Poston

Evacuation
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9055 on February 19, 1942. This
executive order authorized the secretary of war or any military commander
designated by the secretary to establish zones from which any or all persons could
be excluded or evacuated. 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry living in strategic
western states were evacuated and interned by military law in fifteen (15) wartime
civilian control administration (WCCA) centers. These hastily built detention centers
were, in most cases, either fair grounds or race tracks that were surrounded by
barbed wire fences and placed under heavy military surveillance by armed U.S. soldiers.

War Relocation Authority
On March 18, 1842, Presiden Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9102,
establishing the war relocation authority (WRA). The WRA was a civilian agency
charged with overseeing the military evacuation and internment of Americans of
Japanese ancestry, the WRA devined a war relocation center as a pioneer community
with basic housing and protective services provided by the Federal Government for the
internees for the duration of World War II.

Poston
Poston was one of the ten (10) WRA centers constructed in 1942. It was planned in
cooperation with the U.S. Indian Service, as it was sited on the Colorado River Indian
Reservation, a hot and arid area of Arizona. Poston was built as three separate units
(Poston Unit I, II and III). The facility was named after Charles Poston, a government
engineer who planned an irrigation system to serve the needs of the Indian people
along the Colorado River. Wade Head, the superintendent of the Papago Indian
Reservation of Arizona, was appointed Poston Project Director. The internees with
their limited baggage began to arrive on May 6, 1942 and by August 1942
the population peaked at 17,867. Almost overnight Poston
became Arizona's second largest city.