Ancestry Website to Document Names of Japanese Americans Interned During WWII

Ancestry to Digitize Names of Japanese American WWII Camp Detainees

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ancestry, a leading genealogy company, has announced a groundbreaking collaboration with the Irei Project to digitize the names of thousands of people held in Japanese American incarceration camps during World War II. This initiative aims to make these records freely accessible to the public.

The Irei Project, which has been working tirelessly to memorialize over 125,000 detainees, is an ideal partner for Ancestry as its researchers were already utilizing the platform. This collaboration will allow people to delve deeper into the lives of those affected by the unjust incarceration during WWII.

Duncan Ryūken Williams, the director of the Irei Project, emphasized the importance of telling a comprehensive story of each individual beyond just their names. Through Ancestry, users will have access to scanned documents from that era, including military draft cards, WWII photographs, and Census records from the 1940s and 1950s.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, signed in response to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, led to the forced relocation of thousands of Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were American citizens. This collaboration between Ancestry and the Irei Project aims to correct the historical record and honor the memory of those who were unjustly detained.

The Irei Project recently unveiled a massive book at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, containing verified names of detainees. This initiative coincided with the Day of Remembrance for the Japanese American Community and will be on display until December 1. Additionally, the project launched a website and light installations at former camp sites and the museum to further commemorate this dark chapter in American history.