The shooter, Private First Class Clarence Burleson, was charged with murder, but this was later reduced to manslaughter and he was acquitted after testifying that he was following military protocol.

Construction began shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the site chosen for the facility was just outside the small desert town of Lordsburg, in New Mexico's southwestern corner.

Although the Department of Justice managed the camp, the United States Army was responsible for delivering the internees via the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Fukujiro Hoshiya, a good friend of Isomura, reported that "he hurt his spine... years ago, falling off a boat... At the Bismarck Camp [North Dakota], he walked with a very much stoop."

The coroner later found nine pellets each in the middle left portion of their backs, and since the shot pattern was not very wide, it was an indication that the shooting occurred at close range.

As a result, Burleson was eventually arrested, charged with "willfully and lawfully" committing murder, and then sent to the Eighth Army's headquarters at Fort Bliss, Texas, for a court martial.

The Government of Japan under Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō also protested the killing, after hearing about it from internees who had been expatriated, and lodged a formal complaint.

"[1][4] A Japanese internee, Sematsu Ishizaki, claimed that the camp's commandant, Colonel Clyde Lundy, ordered the deaths of Kobata and Isomura.

Apparently, the two men had been involved in a protest against the working conditions at the camp and Lundy wanted to make an example out of them for challenging his authority.

[2] Presently, barracks, concrete, and foundations of some of the buildings at the camp can still be visited, in addition to a historical marker that is located near the site.