Mapping the Internment of Japanese Americans

February 19th was the 75th anniversary of the executive order authorizing the internment of Japanese Americans. During the Second World War over 120,000 Japanese Americans were placed in concentration camps in the United States.

Esri has manually digitized the archival records of the War Relocation Authority, the civilian body that oversaw the relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans, to create a Story Map which examines how America imprisoned its own citizens in the 1940's. Justice Deferred explores the contributions made by Japanese Americans to American life before World War II. It then maps out how the largest Japanese American communities in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon and Seattle were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in one of ten concentration camps.

Justice Deferred is however more than just a series of maps showing how Japanese Americans were incarcerated during the Second World War. It also examines the personal stories of some of the effected Americans and the legacy of the internment program on Japanese Americans and for the USA itself.