The Relocation Program
Notes: A report on the original purpose of the War Relocation Authority (WRA): to move Japanese Americans off the West Coast and to assist them with settlement elsewhere in the US or in small camps. The report explains that White opposition to the plan combined with the Army's refusal to provide security for camps of fewer than 5000 residents resulted in large internment camps.
Once the camps were established, the Relocation Program continued to seek placement of internees in the surrounding communities, with limited success. This report describes both White resistance and the reluctance of Japanese Americans to take the jobs that WRA employees found for them. Among the leading reasons were opposition to separating families, unfamiliarity with the locations, and the lack of Buddhist priests, most of whom were interned.
Oregon is called out specifically for particularly strong resistance to Japanese American relocation. In early 1942, "At Klamath Falls, Oregon, several Japanese were arrested to avoid violence," meaning of course that the Japanese Americans were taken into custody to prevent White violence against them (p. 5). In 1944, the Hood River, Oregon, American Legion removed the names of 16 Nisei soldiers from the memorial recognizing community members serving in the armed forces (p. 65). In March 1945, R. Tsubota "the first returned Japanese grower and marketer to take his produce to the East Side Farmer's wholesale market [in Portland] took his truck home Monday with between half and two thirds of the vegetables still in it" because of an organized anti-Japanese boycott (p. 66).
[ii], 105 pages.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). A very good copy in wrappers. With the ownership signature of Philip W. Baker, who worked at the Heart Mountain relocation camp and, in 1943, chaired the Relocation Committee which oversaw the program that was the subject of this report. (See memo from D. S. Myer, "The reluctance of center residents to accept offers...", May 15, 1943).
Publication: Washington DC: War Relocation Authority, 1946.
Item No: #307829
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