Japanese American internment from 1942-1946

• April 28, 1942: Seattle Japanese Americans sent to Camp Harmony.
  • Life in “Camp Harmony,” Puyallup Assembly Center
    • At the end of April the first group of Japanese Americans from Seattle were sent to Puyallup. The Facilities at Camp Harmony were established by the Emergency Defense Council of the Japanese American Citizens League. When the 2,500 individuals arrived construction on the camp had not yet been completed. Thus camp was comprised of ramshackle housing at this well known fairground.
    • By the end of May, only a month later, there were 7,100 Japanese American evacuees. Out of this amount only 1200 were from Tacoma, while the rest were Seattle and Alaskan Japanese Americans. 1
    • The Japanese evacuees named the Assembly Center, “Camp Harmony;” Town folk living nearby referred to the center as “Little Tokyo.” 2
    • Four month stay from April until August when the entire camp was forced to be transferred to Minidoka interment camp in Hunt, Idaho, a distance over 600 miles away from their home.
    • The Center was under the jurisdiction of the Wartime Civilian Control Administration.
    • The Center Manager was J.J. McGovern.
    • The Physical layout of the camp was consisted of four sections. Each section or areas contained their own living quarters and mess hall.
      • Section A: first living quarters to open- population 2,000. The Senda family lived here.
      • Section B: population 1200.
      • Section C: smallest area of the camp, population 800.
      • Section D: racetrack, administration offices, bachelor’s barracks population 3,000. 3
    • According to the Camp Harmony Exhibit by the University of Washington Website:
      • “Movement between camps was restricted. Passes were required to go from area to area-not until June 22cnd that large scale movements between areas were permitted on a rotating schedule.” 4
    • The evacuees were not allowed near the fences
    • From Susan Okamoto Lane’s Mother, a Camp Harmony internee:
      • “Once they threw us into camp-guard towers had manned army personnel w/ machine guns pointed at us day and night. There were barbed wire fencing all around and we were not allowed to walk close to it.”
        
        
  1. University of Washington Library. “Camp Harmony Exhibit.” http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/exhibit/index.html (18, August 2004).
  2. Ibid., 2004.
  3. Ibid., 2004.
  4. Ibid., 2004.