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Work and jobs

Both Issei and Nisei took jobs within the camps, at wages set not to exceed soldiers' pay: $12 per month for unskilled labor, $16 for skilled labor, and $19 for professional employees. WRA staff was paid much more for the same jobs. Though public opinion mandated such low pay, dissatisfied Japanese Americans objected to losing their right to make a decent living. They had to use their sparse income for necessities, such as warm clothing and shoes.

World War II (231)
Concentration camps (1434)
Work and jobs (1359)

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1359 items
Japanese American mechanics (ddr-densho-37-570)
img Japanese American mechanics (ddr-densho-37-570)
Original WRA caption: Topaz, Utah. Keeping well warm motor equipment running is a problem confronting these two Nisei volunteer mechanics, at the Topaz Relocation Center.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-570/
Barber shop (ddr-densho-37-384)
img Barber shop (ddr-densho-37-384)
Original WRA caption: Tule Lake Relocation Center, Newell, California. Motimer Cooke, Supervisor of Community Enterprises, enjoys the first hair-cut given in the barber shop at this War Relocation Authority center. Frances Imura, evacuee from Sacramento is the barber.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-384/
Japanese Americans clearing land (ddr-densho-37-832)
img Japanese Americans clearing land (ddr-densho-37-832)
Original WRA caption: Rohwer Relocation Center, McGehee, Arkansas. Farm workers felling a big Arkansas Red Oak, in the process of clearing reclaimed Arkansas Iand for agricultural purposes. Workers, for this and other center farm activities, are recruited from residents, former west coast persons of Japanese ancestry.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-832/
Poultry farm (ddr-densho-37-180)
img Poultry farm (ddr-densho-37-180)
Original WRA caption: M. Nakamura, poultry caretaker, and former farmer of Sacramento, California, feeds four months old chickens. It is anticipated, that the chickens grown here, will furnish the residents of the project with all the eggs and chicken meat which will be consumed. These chickens were raised from baby chicks.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-180/
Japanese American plumber (ddr-densho-37-540)
img Japanese American plumber (ddr-densho-37-540)
Original WRA caption: Rohwer Relocation Center, McGehee, Arkansas. Morio Higashi, a former California plumber, marks out a steel casting for welding. The maintenance of center plumbing, electrical and water supply facilities are carried on by qualified workers selected from center residents, former west coast persons of Japanese ancestry.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-540/
Japanese Americans sorting turnips (ddr-densho-37-315)
img Japanese Americans sorting turnips (ddr-densho-37-315)
Original WRA caption: Tule Lake Relocation Center, Newell, California. Evacuee workers in the packing shed, sorting and packing turnips which have been grown on the farm near this relocation center.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-315/
Japanese American preparing lunch (ddr-densho-37-330)
img Japanese American preparing lunch (ddr-densho-37-330)
Original WRA caption: Dave K. Yoshida, from Seattle, Washington former Chef for Benjamin Franklin Hotel. Kitchen crew preparing lunch. Menu: Baked macaroni with Spanish sauce, spinach, pickled beets, bread-pudding, tea, bread & butter.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-330/
Newspaper office workers (ddr-densho-37-687)
img Newspaper office workers (ddr-densho-37-687)
Original WRA caption: A group of part time high school student workers in project newspaper office.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-687/
Japanese Americans picking peas (ddr-densho-37-140)
img Japanese Americans picking peas (ddr-densho-37-140)
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-140/
Farmer loading potatoes (ddr-densho-37-84)
img Farmer loading potatoes (ddr-densho-37-84)
Original WRA caption: An evacuee farmer ready to put a sack of newly dug potatoes on the truck at the farm at this relocation center.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-84/
Japanese American farmers digging potatoes (ddr-densho-37-87)
img Japanese American farmers digging potatoes (ddr-densho-37-87)
Original WRA caption: Evacuee farmers at this relocation center filling sacks with newly dug potatoes.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-87/
Japanese Americans clearing land (ddr-densho-37-705)
img Japanese Americans clearing land (ddr-densho-37-705)
Original WRA caption: A tractor draw harrow prepares the soil of a new field cleared out of sagebrush adjacent to the Minidoka Relocation Center.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-705/
