Large Archive of Documents on Japanese Internment from the War Relocation Authority

A substantial archive of over 300 individual documents, plus a few duplicates, relating to Japanese internment during WWII, forming a very thorough view of the federal agency that directed their imprisonment, The War Relocation Authority. Such a sizeable collection of WRA documents is extremely rare in commerce. All the major facets of the dark, disturbing episode of Japanese internment are represented in this archive: its basic legal and historical outlines, the WRA's publicity and propaganda and its reception in the US, the WRA's groundbreaking use of social sciences in service of repressive American policies, life and death in the camps, and the ending of internment. The essential history of internment can be said to begin with Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9102 establishing the War Relocation Authority, included in mimeograph format. Around that time and later an Index-Digest of Opinions by the Office of the Solicitor compiles legal opinions about internment with commentary by regional attorneys. Additionally included are many of the WRA's quarterly and semi-annual reports, as well as a nearly 300-page contemporary history of the agency by an unknown author, untitled and likely written in late 1944. The publicity campaigns of the agency are reflected in collections of the propaganda leaflets the WRA issued, a near-complete run of the abstracts the WRA prepared on press coverage it faced, mimeographed speeches presented by WRA head Dillon S. Myer and other agency figures, and a file of documents relating to the WRA's investigation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), which would become famous under Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s. The WRA's sensitivity to criticism is readily apparent, especially in their robust reaction to HUAC's critiques. One of the most controversial sections of the WRA, the Community Analysis Section, is heavily represented in this archive by near-complete runs of their Community Analysis and Project Analysis Reports. The Community Analysis Section was largely composed of social scientists, primarily anthropologists, who studied life in America's WWII concentration camps. Their aim was to aid Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration in running the camps with as little resistance as possible by applying lessons learned in the disciplines of Japan studies and the human sciences. Although some Community Analysts voiced objections within restricted internal communications, few brought these objections before the American public. Throughout the next six decades anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists would become increasingly integral in US military operations and counterinsurgency campaigns, leading to controversy with the revelation of their complicity in acts of torture by the American military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Life and death in the camps is revealed in the previously mentioned reports of the Community Analysis Section, as well as in detailed reports of Americans of Japanese ancestry who died in the camps and in military service Cumulative Casualties by Center, documents about Tule Lake and a death there. The thoroughness of these reports is undoubtedly of use to future historians looking into various rebellions within the camps and the repression which followed, as well as deaths of Nissei in WWII. A smaller collection of documents outlines the closing of the camps and attempts to transition their residents back to normal life. Most are stapled mimeographed documents; a few are carbon copy typescripts,as indicated in their descriptions. Very Good condition overall. Around ten of the documents are ex-library copies with their stamps and "discard" written on them. Occasional holograph notations for routing in the WRA bureaucracy. Some documents marked "Confidential" and "Do Not Publish." Manuscript annotations to some leaves. A remarkable collection of documents that reveal not only what the WRA did, but how its bureaucrats perceived it and themselves. There.…