Life at the Camps
Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes, holding only the possessions they could carry. Once they are arrived at the internment camps, each family was given one room to live in no matter their economic class. In some camps, there were no rooms just empty horse stalls, which aids to the fact that the Japanese were viewed as animals. In order to keep them caged each camp was surrounded by a barbed wire fence with armed guards in towers. The guards were not trying to prevent people from coming to the camps instead they were trying to prevent the Japanese from escaping the poor conditions they were forced to live with.
In each room, families were given the minimal supplies. The only types of furniture provided were cots and a potbellied stove. There were no walls in the room in order to keep construction costs low. When the camps first opened they tried to keep one family per room but as camps started to get overcrowded more than one family would be forced to share one room.
In each room, families were given the minimal supplies. The only types of furniture provided were cots and a potbellied stove. There were no walls in the room in order to keep construction costs low. When the camps first opened they tried to keep one family per room but as camps started to get overcrowded more than one family would be forced to share one room.
The camps were overcrowded, thus lines formed for everything from meals to the latrines. Meals in the camp cost $0.48 each and were given in a cafeteria setting. The food portions were small, thus many of the prisoners were malnourished and medical attention was inadequate. The Japanese suffered in these conditions. They began to turn on one another accusing there fellow prisoners of being informants. These camps ruined them emotionally and mentally for years to come. There would be no way to undo the damage that the government had caused on these people.