Harvesting mustard (ddr-densho-37-528)
img Harvesting mustard (ddr-densho-37-528)
Original WRA caption: Rohwer Relocation Center, McGehee, Arkansas. Residents of the Rohwer Relocation Center harvest a truck load of mustard on the extensive acreage they have helped cultivate near-by.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-528/
Japanese Americans harvesting onions (ddr-densho-37-510)
img Japanese Americans harvesting onions (ddr-densho-37-510)
Original WRA caption: Granada Relocation Center, Amache, Colorado. Evacuee and appointed personnel office workers assisting in the onion harvest on the project farm during the volunteer farm harvest program. During the two week period when practically all project offices and sections went "all out" to help bring in the farm crops, more than eighty acres of …
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-510/
Japanese American auto mechanics (ddr-densho-37-542)
img Japanese American auto mechanics (ddr-densho-37-542)
Original WRA caption: Rohwer Relocation Center, McGehee, Arkansas. In the center motor pool shop, George Kenotsu and George Baba, former Stockton, California mechanics, prepare to remove an automobile motor for overhaul. Mechanical repairs to all center motor equipment is carried out by residents, former west coast persons of Japanese ancestry.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-542/
Japanese American working on farm (ddr-densho-37-780)
img Japanese American working on farm (ddr-densho-37-780)
Original WRA caption: Granada Relocation Center, Amache, Colorado. Irrigating thinned lettuce on the project farm.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-780/
Japanese Americans sorting tomatoes (ddr-densho-37-713)
img Japanese Americans sorting tomatoes (ddr-densho-37-713)
Original WRA caption: A crew of evacuee women sorts tomatoes at the edge of a field which was covered with sagebrush six months before. Because of frequent outcroppings of lava the fields on the project farm are small.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-713/
Japanese Americans preparing lunch (ddr-densho-37-331)
img Japanese Americans preparing lunch (ddr-densho-37-331)
Original WRA caption: Dave K. Yoshida, from Seattle, Washington former Chef for [the] Benjamin Franklin Hotel. Kitchen crew preparing lunch. Menu: Baked macaroni with Spanish sauce, spinach, pickled beets, bread-pudding, tea, bread & butter.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-331/
Japanese American picking cucumbers (ddr-densho-37-160)
img Japanese American picking cucumbers (ddr-densho-37-160)
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-160/
Japanese Americans threshing peas (ddr-densho-37-594)
img Japanese Americans threshing peas (ddr-densho-37-594)
Original WRA caption: Gila River Relocation Center, Rivers, Arizona. Threshing green eating peas for seed. Eleven acres of peas are grown here for their seed, and yield 10 to 12 sacks per acre. This is an extremely high yield.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-594/
Camp kitchen crew (ddr-densho-37-619)
img Camp kitchen crew (ddr-densho-37-619)
Original WRA caption: Jerome Relocation Center, Denson, Arkansas. The Block 7 kitchen crew pauses for a picture in the early afternoon.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-619/
Cabbage field (ddr-densho-37-48)
img Cabbage field (ddr-densho-37-48)
Original WRA caption: Cabbage field. Many incarceration camps raised livestock such as chickens and pigs, as well as vegetables, for camp consumption.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-48/
Japanese American preparing vegetable hot beds (ddr-densho-37-626)
img Japanese American preparing vegetable hot beds (ddr-densho-37-626)
Original WRA caption: Jerome Relocation Center, Denson, Arkansas. A young farm assistant preparing hot beds at the Jerome Center, where former west coast residents of Japanese ancestry now reside. The center farm activities will include the raising of any vegetable for center use.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-626/
Japanese Americans making tofu (ddr-densho-37-156)
img Japanese Americans making tofu (ddr-densho-37-156)
Original WRA caption: The cooked beans are poured into a fine-meshed sack and water is added. Squeezing the sack the fiberous substance is held back and the rest of the precipitate is squeezed into a barrel. Into this strained mash or curd, brine is added to cause it to precipitate. This factory is operated by the …
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-156/
Raising cucumbers (ddr-densho-37-161)
img Raising cucumbers (ddr-densho-37-161)
Chemicals were used to grow the cucumbers shown here.
https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-161/
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