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Alaska State Libraries, Archives & Museums Alaska State Archives

Japanese Internment in Alaska during World War II

Identification card with headshot of Sonosuke Tanaka.
Copies of Evacuation Registration Cards.
Japanese-American Incarceration, Juneau Families, bulk 1940s. ASL-MS286-Tanaka-5

The Internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II was a forced relocation and incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry living in the United States of America. Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorized the incarceration of Japanese Americans, Italian Americans, and German Americans. Japanese Americans living in Alaska were arrested and sent to an internment camp at Fort Richardson. Most were later sent to camps in the Lower 48 States.

Primary Sources

Subject and correspondence file of Alaskan Governor Ernest Gruening on the Internment of Japanese Alaskans
Description Subject and correspondence file of Alaskan Governor Ernest Gruening on the Internment of Japanese Alaskans. Contains correspondence, telegrams, and clippings.
Date created 1942-1945
Repository Alaska State Archives
Citation Subject files and correspondence, Box VS 571, Office of the District and Territorial Governor Records, Alaska State Archives.
Online access Subject and correspondence file of Alaskan Governor Ernest Gruening on the Internment of Japanese Alaskans [Alaska's Digital Archives]

Secondary Sources

Newspaper article regarding the Empty Chair Project and Juneau's Japanese WWII Internees
Description Newspaper article regarding the Empty Chair Project and Juneau's Japanese WWII Internees.
Date created July 13, 2014
Citation Jeremy Hsieh, "Empty Chair Project Recognizes Juneau's Japanese WWII Internees," KTOO (July 13, 2014)
Online access Empty Chair Project and Juneau's Japanese WWII Internees [KTOO]

Newspaper article regarding Juneau's Japanese WWII Internees
Description Newspaper article regarding Juneau's Japanese WWII Internees.
Date created February 28, 2016
Citation Associated Press, "Study of little-known WWII internment camp in Alaska revives difficult memories," LA Times (Feb. 28, 2016).
Online access Juneau's Japanese WWII Internees [LA Times]

Additional Resources

  • Blanchard, Morgan R. "Level II Cultural Resources Survey of the Fort Richardson Internment Camp (FRIC), Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), Alaska." (Anchorage: Northern Land Use Research Alaska, LLC., 2016).
  • Grummet, Karleen. Quiet Defiance: Alaska' Empty Chair Story (A.T. Publishing, 2016).
  • Sakurai, Gail. Japanese American Internment Camps (New York: Children's Press, 2002).
  • The Empty Chair Project website. Last accessed August 15, 2018. URL: https://emptychairproject.wordpress.com/

Page last updated 09/26/2019