Sunday marked the 75th anniversary of the Presidential Executive Order that forced Japanese Americans and immigrants into internment camps. Arizona played a role in that regrettable part of American history.
Arizona was home to two of the eight Japanese American internment camps during World War II. The largest one was in Poston, Arizona. And the second was located just outside Phoenix and was known as the Gila River War Relocation Center.
At the time, the Poston and Gila River Camps were the third and fourth biggest cities in Arizona. Poston later became known as the camp with some of the biggest resistance on the part of internees during the war.
The former site of the Gila River camp is not open to the public. But last month, the city of Chandler dedicated a kiosk at Nozomi Park to the history and remembrance of the Americans and immigrants who were unjustly imprisoned by the American government during World War II.