Cover Page

Table of Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Essay

Brief History

Gila River

Granada

Heart Mountain

Jerome

Manzanar

Minidoka

Poston

Rohwer

Topaz

Tule Lake

Isolation Centers

Add'l Facilities

Assembly Centers

DoJ and US Army Facilities

Prisons

References

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites by J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord, and R. Lord

Chapter 5 (continued)
Granada Relocation Center

The evacuee residences were south of 6th street, and separated from the administration areas by more barbed wire fencing (Figure 5.7). There were 30 residential blocks, designated by a number and letter combination (such as 6B or 11H) which reflected the street intersection at the block's northwest corner. The WRA blueprint depicts only every other east-west street, suggesting some of these street intersections were only hypothetical, but given that the entire area was cleared before construction began, it seems likely these named streets could also have been used as thoroughfares, even if they weren't surfaced roads.

Figure 5.7. Evacuee residential area at Granada. (Joe McClelland photograph, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)

Figure 5.8. Preparing barracks foundations at Granada. (Tom Parker photograph, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)

Each block was laid out according to standard plans, with 12 barracks each measuring 20 feet by 120 feet, a mess hall, a combination laundry, bath, and latrine building, and a recreation building. Construction of the evacuee buildings at Granada differed from the other relocation centers. Instead of post-and-pier foundations, barracks had slab foundations, or concrete perimeter foundations with brick floors (Figure 5.8; DeWitt 1943). The evacuee buildings also had fibre board or asbestos shingle siding, rather than the tarpaper common at most of the other relocation centers.

Figure 5.9 1942 layout plan of the central area at the Granada Relocation Center. (National Archives) (click image for larger size (~212K) )

Figure 5.11 Boy Scout headquarters at Granada. (Joe McClelland photograph, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)

Twenty-nine of the residential blocks were used for housing; the buildings in one of the blocks, 8H, were used for classrooms. A 1943 WRA blueprint indicates ten addition residential blocks were planned but never built (Figure 5.9). Two silk screening shops, the Red Cross, the YMCA, a town hall, five churches, a recreation office, scouts, and other groups were housed in recreation buildings (Figures 5.10 and 5.11). The silk screen shop produced color posters under contract to the U.S. Navy (Simmons and Simmons 1993).

Several blocks in the residential area were reserved for special uses, and therefore had different configurations of buildings, or were left undeveloped. The high school, in Block 10G, was completed in early 1943 of wood frame construction on cinder block and concrete foundations. In plan, the high school complex was shaped like an "E," with the main section over 300 feet long and 40 feet wide, and the two wings at either end approximately 180 feet by a maximum of 90 feet. The auditorium/gymnasium building, 68 by 144 feet in size, was located between the classroom wings, and was connected to the main section by a covered arcade (Figures 5.12 and 5.13). Locker rooms and a boiler room were located in the auditorium basement (Simmons and Simmons 1993). The high school was the most expensive building constructed in Prowers County up to that time, arousing the envy and ire of some local residents already resentful that private land had been condemned for the center. Politicians stopped construction of an elementary school, so that the existing barracks in Block 8H continued to be used (Simmons and Simmons 1993). Immediately west of the high school, Block 10F remained open as an athletic field, while Block 9G, to the north, was also vacant.

Figure 5.10. Recreation hall in Block 10H at Granada used as a church. (Tom Parker photograph, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)	Figure 5.12. South entrance to Granada High School. (Joe McClelland photograph, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)
Figure 5.13. Proposed Granada High School. (from Granada Pioneeer 11/26/42)

Block 9F, northwest of the high school, contained the co-op store, a warehouse, the internal security office, and another office building. The U-shaped co-op store in Block 9F, constructed in 1943, was the second largest building at the center, with a 40 foot by 100 foot main section and two 40 foot by 60 foot wings. The co-op contained a dry goods store, variety store, shoe store, canteen, beauty shop, barber shop, shoe repair shop, watch repair shop, cleaning and pressing agency, a radio repair shop, an optometry dispensary, and a newspaper department (Simmons and Simmons 1993).

Continued

Last Modified: Fri, Sep 1 2000 07:08:48 pm PDT
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