March 18, 1942

President Roosevelt created the War Relocation Authority (WRA) for the “relocation, maintenance, and supervision” of the Japanese-American population. The search for sites for America’s first Japanese-American “relocation center,” as they were euphemistically labeled by the WRA, was limited to federally owned lands suitable for housing from five to eight thousand people and located, as the War Department required, “a safe distance from strategic works.” The WRA selected ten sites, with the two Arkansas camps being the easternmost sites.