Japanese-American Internment Sources

Basketball game at Manzanar by Francis Stewart

Primary and secondary sources on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II:

The Clara Breed Collection

The online collection of Clara Breed, or “Miss Breed” as she was known by her young library patrons, includes over 300 letters and cards received by Breed from Japanese American children and young adults during their World War II incarceration.

Internment photography of Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Francis Stewart, and Clem Albers

The photographic record of Manzanar is one of the most comprehensive of any of the War Relocation Authority centers. The WRA hired Dorothea Lange, Clem Albers, and Francis Stewart to photograph the camps. Ansel Adams volunteered to photograph Manzanar at the request of his friend, Ralph Merritt, who was the director of the Manzanar War Relocation Center.

A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans & the U.S. Constitution (from the Smithsonian)

During the opening months of World War II, almost 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of them citizens of the United States, were forced out of their homes and into detention camps established by the U.S. government. Many would spend the next three years living under armed guard, behind barbed wire. This exhibit explores this period when racial prejudice and fear upset the delicate balance between the rights of the citizen and the power of the state. It tells the story of Japanese Americans who suffered a great injustice at the hands of the government, and who have struggled ever since to insure the rights of all citizens guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Internment of San Francisco Japanese: Articles from The San Francisco News

Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives: Primary sources and historical context for the internment