America’s Least Oppressive Concentration Camp Was Still Appalling
July 20, 1942, the first Japanese Americans arrived at the Gila River War Relocation Center in the Arizona desert.
They barely needed a fence.
Compared with many of the War Relocation Authority‘s other camps, Gila River developed a reputation as one of the least oppressive. It became one of the first camps to establish an elected self-government council.
There literally were no perimeter fences when it first opened. Only a single guard tower overlooked the sprawling site, and by the spring of 1943, both the guard tower and newly added fences were dismantled so the lumber and steel could be reused for farm use.
Perhaps the geography made escape seem pointless. Surrounded by miles of remote Arizona desert, there were no known attempts to escape.
But none of that changed the fundamental reality.
The Second-Largest Camp
Gila River comprised two separate camps, named “Canal” and “Butte.” Construction began on May 1, 1942, despite the strong objections of the reservation’s Pima Indian government.
More than 13,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned there, making Gila River the second-largest of the WRA camps. Families lived in hastily built barracks under extreme desert heat. Dust storms swept through camp. Medical facilities were quickly overwhelmed.
For some, the journey itself proved fatal.
Several elderly incarcerees died during the forced removal or shortly after arriving at Gila River. Among them was Fumi Toguri, the mother of Iva Toguri, who would later become infamous as “Tokyo Rose.” She died only weeks after reaching camp while Iva was stranded in Japan.
A Community Behind Barbed Wire
Like every incarceration camp, Gila River became a place where people tried to rebuild ordinary life despite extraordinary circumstances.
Baseball quickly became one of its defining features.
Kenichi Zenimura, often called the father of Japanese American baseball, transformed an empty stretch of desert into some of the finest baseball fields in the camp system. Leagues formed for adults and children alike, with baseball becoming both recreation and a reminder of the lives families had been forced to leave behind.
The elected community council also gave residents a greater voice in local affairs than existed in many other camps, even though ultimate authority always remained with the federal government.
Gila River may have looked less restrictive. But one visitor disagreed.
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Visit
On April 23, 1943, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt toured Gila River with War Relocation Authority director Dillon S. Myer. Roosevelt had generally supported improving conditions for Japanese Americans, but the visit left a lasting impression.
After seeing the camp for herself, she remarked: “I do not want to live there…”
“The sooner we get the young [native-born] Japanese out of the camps the better.”
Her words carried particular weight. If the First Lady found the government’s most accommodating camp unacceptable, what did that say about the incarceration itself?
The answer was difficult to ignore. Especially when it was her husband who put them there.
Notable Incarcerees
Many people who later shaped Japanese American history spent part of the war at Gila River.
Noriyuki “Pat” Morita would later become the Oscar-nominated actor best known as Mr. Miyagi. Michi Nishiura Weglyn, whose groundbreaking book Years of Infamy helped expose the history of incarceration to a new generation.
Tatsuro Masuda was also incarcerated there. He was the Oakland businessman with a storefront sign reading “I AM AN AMERICAN” was photographed by Dorothea Lange just before his forced removal and became one of the defining images of the incarceration.
Then, there was Kenichi Zenimura, mentioned above, known as the “Father of Japanese American Baseball.”