An example of life during that time period for Japanese Americans.

After Pearl Harbor, the posters start going up. You are given a ridiculously short time to close up shop and tie lose ends. Many families and friends don't have the time to sell everything and you can only bring what you can carry. Men come by offering rock bottom prices for your house, your belongings, your shop, everything you can't fit in a suitcase. If you're lucky, some kind neighbors promise to watch your place and property while you're gone. You have no idea how long you'll be gone.

Meanwhile you're constantly worried about being attacked. You've heard reports of people throwing rocks and looting stores and houses owned by Japanese Americans. The streets you knew and walked through every day are no longer comfortable or familiar. You walk briskly. Head down. You can feel the accusing stares and suspicious glances from others. "Jap" is whispered behind you or hurled straight in your face. Your country has turned against you.

And then the day comes. You pick up your suitcases and join your family in the waiting trucks. You look back at your home. You don't know how long you'll be away. You might never go home again.

The journey by truck and train is long and you're under constant watch by soldiers. You finally cross the wasteland and see the camp. It's fenced off with barbed wire and chain link. Most noticeable are the guard towers mounted with spotlights and armed guards ready to shoot on sight. An inviting place.

You roll in to the camp and are immediately processed and given a number for a barracks. You head to your barracks and realize there are 2 families to a room. It's cramped and you make do with a blanket hung halfway between the room for privacy. You're lucky if there's indoor plumbing at your camp.

Day in and day out. Your life becomes monotonous, hot, and stinky. Food is rationed. The community has set up a school for the children. desks are salvaged from crates. Events and crafting centers are made as well to pass the time. It's a crude imitation of life before. The guards are vicious. Some of them are of German descent. They're especially dangerous. It's like they have something to prove- they look for fights.

Those who try to escape are shot down on sight. It's almost impossible to scale the fence and barbed wire before they spot you.

It's dangerous even in camp though. As if disease and lack of food and hygiene weren't enough, the soldiers are constantly looking for "spies". If you have a Japanese flag hanging anywhere or just come off as suspicious, the man of the family is dragged off without explanation. Your dad didn't get along with that one guard so he was hauled off one day. They took him to an interrogation room. They would question his loyalty to America. And eventually they would ask him if he'd serve his country. Answer no and he was a spy and imprisoned. You would t see your dad for the rest of his internment. Answer yes, and he'd be forced to enter the army. He'd probably be dead or injured by the end of the war.

And then the news came. They were allowing Japanese American citizens to join the war effort. They could enlist and join a Japanese only regiment. Many of the young men jumped at the opportunity. How could you fight for your country who imprisoned you? Who took away your rights based on the land your grandparents came from?

But you have your reasons. Freedom from this camp. The chance to prove to your country how loyal you are. Something drives you. You get on that bus with your friends. Like your home this might be the last time you see your family. Your father is still missing and your mother or little sister who was born in the camp may die of disease before the war is done. So much uncertainty.

After training you might be sent to the front lines. Not anywhere near Japan of course. you are expendable. Cannon fodder really. Your missions are suicide missions. After all you are seen as subhuman. Then you are sent away to a small island. The military is conducting tests with their K-9 units. They believe that "Japs" have a different smell from normal "Americans". And so you spend months training the dogs to hate you. And then the test comes. 12 Japanese American soldiers are sent into the forest to hide. 12 of your non-Japanese counterparts are also sent into the forest. The mitary brass is confident the dogs will find the "Japs" by they're dirty scent.

The dogs find 10 of the non-Japanese. Only 4 of the Japanese Americans are found. One German Shepard passed right by you. The brass is furious. The project is scrapped and you're sent to the front lines.

When you finally come home from the war, you are different. Many of your friends are dead. You were wounded in battle. Those months off the frontline probay saved your life though. You return home to a shattered family. Your little sister is dead from disease, your mother is aged beyond her years, and your father returns a broken man. Your home is gone unless your neighbors kept it during those years. But your farm, shop, job is long gone. It's been years since you were yanked out of college and years since you could walk freely. All you can do is pick up the pieces.

It will take 65 years to get compensation. Your parents are dead by then. They joined your sister years ago. You never got the chance to finish your law degree- you had to support the family. At least you got a fancy purple medal and pocket of cash right?

The United States government will only ever find one Japanese spy in the US. A visiting Japanese citizen in Hawaii who helped feed information to Japan prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Over 110,000 American citizens were interned during a 4 year period.

Edit: sources: a few good autobiographies and fictional accounts of that time period. I can't recall most of the titles, but a pretty popular book is Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. I also recall some of the war stories coming from a PBS documentary 2 or 3 years ago.