Type and press enter
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry—two-thirds of whom were U.S.-born citizens—were displaced and incarcerated in concentration camps under Executive Order 9066. Forced to leave behind their homes and businesses, the incarcerees were detained in remote concentration camps for up to four years.
Since the war, former incarcerees and their descendants have been making pilgrimages back to their former camps. The word “pilgrimage” implies a journey to a sacred place—but for this community, “pilgrimage” is a return to a site of trauma.
Why revisit a place of deep humiliation and suffering? Some return to commemorate a family member. Others return to find healing and closure. Many find community and belonging by gathering together in these desolate landscapes.
Facilitated by photographer Haruka Sakaguchi, Campu: An American Story documents Japanese American families as they revisit their former camps to reflect on this dark chapter in American history.
The Camps
There are 10 concentration camps scattered across the country: Amache, Gila River, Heart Mountain, Jerome, Manzanar, Minidoka, Poston, Rohwer, Topaz, and Tule Lake. Some are carefully stewarded by local communities and the National Park Service. Others are vulnerable to vandalism and decay. Former incarcerees and descendants are fighting to preserve the physical integrity of these sites.
The Process
Since 2022, Sakaguchi has traveled to all 10 concentration camps and joined over 80 Japanese Americans as they make pilgrimages to their former camps. She invites her collaborators to sit for a portrait and handwrite a letter: for former incarcerees, a letter to their younger self when they were incarcerated, and for descendants, a letter to a former incarceree they are commemorating. The handwritten letter is then superimposed onto the participant’s portrait and accompanied by a recording of the participant reading the letter, resulting in a portrait that you can “listen” to.
Photographer Haruka Sakaguchi photographs Susan Sato and her daughters Mariko and Hana at Amache. Courtesy of Elizabeth Begley.
Words Matter
During the war, government officials used euphemisms to describe their unjust actions against people of Japanese ancestry in the United States. These outdated terms continue to appear in textbooks and news sources today. This website uses updated terminology as recommended by the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund:
The term “internment” refers to the lawful detention of “enemy aliens” during times of war. It is misleading because it fails to acknowledge that more than two-thirds of the Japanese American incarcereees were U.S.-born citizens. The term “incarceration” more accurately reflects their experiences.
The terms “internment camp” and “relocation center” minimize the harsh conditions and unjust confinement of Japanese Americans during the war. These prison camps—established outside the regular criminal justice system—were designed to detain civilians based on race and ethnicity for military and political purposes. The term “concentration camp” better conveys the reality of these facilities.
Please note: This usage is not intended to diminish the experiences of Holocaust survivors or equate these two distinct histories. Many Holocaust studies scholars consider “concentration camp” a euphemism for the Nazi death camps where millions of innocent Jews and other political prisoners were killed. While American concentration camps were fundamentally different from the Nazi death camps, they share a common element: people in power removed a minority group from the general population, and society allowed it to happen.
Terms like “evacuation” or “relocation” suggest that the mass removal of Japanese Americans was for their own safety, which is inaccurate. In reality, it was a targeted exile of a specific ethnic group, and many Japanese Americans were prohibited from returning to their homes after the war.
To learn more about why terminology matters, click here.
Navigating the Website
The main purpose of this website is to educate future generations about the human costs of Japanese American incarceration during World War II. Amid efforts to erase this history through book bans and archival whitewashing, Campu: An American Story seeks to preserve firsthand accounts of the incarceration by documenting the stories of former incarcerees and exploring descendants’ connections to the camps.
While this website is designed for self-paced exploration, a comprehensive approach could be:
- Watch Loyal American (8 minutes)
- Explore the Timeline
- Browse the Families gallery
- Visit the Camps gallery
For educators looking to integrate this website into their curriculum, a sample lesson plan is available for download here.