Current:Home > StocksAncestry website to catalogue names of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II -FundPrime
Ancestry website to catalogue names of Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II
View
Date:2025-04-17 11:53:50
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The names of thousands of people held in Japanese American incarceration camps during World War II will be digitized and made available for free, genealogy company Ancestry announced Wednesday.
The website, known as one of the largest global online resources of family history, is collaborating with the Irei Project, which has been working to memorialize more than 125,000 detainees. It’s an ideal partnership as the project’s researchers were already utilizing Ancestry. Some of the site’s collections include nearly 350,000 records.
People will be able to look at more than just names and tell “a bigger story of a person,” said Duncan Ryūken Williams, the Irei Project director.
“Being able to research and contextualize a person who has a longer view of family history and community history, and ultimately, American history, that’s what it’s about — this collaboration,” Williams told told The Associated Press exclusively.
In response to the 1941 attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, to allow for the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry. The thousands of citizens — two-thirds of whom were Americans — were unjustly forced to leave their homes and relocate to camps with barracks and barbed wire. Some detainees went on to enlist in the U.S. military.
Through Ancestry, people will be able to tap into scanned documents from that era such as military draft cards, photographs from WWII and 1940s and ’50s Census records. Most of them will be accessible outside of a paywall.
Williams, a religion professor at the University of Southern California and a Buddhist priest, says Ancestry will have names that have been assiduously spell-checked. Irei Project researchers went to great efforts to verify names that were mangled on government camp rosters and other documents.
“So, our project, we say it’s a project of remembrance as well as a project of repair,” Williams said. “We try to correct the historical record.”
The Irei Project debuted a massive book at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles that contains a list of verified names the week of Feb. 19, which is a Day of Remembrance for the Japanese American Community. The book, called the Ireichō, will be on display until Dec. 1. The project also launched its own website with the names as well as light installations at old camp sites and the museum.
veryGood! (12)
Related
- The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
- Angels hiring Ron Washington as manager: 71-year-old won two AL titles with Rangers
- You’ll Be Stoked to See Chase Stokes and Kelsea Ballerini’s Date Night on CMA Awards Red Carpet
- Olympic skater's doping saga drags on with hearing Thursday. But debacle is far from over.
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- At trial, man accused of assaulting woman at US research station in Antarctica denies hurting her
- Former Louisiana House speaker chosen as Gov.-elect Jeff Landry’s chief budget adviser
- Biden administration picks Maryland for new FBI headquarters, AP sources say
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- 3 charged with running sex ring that catered to elected officials, other wealthy clients
Ranking
- Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds
- Are Americans burned out on dating apps?
- Costa Rica’s $6 million National Bank heist was an inside job, authorities say
- Hollywood actors strike is over as union reaches tentative deal with studios
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- Kyler Murray is back. His return could foreshadow a messy future for the Cardinals.
- Watch Bachelor in Paradise's Eliza Isichei Approach Aaron Bryant About His Ex-Girlfriend Drama
- With Chiefs on bye week, could Travis Kelce go see Taylor Swift as Eras Tour resumes?
Recommendation
'No Good Deed': Who's the killer in the Netflix comedy? And will there be a Season 2?
Robert De Niro attends closing arguments in civil trial over claims by ex-VP, personal assistant
Family in 'living hell' after California woman vanishes on yoga retreat in Guatemala
Virginia Democrats sweep legislative elections, delivering a blow Gov. Glenn Youngkin's plan for a GOP trifecta
North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
Krispy Kreme wants to gift you a dozen donuts on World Kindness Day. No strings attached.
Michigan RB Blake Corum: 'I don't have any businesses with Connor (Stalions)'
Mount St. Helens records more than 400 earthquakes since mid-July, but no signs of imminent eruption