Poston War Relocation Center

The Poston War Relocation Center, located in Yuma County (now in La Paz County) of Arizona, was the largest of the ten American concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority during World War II.

The Center was composed of three separate camps arranged in a chain from north to south at a distance of three miles from each other. Internees named the camps Roasten, Toastin, and Dustin, based on their desert locations. The Colorado River was approximately convert|3|mi|km|1 to the west, outside of the camp perimeter.

Poston was built on the Colorado River Indian Reservation, over the objections of the Tribal Council, who refused to be a part of doing to others what had been done to their tribe. However, officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs overrode the Council, seeing the opportunity to bring in improvements and develop agricultural land on the War Department budget and with thousands of "volunteers," which would remain after the war and aid the Reservation's permanent population.

The combined peak population of the Poston camps was over 17,000, mostly from Southern California. At the time Poston was the third largest "city" in Arizona. It was built by Del Webb who would later become famous building Sun City, Arizona, and other retirement communities.

A single fence surrounded all three camps, though Poston II and III did not have gatehouses. The thousands of internees and staff passed through the barbed-wire perimeter at Poston I, which was where the main administration center was located.

Poston was a subject of a sociological research by Alexander H. Leighton, published in his 1945 book, "The Governing of Men". As "Time Magazine" wrote, "After fifteen months at Arizona's vast Poston Relocation Center as a social analyst, Commander Leighton concluded that many an American simply fails to remember that U.S. Japanese are human beings."cite journal | author = Time Magazine | journal = Time | title = Japs Are Human | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,797540,00.html | date = 1942-06-25 | accessdate = 2008-01-20 ]

Life at Poston

Perhaps the frustration felt in the concentration camps was best expressed by this anonymous poem, which was written by an internee at Poston:

"That Damned Fence" (anonymous)cite journal | last = Woll | first = Christine | journal = E-cletic | title = That Damned Fence: Relocation Camp Life Through the Eyes of Japanese Alien and Japanese-American Poets | url = http://abacus.bates.edu/eclectic/vol2iss1/fyspapers/fys.1203.cwoll.1.html | volume = 2 | issue = 1 | date = December 2003 | accessdate = 2008-01-20]

They've sunk the posts deep into the ground
They've strung out wires all the way around.
With machine gun nests just over there
And sentries and soldiers everywhere.
We're trapped like rats in a wired cage,
To fret and fume with impotent rage;
Yonder whispers the lure of the night,
But that DAMNED FENCE assails our sight.
We seek the softness of the midnight air,
But that DAMNED FENCE in the floodlight glare
Awakens unrest in our nocturnal quest,
And mockingly laughs with vicious jest.
With nowhere to go and nothing to do,
We feel terrible, lonesome, and blue:
That DAMNED FENCE is driving us crazy,
Destroying our youth and making us lazy.
Imprisoned in here for a long, long time,
We know we're punished--though we've committed no crime,
Our thoughts are gloomy and enthusiasm damp,
To be locked up in a concentration camp.
Loyalty we know, and patriotism we feel,
To sacrifice our utmost was our ideal,
To fight for our country, and die, perhaps;
But we're here because we happen to be Japs.
We all love life, and our country best,
Our misfortune to be here in the west,
To keep us penned behind that DAMNED FENCE,
Is someone's notion of NATIONAL DEFENSE!

Unlike the nine other concentration camps, the agricultural and animal husbandry areas of Poston were within the perimeter fence. Schools and a number of other buildings were constructed by the internees. A shortage of available lumber led them to build using adobe. Many of the inhabitants participated and created their own recreational activities, such as the Boy Scouts, sports teams, and various jobs. Poston also contained poor sanitary conditions.

Poston Today

A number of buildings built for the concentration camps are still in use today. Others, while still existing, are seriously deteriorated and in desperate need of maintenance. The majority were removed after the camp closed, and many are still in use as utility buildings in surrounding areas. The residential areas have been largely converted to agricultural use.

Notable Poston internees

*Doris Matsui (born 1944), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
*Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988), a prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect.
*Roy I. Sano (born 1931), a retired Japanese-American Bishop of the United Methodist Church.
*A. Wallace Tashima (born 1934), the first Japanese American to be appointed to a United States Court of Appeals.
*Hisako Terasaki (born 1928), a Japanese American etcher.
*Hisaye Yamamoto (born 1921), a Japanese American writer of short stories.
*Wakako Yamauchi (born 1924), a Japanese American playwright.

ee also

*Japanese American Internment
*Other camps:
**Gila River War Relocation Center
**Granada War Relocation Center
**Heart Mountain War Relocation Center
**Jerome War Relocation Center
**Manzanar National Historic Site
**Minidoka Internment National Monument
**Rohwer War Relocation Center
**Topaz War Relocation Center
**Tule Lake War Relocation Center

References

External links

* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/anthropology74/ce10.htm Information on Poston, a portion of a National Park Service book on internment camps] .