. — there have been a surprising number of series episodes and made-for-TV movies that have explored the topic, to various degrees of success.

10 Little Known Facts of Life at Minidoka

Located in Southern Idaho, Minidoka concentration camp opened on August 10, 1942 and held some 13,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. The incarcerees — most of whom hailed from Washington and Oregon — were accustomed to relatively mild climates and struggled to adapt to Minidoka’s extreme temperatures and relentless dust storms. They also endured lesser-known travails. Read on for untold stories of life at Minidoka.

The “Loyalty Questionnaire” of 1943 Opened a Wound that has Yet to Heal

The Japanese American Citizens League is considering a resolution that proponents say would help heal a decades-old wound. The conflict stems from the disastrous “loyalty questionnaire” administered by the US Government to Nikkei citizens and immigrants being held in WWII concentration camps. Based on their responses to two questions, some 12,000 incarcerees were further penalized by the US Government and ostracized by members of their community. The resolution contends that “this stigma of ‘disloyalty’ and being branded as ‘no-no’s’ persists to the present day,” and that a formal apology from the JACL would help the community heal.

Watch These Two New Films Online While You Can

Two new documentaries break the mold of traditional cinematic takes on the World War II incarceration story. Densho Content Director Brian Niiya reviews the films—The Ito Sisters and Masters of Modern Design—and explains why you really ought to make time to watch them while they’re still available for free online viewing. 

Return to California: Japanese Americans in the Post-War Golden State

This month, Densho Content Director Brian Niiya and Japanese American National Museum Collections Manager Kristen Hayashi will present two public lectures in California focusing on the experiences of Japanese Americans who returned there after being released from WWII incarceration. Join them on June 15 @ 2pm at the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute or June 29 @ 2pm at the Japanese American National Museum. Here, Brian writes about the importance of returning to this under-documented moment in Japanese American history.

Immigration Bans are Object Lessons in Weaponized White Fears

The Immigration Act of 1924 created a national origins quota for the first time in U.S. history, and a complete and total ban on Japanese immigration. Building on a half-century of anti-Asian laws and policies, the bill enacted what we might today call a “Japanese Ban.” Almost 100 years later, as lawmakers continue to criminalize and exclude non-white, working-class immigrants, the history behind this early immigration ban should be both a warning and a call to action.

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