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Inmates had been led to believe that these more permanent centers would be "resettlement communities," not prisons. When they arrived, however, they found their new quarters fenced in with barbed wire and guarded by military police.
They also found themselves overcrowded in single rooms with no furniture except for cots and a pot-bellied stove. As time progressed, they acquired other necessities, either by fashioning them out of scrap lumber or ordering through catalogs.
The WRA went to great lengths to provide recreational activities, fully aware that the monotony of camp life could set off violence among the discontent.
Family life deteriorated, as communal arrangement for all activities, including eating, encouraged children to spend time away from the family "home." Parental authority diminished.
In time, a festering anger erupted among the internees. This no doubt arose from resentment of their confinement, coupled with the harsh conditions of camp life.
Some internees, suspected of being collaborators and informers, were attacked. By November and December 1942, demonstrations and riots had broken out in several camps. Military police, called in to quell the disturbance, killed two unarmed youths and wounded nine others.
Questions of Loyalty
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