Japanese Internment on Tribal Land

Japanese Internment on Tribal Land

While the U.S. would join a global fight against fascism and Nazi concentration camps, it was erecting militarized camps of its own at home and forcing more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry into internment.

The Pearl Harbor bombing stunned the United States, pulling the nation into World War II and unleashing a wave of anti-Japanese hysteria. While the U.S. would join a global fight against fascism and Nazi concentration camps, it was erecting militarized camps of its own at home and forcing more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry into internment.

Two of those 10 main camps, run by the U.S. War Relocation Authority, were constructed upon tribal lands in Arizona and would’ve equated to the Grand Canyon State’s third- and fourth-most populous cities at that time.

In a five-part series, KJZZ’s Gabriel Pietrorazio visits those Arizona sites, finds out why they were chosen in the first place, and discovers how that dark chapter of state history still resonates more than eight decades later.

A view overlooking Poston Camp I on the Colorado River Indian Reservation.

Indigenous Affairs

FREE LIVE EVENT

Attend a free KJZZ panel discussion about the history of Japanese American internment camps located on tribal lands in Arizona at Chandler Museum.

LISTEN TO THE SERIES

President Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt in 1941 and President Donald Trump in 2025 invoking the Alien Enemies Act.

Indigenous Affairs

From Trump to FDR, this 1798 wartime law lets presidents target perceived ‘alien enemies’

Sunday marked the 84th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombing – a shocking attack that drew the U.S. into World War II and unleashed a wave of anti-Japanese hysteria that had been bubbling for decades.

Taken by War Relocation Authority photographer Francis Leroy Stewart, a panorama of Butte Camp at the Gila River Indian Community in November 1942.

Indigenous Affairs

Why a pair of tribal reservations were picked to hold Japanese Americans in Arizona

Long before World War II, the U.S. Army rounded up Native Americans onto reservations — drawing in their new boundaries. And in Arizona, the federal government once again looked to those lands for another minority population — Japanese Americans — also forcibly rounded up by the military after the Pearl Harbor bombing in 1941.

Youth groups from the Colorado River Indian Tribes honor Poston pilgrimage guests with bird dances and songs on Oct. 25, 2025.

Indigenous Affairs

Brick-by-brick restoration part of annual pilgrimage to internment camp in western Arizona

Hundreds showed up for this year’s pilgrimage in late October, which began with a ceremony to honor those who died at the Japanese American internment camp known as the Colorado River Relocation Center — more commonly called Poston.

An illustration of the Japanese American internment camp on the Gila River Indian Reservation.

Indigenous Affairs

In the shadows of Phoenix, tribe is letting crumbling internment camp fade into history

The Gila River Indian Community has strict rules about accessing the abandoned 16,500-acre site, originally known as the Rivers Relocation Center. Now, it’s more commonly called Gila River, and the camp’s location is mainly off-limits.

Youth royalty from the Colorado River Indian Tribes stamp the Ireichō – or Book of Names – in Parker on Oct. 25, 2025.

Indigenous Affairs

Book ensures internment camp victims are highlighted in history — not erased from it

The mass internment of Japanese Americans amid World War II is among the dark chapters of U.S. history that the Trump administration is actively working to erase — being swept up in a campaign to remove so-called “disparaging” signs and markers about the country’s past, while focusing only on “American greatness.”