History & Culture

Incarcerees at Amache came primarily from three areas of California: the Northern San Francisco Bay Area, primarily Sonoma County; Central California, namely the San Joaquin Valley; and southwestern Los Angeles, including the Seinan District.

Construction of Amache began on June 12, 1942, using a huge workforce of nearly a thousand people, including incarcerees who left the temporary detention centers early to assist in this effort. Because many of the buildings were hastily built, there were often gaps between the insulation board walls and the wooden frames of the barracks, allowing the dust, cold, heat, and insects to easily infiltrate incarcerees’ living spaces.

The structure of daily life in Amache was drastically different from life outside of incarceration. Cramped, shared spaces and communal dining and bathing robbed incarcerees of their privacy, forcing them to adapt, subvert, and redefine private spaces.

This is the exact wording of EO 9066.

Anti-Asian laws and policies in the late 1800s and early 1900s