Historical information about the wartime imprisonment of the people of Japanese ancestry at one of America's concentration camps, called the "Colorado River Relocation Center".
NOTE: "Colorado River" (also called Poston) was the name frequently used by the WRA.
Selected reportable diseases are compiled from monthly Public Health Reports, Form WRA-242, submitted by centers. While most of the material is taken from a section called Communicable Diseases, additional information for such diseases as syphilis, tuberculosis, coccidiomycosis and food poisoning has been obtained from a section on hospitalization and from the narrative section; this has not been attempted for such diseases as pneumonia and influenza. Additional information for typhoid fever, dysentery and cerebrospinal meningitis has been collected from causes of death on death certificates. No information except number of cases, center, and date of report is available.
The first center reports cover the month of Oct 1942 for all centers except Gila River which series begins with Nov, and Colorado River, which did not submit a report until it came under the exclusive jurisdiction of WRA in July 1943. For centers other than Colorado River, the time uncovered prior to submission of the first report ranges from 0 months to 4. Last reports for 2 of the centers and one 6 months (Tule Lake). Exclusive of Jerome whose last report covers the month of closure, 4 of the last reports are for Sept 1945 (Central Utah, Heart Mountain, Minidoka and Tule Lake), and 5 are for Oct (Colorado River, Gila River, Granada, Manzanar and Rohwer).
Variation in which diseases were reported and in the completeness of reporting is evident here as it is country-wide. The following examples are cited:
Syphilis: All 412 cases were reported by 7 centers.
Gonococcus Infection: Of the 52 cases, 44 were reported by Minidoka.
Tuberculosis: The number of cases reported ranged from 153 from Colorado River to 10 from Tule Lake.
Influenza: Minidoka and Tule Lake did not report cases and of the 2,197 reported in 1943, 1,146 were from Central Utah and 888 from Jerome.
Pneumonia: Manzanar and Minidoka did not report cases.
Conjunctivitis: Jerome reported 394 cases with only 3 other centers reporting any cases (Colorado River 145, Minidoka 3, Rohwer 10, and Tule Lake 6).
Dermatophytosis: All 109 cases reported in 1944 were from Colorado River.
Coccidiomycosis: The 30 cases were hospitalized at Gila River in 1942.
Trachoma: Heart Mountain did not report any cases and Colorado River reported 30.
Typhoid fever: 2 cases were reported from Jerome (Aug & Sept 1943) and Gila River (Sept 1942 and Aug 1943), and 1 case from Heart Mountain (Aug 1945).
Diptheria: 5 cases of diphtheria were reported from Heart Mountain, 2 from Gila River and 1 each from Jerome and Minidoka.
Malaria: 12 of the 14 cases came from Jerome with 1 each from Granada and Tule Lake.
Meningococcus meningitis: The 5 cases were reported from Gila River, Granada, Heart Mountain, Jerome and Tule Lake (2).
Poliomyelitis: 13 of the 19 cases came from Gila River, 5 from Granada and 1 from Colorado River.
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: 1 case was reported from Minidoka
Actinomycosis: 1 case of actinomycosis from Manzanar.
Food Poisoning: 199 cases in 1942 were persons hospitalized at Minidoka during Sept and Oct with the causative organism traced to the salmonella group; 53 cases at Granada in 1943 were reported to be caused by contaminated shrimp.
Source: The Evacuated People A Quantitative Description. U.S. Department of the Interior, J.A. Krug, Secretary, War Relocation Authority D.S. Myer, Director. 1946
Yamada, Kelly. Medical & Dental Clinic Business Manager camp 3
Yamamoto, Chiyeko A. Cadet nurse
Yamasaki, Robert Satoshi. Dental Clinic camp 3
Yoshida, George. Dental Clinic camp 1
Yoshimura, Kimi. Dental Clinic camp 3
Yoshimura, Yoshitaro. Dental Clinic camp 1
Dr. Perry Sumida
From 1942-1943 Dr. Perry Sumida worked at the Poston General Hospital, which was organized by 6 Nisei (2nd generation) doctors. Four had arrived from Hawaii before the internees arrived. Dr. Perry Sumida was head of the Eye Dept & Pediatrics. He returned to Honolulu in 1944.
