Social Work in the Camps

Welfare programs took months to develop in the War Relocation Authority camps. When aid finally reach the impoverished, it proved not only inadequate, but delivered through a Kafkaesque system designed to uphold the “radically abnormal” economic structure of the camps. Many conflicting factors were at play. Public assistance was a new phenomenon for the Nikkei; the deep reluctance to accept aid was slow to ebb and never entirely jettisoned. The concentration camps were, however, costly places to live; while subsistence food, shelter, and basic medical care were provided, private funds were necessary to purchase all else required for daily living. While the Nikkei Welfare Section workers believed public assistance was necessary reparation rather than unearned charity, a deeply held censure of aid—lest it breed dependency, fund the undeserving, coddle the enemy—existed on the part of the Caucasian administrators. Even the begrudgingly doled and unequivocally insufficient aid was difficult to obtain.