Camp Harmony

[1] Camp Harmony was established in May 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's subsequent Executive Order 9066, which authorized the eviction of Japanese Americans from the West Coast.

It consisted of four distinct areas: The barracks "apartments" were designed to allow 50 square feet of space per individual, with one small window, a single electrical socket and a wood stove.

[1] In May and June 1942, just under 100 Japanese Americans left Camp Harmony to find work or attend school outside the exclusion zone, or to repatriate to Japan.

The Puyallup Fairgrounds were then occupied by the U.S. Army 943rd Signal Service Battalion until they were transferred to Fort Lewis, Washington in December.

Five years later, on August 21, 1983, Governor John Spellman and Washington state representatives dedicated a sculpture by George Tsutakawa as a memorial to those confined at the wartime detention site.