I'm lookng for japanese interment camp records for a particular prisoner named Kyosaku Mizutani.?

Question

He lived in Ohio when he registered for the draft in WWI; married in Reading PA in the 1920's. Not sure which camp he was in.

Answer 1

Are you certain that he was placed in an internment camp?
Not all Japanese-Americans were placed in internment camps during WWII. (Note about poster above: being placed in an internment camp is not considered military service and neither is registering for the draft unless you are actually drafted - of course, many camp internees did later volunteer for service and fought in WWII).

Executive Order 9066 only specified the internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans who were living in the Western Defense Command area (basically the states on the Pacific coast and southern Arizona). This is where the vast majority of Japanese-Americans lived, but if Mizutani was living in the mid-west at the time, he may not have been placed in a camp. All of the major internment camps were located in the western US.

I have not seen a published listing of the internees at each camp, but I am pretty sure that many of the records probably still exist in a government archive somewhere (or through the works of later historians) especially since it would have been needed to identify who should receive reparations as part of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

I would suggest contacting the following organizations:
Japanese-American National Museum (Los Angeles)

California State University, Sacramento, CA. The Library Archives has large Japanese-American collection.

National Archives at Laguna Niguel (between San Diego and LA). Main federal archive for southern California and Arizona.

Although it does not give listings of internees, the following online document gives an excellent overview of each of the main camps:
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/anthropology74/cet.htm

Answer 2

We protect veterans’ privacy. Requests for copies of veterans’ Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF) must be authorized by original signature of the veteran or next-of-kin.

Answer 3

surf the web or ask Jeeves. com