SAM DINGMAN: With the recent anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, KJZZ reporter Gabriel Pietrorazio has been documenting the historical context of the U.S. response to the attack.
In a weeklong series, he looks at Arizona’s connection to the Japanese internment policies that were instituted following Pearl Harbor, and how it ties into the broader story of racialized public policy. Gabe joins me now for a closer look at the series. Gabe, good morning.
GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: Good morning, Sam.
DINGMAN: So, Gabe, listeners may be generally aware with the Japanese internment camps, but not necessarily aware of Arizona's role in this particular chapter of history. Tell us about the state's role in the story.
PIETRORAZIO: Yeah, for sure. So briefly, two of the 10 main ... internment camps that were run by the U.S. War Relocation Authority were in Arizona would have equated at that time to the third- and fourth-largest cities behind only Phoenix and Tucson. And those two sites were both on tribal reservations here.
DINGMAN: Yes, and that's a very critical part of the reporting that you've done here. Why did the U.S. decide to put the Arizona camps on tribal land? Because they didn't do that in other states, right?
PIETRORAZIO: That's right. These are the outliers of the 10. And what we kind of unearthed was essentially this idea that derives from a stereotype that Japanese Americans were seen as industrious and apt with agriculture, and other sorts of projects that they could do to essentially develop these lands for the benefit of the Indigenous communities there without their consent.
The tribes obviously opposed the idea of having people interred there. And the Office of Indian Affairs, which is now the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was essentially behind that push in partnership with the U.S. War Relocation Authority to bring the camps here.
DINGMAN: Well, and the timing of all this in the history of the tribes in Arizona is very significant, right? Because many of them were just getting organized into a formalized council at the time. And, and it seems from your reporting, like the government used that as leverage to some extent.
PIETRORAZIO: Certainly. We spoke with chairwoman from the Colorado River Indian Tribes, Amelia Flores, and she explained to me that she felt that they were being taken advantage of. The tribes, Gila River Indian Community and the Colorado River Indian Tribes, or CRIT, both only had no more than six years as formalized governments with their constitutions ratified in the eyes of the U.S. before these camps were essentially thrust onto their lands without much legal recourse.
And so tribes at that time, fledgling new nations in the eyes of the U.S. and when it comes to federal Indian policy as we understand it to be, were essentially at the whims of the agency, despite this push from being wards to sovereigns of their lands.
DINGMAN: Well, and of course, speaking of tribes being forced to do things without consent, as one historian that you spoke to put it, part of the precedent for this Japanese internment policy was the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
PIETRORAZIO: Yeah, that's right. You know, I think we see similar trends and echoes of the history of forced relocation, resettlement. So in the case of Japanese Americans, they were what the U.S. called excluded essentially from the West Coast and forced inland to the east. Whereas more than a century prior, under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, with President Andrew Jackson, we saw tribes being pushed from the East Coast to the west.
So mirroring kind of policies at different times in our nation's history, both under the influence of the U.S. military and as a force to enact that policy.
DINGMAN: So as part of your reporting on this, Gabe, you went to an annual ceremony that commemorates the lives of people who died in one of these camps here in Arizona. Describe that scene for us. This was the camp in Poston, correct?
PIETRORAZIO: That's right. It was Poston Camp. And that's the one located at the Colorado River. Indian tribes CRIT, Parker. And they'd been doing this annual pilgrimage for at least seven years, close to a decade at this point. But survivors came back with their families as well as other descendants to honor, essentially, by naming each of the 290 upwards of 300 or so reported deaths that were inside that facility.
At its peak population, it was nearly 18,000 and would have been the third-largest behind Phoenix and Tucson, population wise. But it was a very powerful experience that kind of set the tone. And there were songs, bird songs and dances from youth members of the tribe before we all set out on the pilgrimage to the actual site of the former camps.
DINGMAN: Now, there's a fascinating contrast here, because as part of your reporting, you also visited this site of the other camp, which was originally known as the Rivers Relocation Center. And that's not easy to do, visiting that camp. They don't have a similar tradition there.
PIETRORAZIO: It's different. And what is difficult is you have to go through a process to obtain a permit. It took a few months. The Gila River Indian Community granted that to me. And to see this space. They reiterate, these aren't tours. This is a site where people were held against their will. Another 200 or so died there at their peak population, approaching 14,000 internees, and was the fourth-largest — would have been — city at the time.
And so they have a more ... you would say, reflective experience for people because they want to protect that space from outsiders and trespassers, essentially. And so they do annual site cleanups there with partnership through the Japanese American Citizens League of Arizona Chapter, but also invite descendants to return.
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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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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.”
