Densho Encyclopedia
Stringtown (detention facility)
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| US Gov Name | Stringtown Internment Camp |
|---|---|
| Facility Type | U.S. Army Internment Camp |
| Administrative Agency | U.S. Army |
| Location | Stringtown, Oklahoma (34.4667 lat, -96.0500 lng) |
| Date Opened | |
| Date Closed | |
| Population Description | Held German internees and POWs and possibly Issei |
| General Description | Located 5 miles north of Stringtown in southern Oklahoma. Currently a medium-security facility, the Mack Alford Correctional Center. |
| Peak Population | |
| National Park Service Info | |
Detention site in Atoka County, Oklahoma, that held German internees and POWs during World War II. Built in 1933 as an annex to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Stringtown became the Oklahoma State Technical Institute in 1937. In 1942, a group of German internees were moved to Stringtown from Ft. Lincoln, North Dakota. In his study of the Ft. Lincoln detention camp, John Christgau wrote that Stringtown had "a penitentiary atmosphere, with smashed windows, cockroaches, and worst of all, pro-Nazi radicals." Tetsuden Kashima writes that Stringtown held "at least" 176 Issei in 1942, the only mention of Issei being held there. No further information on who these Issei could be found. Stringtown later held naval prisoners of war. After the war, it reverted to being a prison and is now the site of the Mack Alford Correctional Center, a medium security prison. [1]
Footnotes
- ↑ Barbara Wyatt, ed., Japanese Americans in World War II: National Historic Landmarks Theme Study (Washington, D.C.: National Historic Landmarks Program, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2012), 189; John Christgau, "Enemies": World War II Alien Internment (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1985; Lincoln, Nebraska: Authors Choice Press, 2001), 84; Tetsuden Kashima, Judgment Without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment during World War II (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002), 257n32, 259n36.
Last updated July 6, 2021, 9:33 p.m..
