DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, out there in Karnes County. December 7, 1941. The Empire of Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and just like that, the United States is in a world war.
And the U.S. government — still reeling, still scrambling — starts making decisions that will mark this country for generations. One of those decisions: incarcerate more than 120,000 Issei and Nisei. Now, Issei means first generation — Japanese immigrants.
Nisei means second generation — U.S. citizens, born right here on American soil. Into war relocation authority camps they went, scattered across the country. But that was only part of it.
Through separate confinement programs, thousands of Japanese, German, and Italian citizens living in the United States — and in many cases their U.S. citizen relatives — were classified as enemy aliens. The Department of Justice ran this through something called its enemy alien control unit. The Department of State had its own operation called the special war problems division, working in Latin America.
Enemy aliens were held until they were paroled, or exchanged for U.S. and allied citizens seized overseas by axis nations. Now, Texas had a particular role to play in all of this. The state hosted three Department of Justice confinement sites, administered by the Immigration and Naturalization Service — the INS — at Crystal City, at Seagoville, and right here in Kenedy.
And if that weren't enough, there were also two U.S. Army temporary detention stations operating out of Fort Sam Houston and Fort Bliss. This patch of ground in Karnes County had already lived a few lives before the war found it.
Camp Kenedy had served as a World War I training camp. Then it became a Civilian Conservation Corps camp — a CCC camp. And in March of 1942, it transferred from the CCC to the INS, and the nature of the place changed entirely.
April 21, 1942. The first detainees arrived — primarily adult males from Latin American republics. The site had accommodations for 1,200 internees and a staff of 84.
In practice, the population averaged closer to 600 internees per month. They had access to large athletic fields and a garden outside the fence — small dignities in a confined world. The INS ceased operation of the facility in September 1944.
The remaining internees were transferred to other camps, paroled, or repatriated. And then — here's where this ground shifts one more time — after the enemy alien detention station closed, the site became a German prisoner of war camp, and later a Japanese enemy prisoner of war camp. One piece of Texas earth.
A training camp, a conservation camp, a detention site, a prisoner of war camp. The marker stands in Karnes County, and it doesn't let you look away from any of it.
What the marker says
Shocked by the December 7, 1941, Empire of Japan attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii that propelled the U.S. into World War II, one U.S. Government response was the incarceration of more than 120,000 Issei (first generation, Japanese immigrants) and Nisei (second generation, U.S. citizens) in war relocation authority camps across the country. Through separate confinement programs, thousands of Japanese, German, and Italian citizens in the U.S. (and in many cases, their U.S. citizen relatives), classified as enemy aliens, were detained by the Department of Justice (DOJ) through its enemy alien control unit, and, in Latin America, by the Department of State's special war problems division. Enemy aliens were held until paroled or exchanged for U.S.. and allied citizens seized overseas by axis nations. Texas hosted three DOJ confinement sites, administered by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) at Crystal City, Seagoville, and here, as well as two U.S. army temporary detention stations at Fort Sam Houston and Fort Bliss. Previously Camp Kenedy served as a World War I training camp and later as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp In March 1942, the site transferred from the CCC to the INS. On April 21, 1942, the confinement site's first detainees arrived -- primarily adult males from Latin American republics. The site had accommodations for 1,200 internees and a staff of 84; however, the population averaged closer to 600 internees per month. Detainees had access to large athletic fields and a garden outside the fence. The INS ceased operation of the facility in September 1944 and the remaining internees were transferred to other camps, paroled, or repatriated. After the enemy alien detention station closed the site became a German, and later a Japanese enemy prisoner of war camp. Texas in World War II - 2013