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 (283)
Concentration camps (2078)
Work and jobs (1524)

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1524 items

img Chicken farm (ddr-densho-37-30)

Original WRA caption: Chicken farm.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-30/

img Japanese Americans distributing scrap lumber (ddr-densho-37-360)

Original WRA caption: Tule Lake Relocation Center, Newell, California. Evacuees distribute scrap lumber to each block. This scrap will be used by the residents to construct furniture for their apartments and also for firewood.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-360/

img Truck outside warehouse area (ddr-densho-37-121)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-121/

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/

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/

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/

img Busy model workshop (ddr-densho-37-1205)

Included annotation: O-203, O-203, Ship Model Shop, Work shop.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-1205/

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/

img Model ship display (ddr-densho-37-1207)

Included annotation: O-205, Ship Model Shop, Part of display.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-1207/

img Larkspur flowers (ddr-densho-37-1402)

Included annotation: G-506, Larkspur.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-1402/

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/

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/

img Portrait of Miss Ost (ddr-densho-37-1377)

Included annotation: C-505, Miss Ost, Director's Ex Sec., Identification.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-1377/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

img Japanese American picking cucumbers (ddr-densho-37-160)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-160/

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/