Editing War Relocation Authority (section)

==Life in the camps==
[[Image:AnselAdamsManzanarletter1.jpg|thumb|A homemade planter and a doily beside a service portrait, a prayer, and a letter home. One of the few ways to earn permission to leave the camps was to enter military service.]]

Life in a WRA camp was difficult. Those fortunate enough to find a job worked long hours, usually in agricultural jobs.  Resistance to camp guards and escape attempts were a low priority for most of the Japanese Americans held in the camps. Residents were more often concerned with the problems of day-to-day life: improving their often shoddily-constructed living quarters, getting an education, and, in some cases, preparing for eventual release. Many of those who were employed, particularly those with responsible or absorbing jobs, made these jobs the focus of their lives. However, the pay rate was deliberately set far lower than what inmates would have received outside camp, an administrative response to widespread rumors that Japanese Americans were receiving special treatment while the larger public suffered from wartime shortages. Non-skilled labor earned $14/month while doctors and dentists made a paltry $19/month.<ref name=Robinson/>

Many found consolation in religion, and both Christian and Buddhist services were held regularly.  Others concentrated on hobbies or sought self-improvement by taking adult classes, ranging from Americanization and American history and government to vocational courses in secretarial skills and bookkeeping, and cultural courses in such things as [[ikebana]], Japanese flower arrangement. The young people spent much of their time in recreational pursuits: news of sports, theatrics, and dances fills the pages of the camp newspaper.{{r|Daniels 2004|pages= 70-71}}

Living space was minimal. Families lived in army-style barracks partitioned into "apartments" with walls that usually did not reach the ceiling. These "apartments" were, at the largest, {{convert|20|by|24|ft|spell=in}} and were expected to house a family of six. In April 1943, the Topaz camp averaged {{convert|114|sqft}} (roughly {{convert|6|by|19|ft|spell=in|disp=sqbr}}) per person.{{r|Daniels 2004|page=67 }}

Each inmate ate at one of several common mess halls, assigned by block. At the [[Internment of Japanese Americans#DOJ and Army incarceration camps|Army-run camps]] that housed dissidents and other "troublemakers", it was estimated that it cost 38.19 cents per day (${{Formatprice|{{Inflation|US|0.3819|1943}}}} in present-day terms{{Inflation-fn|US}}) to feed each person. The WRA spent slightly more, capping per-person costs to 50 cents a day (${{Formatprice|{{Inflation|US|0.50|1943}}}} in present-day terms{{Inflation-fn|US}}) (again, to counteract rumors of "coddling" the inmates), but most people were able to supplement their diets with food grown in camp.<ref name=Robinson/>{{r|Daniels 2004|page=67 }}

The WRA allowed Japanese Americans to establish a form of [[self-governance]], with elected inmate leaders working under administration supervisors to help run the camps. This allowed inmates to keep busy and have some say in their day-to-day life; however, it also served the WRA mission of "Americanizing" the inmates so that they could be assimilated into white communities after the war. The "enemy alien" [[Issei]] were excluded from running for office, and inmates and community analysts argued that the WRA pulled the strings on important issues, leaving only the most basic and inconsequential decisions to Nisei leaders.<ref name=Robinson/>