11. The WRA camps were the creation of Milton Eisenhower, among others
In 1942 the War Relocation Authority was established by Presidential executive order as the civilian operated organization responsible for the final disposition of the Japanese Americans removed from the exclusion zones. Milton S. Eisenhower, whose brother rose to command the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe, was the first director. Eisenhower had served in the Department of Agriculture and was personally opposed to the forced relocation, based in part on what he perceived would be its impact on the agricultural work force in some critical areas and crops (particularly sugar beets). Eisenhower’s objections were ignored, and after three months at the helm of the WRA he resigned to work in the Office of War Information, which was widely involved in the preparation and propagation of propaganda for the United States’ war effort.
Eisenhower’s efforts to assist the Japanese during his brief tenure at the WRA included lobbying the Federal Reserve Bank to protect the property assets of the Japanese which were placed at jeopardy from the forced relocation. He also instituted programs to allow Japanese Americans to leave the camps under supervision to assist with agricultural harvests when labor shortages threatened them (and which led to an influx of Mexican laborers). Eisenhower was frustrated by the intransigence of several states which refused to allow the Japanese to relocate within their borders, and the opposition to his programs which would allow Japanese American college students to leave the camps in order to return to school. Eisenhower nonetheless participated in the production of a propaganda film which explained the relocation to the public, calling it a program accomplished, “with real consideration for the people involved.”