Central Los Angeles

CAMP JOURNALISM: Japanese Americans who worked as journalists for newspapers in World War II relocation camps will discuss their experiences Saturday at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo.

According to Chris Komai, a museum spokesman, “120,000 Japanese Americans were forced to live in the camps that were set up in some ways to be miniature cities. They had their own town and were supposed to take care of themselves and feed themselves, and part of that was having a newspaper.”

Each of the 10 relocation camps in the United States had a newspaper that was established by the War Relocation Authority, Komai said.

“The newspapers were like running a newspaper in a high school,” Komai said. “Supposedly you are writing autonomously, but the truth is you don’t.”

Camp reporters were forbidden from printing stories about controversial issues, such as a riot that occurred at the Manzanar camp in California and whether Japanese Americans should enlist in the Army, Komai said.