Holidays and festivals

Striving to maintain normal lives, Japanese Americans held holiday celebrations and festivals inside the concentration camps. Whether decorating mess halls during the Christmas holiday as part of a camp-wide competition or participating in parades to celebrate the harvest of crops from their own gardens, the Japanese Americans demonstrated their resourcefulness and resilience.

World War II (218)
Concentration camps (1354)
Holidays and festivals (265)

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265 items

img Incarceree performing in camp parade (ddr-densho-2-23)

Patsy Yorita performing a flag salute at the Tule Lake concentration camp at the Independence Day parade.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-2-23/

img Block 41 Christmas display (ddr-densho-2-39)

This Block 41 Christmas display, made by Japanese Americans from scrap materials, won third prize during a competition in 1944.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-2-39/

doc Blind Japanese Internee Is Thankful for Worship Right (January 2, 1944) (ddr-densho-56-1007)

The Seattle Daily Times, January 2, 1944, p. 5

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-56-1007/

img Camp Christmas decorations (ddr-densho-10-16)

Minidoka's Block 28 1st prize for Christmas decoration.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-10-16/

doc Camp Christmas card (ddr-densho-13-28)

This card was designed by a camp inmate.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-13-28/

doc Camp Christmas card (ddr-densho-13-23)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-13-23/

doc Camp Christmas card (ddr-densho-13-29)

This is the interior of a Christmas card that was designed by a camp inmate.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-13-29/

img Christmas decorations (ddr-densho-39-5)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-39-5/

img Christmas celebration (ddr-densho-39-3)

Original museum description: Photograph, black and white glossy of a Christmas scene at Minidoka internment camp. Fourteen children are with a Santa Claus and one of the children (a girl) is on his knee. The children are either standing or seated on the floor and one is sitting on the table. There are two trees decorated …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-39-3/