ABSTRACT
The Japanese-American war relocation centers served a variety of functions.
They gave physical security; they provided a decent standard of living; and they
supplied a venue to question Japanese-Americans to determine whether or not
they wanted to return to Japan. A Spanish report dated September 1943 makes it
absolutely clear that the West Coast war relocation centers were considered to be
a main source of Japanese nationals wishing to be repatriated to Japan from late
1942 onward. After the second exchange, few East Coast Japanese-Americans
wishing to be repatriated remained. Meanwhile, most of the Japanese-Americans
in Hawaii who wished to repatriate were too far away to be easily transported to
the East Coast of the continental United States, in addition to the fact that travel
across the Pacific during wartime was considered highly dangerous.
