Rivers Relocation Center is one of the two camps located on American Indian Reservations, both of which were located in Arizona. Known more popularly as Gila River, this concentration camp held over 13,000 inmates, most of whom were from California. This camp was known for its baseball team, the Gila River Eagles, its prolific produce that fed most of the camps, and for being visited by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt .
Featured Collections
CSU Dominguez Hills Tazu Kawamoto Photo Album
This collection contains one album of mostly photographs compiled by Tazuko "Tazu" Kawamoto, including photographs taken inside the Gila River incarceration camp in Arizona.
Brimhall Collection
The Brimhall Collection contains photographs of the Brimhall Family during their time working at Gila River concentration camp, Jesse as a vocational shop teacher and Lilla as a nurse.
Kazuo Otani Collection
The Kazuo Otani Collection includes some of the Otani family's documents from Gila River and booklets published by the Gila News-Courier summarizing the first and second years of the time spent by inmates at Gila River.
Oral Histories
Feeling Humiliated on "Evacuation Day" - Elsie Uyematsu Osajima
During World War II, Elsie Uyematsu Osajima was removed to the Tulare Assembly Center, California, and the Gila River concentration camp, Arizona. In this clip, she remembers traveling through her hometown on the train to camp.
Discrimination Upon Leaving Camp - Yoshimi Matsuura
Yoshimi Matsuura was incarcerated in the Gila River concentration camp, Arizona, during World War II. In this clip, he talks about an upsetting incident when he was trying to find housing in Minneapolis.
Returning to School after Leaving Camp - Yoshiko Kanazawa
During World War II, Yoshiko Kanazawa was removed to the Tulare Assembly Center and the Gila River concentration camp. In this clip, she talks about attending a school assembly upon returning home after the war.
Encyclopedia Entries
Gila River
Rivers Relocation Center is one of the two camps located on American Indian Reservations, both of which were located in Arizona. Known more popularly as Gila River, this concentration camp held over 13,000 inmates, most of whom were from California. This camp was known for its baseball team, the Gila River Eagles, its prolific produce that fed most of the camps, and for being visited by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Gila News-Courier (newspaper)
The Gila News-Courier (September 12, 1942 to September 5, 1945) was the main publication of the Gila River camp, and one of the last of the ten War Relocation Authority camp newspapers to begin regular production and distribution.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and celebrated activist First Lady, spoke out publicly on behalf of loyal Japanese Americans, and visited Gila River concentration camp, Arizona.
Blog Posts
Gila River Concentration Camp: Intersecting Japanese American and Indigenous Histories
Mas Inoshita made it his duty to regularly travel to a remote part of the Arizona desert to tend to a stark monument, a half circle of white cement with window-like panes looking out onto miles of creosote and open sky. He would pick up broken bottles and trash and repaint the monument in order to cover up the graffiti that would inevitably reappear.
Brynn Saito: “What exists outside the frame”
Brynn Saito is a Korean American and Japanese American poet, educator, and organizer, born and raised in Fresno, California. Brynn reflects on the stories told and untold within the archives asks “what exists outside the frame,” and follows “the bright red threads” of those unanswered questions into the future.
Four Nisei Jazz Stars You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
As the music genre that defined the United States for the first half of the 20th century, jazz had a deep impact on Japanese Americans. For many Nisei, music served as both an inspiration and outlet during the difficult years of the incarceration, and several left camp to pursue brief careers as musicians.
Educational Material Campu Education Hub
Densho’s new podcast, Campu, tells the story of Japanese American incarceration like you’ve never heard it before. Brother-sister duo Hana and Noah Maruyama weave together the voices of survivors to spin narratives out of the seemingly mundane things that gave shape to the incarceration experience: rocks, fences, food, paper.
Exploring Your Family History
Over the past two decades Densho’s extensive online resources have become increasingly useful as a tool for Japanese American families to explore their heritage. The Densho Family History Program’s mission is to help members of the Japanese American community connect with their history through education, training, access to genealogical tools, and preservation of historical materials.
Acknowledgement
Funding made possible by The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation.
