Existing comment:
Rejoining Society
Beginning in 1942, attorneys contended that Mitsuye Endo, an American citizen in the Tule Lake camp in California, was being held without due process of law. A lower court ruled against her, but in 1944 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision that loyal American citizens could not be held without criminal charges.
After the decision, authorities started to empty the camps. But housing shortages, scarce jobs, and lingering discrimination made resettlement difficult.
As they left the camps, families took many of the things made or used in camp. The Museum has acquired and is preserving many of these objects, and continues to build these collections.
Carol Matsubara, who was sent to both the Jerome and Gila River camps, was able to leave the camps after getting a job as a lima bean inspector at the Seabrook Farms processing plant in Bridgeton, N.J. in 1944. |