Shelley, Idaho farm labor camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073778-D.
(1 of 20)
Twin Falls, Idaho farm labor camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073771-D.
(2 of 20)
Rupert, Idaho farm labor camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073909-D.
(3 of 20)
Nyssa, Oregon farm labor camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073602-D.
(4 of 20)
A worker at the Twin Falls camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073759-D.
(5 of 20)
Housing at the Rupert camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073843-D.
(6 of 20)
Child living at the Shelley camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073787-D.
(7 of 20)
Cleaning pots and pans at the Twin Falls camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073757-D.
(8 of 20)
Pictured clockwise from the bottom left: Jack, Shizuko, Henry, Thomas, Kiuda, Shizuyo, Mary, and Rosie Ouchida at the Nyssa camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073354-D.
(9 of 20)
Housing at the Twin Falls camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073768-D.
(10 of 20)
Cooking rice at the Shelley camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073801-D.
(11 of 20)
Preparing lunch at the Rupert camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073844-D.
(12 of 20)
Dr. Louie Maulding administering a vaccination to Yasu Teramura at the Nyssa camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073345-D.
(13 of 20)
Farm laborers from the Twin Falls camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073809-E.
(14 of 20)
Laborer from the Rupert camp moving irrigated water, July 1942. LC-USF34-073923-E.
(15 of 20)
Laborers from the Nyssa camp, July 1942. LC-USF33-013305-M1.
(16 of 20)
May Uchiyama at the Nyssa camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073699-E.
(17 of 20)
Worker hoeing sugar beets near the Shelley labor camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073828-E.
(18 of 20)
Workers from the Rupert camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073890-D.
(19 of 20)
Pictured left to right: Anne Morishita, Nancy Morishita, Dorothy Iwasaki, Rose Iwasaki, and Kay Morishita at the Nyssa camp, July 1942. LC-USF34-073607-D.
(20 of 20)

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066,
the instrument that authorized the forced removal and incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans. Denied their civil liberties, they were held in camps operated by the War Relocation Authority. Between 1942 and 1944, some 33,000 individual contracts were issued for seasonal farm labor, with many working in the sugar beet industry.
This exhibit introduces their story.

The Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission has collected more than a dozen oral history interviews with those who lived in farm labor camps. This video features excerpts from these interviews, sharing first hand accounts of the Japanese American wartime experience and life in the labor camps.

All Videos

Recent News

Press Coverage

  “Born in an internment camp for Japanese Americans, she fears Muslims face a similar fate today,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 5, 2017 “What to see in L.A. galleries: World War II farm labor camp photography and more,” Los Angeles Times, …

Read Full Article

“The Camp Without A Fence”

On February 28, the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center hosted a program in Portland. Our curator, Morgen Young, presented a history of the Nyssa, Oregon farm labor camp, which in July 1942 became known as “the camp without a fence,” thanks …

Read Full Article
Featured Story

James Tanaka

View Full Profile

“In May, when the thinning and blocking of sugar beets took place, we left and went to Twin Falls farm labor camp.”

Twin Falls, Idaho farm labor camp

All Stories

Twitter data error: Could not authenticate you.
  • RT @DenshoProject: So are we surprised that homegrown white supremacist hate groups are terrorizing Americans? Sadly, no. Are we angry about? Hell yes we are.