Qualla: Gila River War Relocation Center

Gila River War Relocation Center: Introduction

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Marine 69-71, CC BY-SA 4.0. The baseball diamond at Butte Camp seated 6,000 fans. Kenichi Zenimura, a professional player imprisoned with his family, designed it himself, and historians would later call it the finest in the entire War Relocation Authority system. In this detail lies the central paradox of the Gila River War Relocation Center: that within the confines of an American concentration camp built on land the Pima Indians explicitly opposed being used for this purpose, 13,000 Japanese Americans created community, art, and athletic competition while waiting for their country to remember that they, too, were citizens.

Image: Marine 69-71 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gila River War Relocation Center: Overnight Displacement

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jvickroy, CC BY-SA 4.0. Executive Order 9066 gave families less than a week. In the spring of 1942, Japanese Americans from California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona were forced to abandon homes, businesses, and everything they had built. Properties sold for fractions of their value. Livelihoods vanis...

Image: Jvickroy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gila River War Relocation Center: Life in the Desert

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0. Gila River was considered among the least oppressive camps. It had only one watchtower. Its fences lacked barbed wire. Administrators allowed access to Phoenix amenities and encouraged recreation. But the desert environment was brutal. Barracks made of wood and fireproof shingles...

Image: Visitor7 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Gila River War Relocation Center: Those Who Emerged

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Francis Stewart, Public domain. The camp that became Arizona's fourth-largest city produced remarkable people. Pat Morita, who would become beloved as Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid films, was interned here as a child before being transferred to Tule Lake. Kazuo Otani left Gila River to serve in the U.S. Army and...

Image: Francis Stewart | Public domain

Gila River War Relocation Center: What Remains

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steven Jarrett Bernstein, CC BY-SA 3.0. Canal Camp closed on September 28, 1945. Butte Camp followed on November 10, and Gila River officially shuttered on November 16. Decades later, during the Reagan administration, the federal government acknowledged the injustice. Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, of...

Image: Steven Jarrett Bernstein | CC BY-SA 3.0