Chapter 16: The Home Front "Camp Harmony"

Introduction In this chapter, you learned how fear and racism guided the United States's decision to evict more than 100,000 Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes. By the end of May 1942, 7,000 Japanese Americans lived at the Puyallup Assembly Center, where they would spend four months before being shipped off to an internment camp. Although the United States military nicknamed the Center "Camp Harmony," Japanese Americans' experiences at the Center were anything but harmonious. Use this Web site to understand the ordeal that Japanese Americans suffered as a result of being targeted as enemies within America's borders. Destination Title: Camp Harmony Note: Clicking on the link above will launch a new browser window. Need help using your browser for this activity? Click here for tips. Directions Start at the Camp Harmony Web site. Browse through the site, taking notes as you go. After you have read through the information, answer the following questions. 1. What did the Munson report, a report commissioned by Congress, say about the Nisei? What effect did it have? 2. How did newspaper articles describe the Japanese Americans' departure from Bainbridge Island? 3. Describe the living conditions at Camp Harmony. 4. How were the Japanese Americans' civil liberties restricted? 5. A haiku is a Japanese poetry form that has three lines and seventeen syllables. The first and third lines have five syllables each; the middle line has seven syllables. Using the pictures and reports from this Web site for inspiration, compose a haiku that describes the internment experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II.