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{ "url_title": "Block managers", "title_sort": "blockmanagers", "links": { "json": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Block%20managers/?format=api", "html": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Block%20managers?format=api" }, "modified": "2020-07-06T16:30:00", "title": "Block managers", "body": "<div class=\"mw-parser-output\">\n <p>\n Individuals appointed by\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/War_Relocation_Authority/\" title=\"War Relocation Authority\">\n War Relocation Authority\n </a>\n (WRA) camp administrators to carry out bureaucratic tasks in each block and to be its liaison. Block managers were chosen based on their leadership capabilities, willingness to do the job, and perceived \"loyalty.\" Despite their status as \"aliens ineligible to citizenship,\" many\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Issei/\" title=\"Issei\">\n Issei\n </a>\n were chosen as block managers given their prewar status and bilingual ability, though many managers were\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Kibei/\" title=\"Kibei\">\n Kibei\n </a>\n or\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Nisei/\" title=\"Nisei\">\n Nisei\n </a>\n as well. Block managers were generally paid staff positions, albeit at meager WRA wages.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n [1]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <p>\n Their duties included such tasks as the distribution of supplies and materials such as lumber, light bulbs, cleaning supplies and the like; handling incoming and outgoing mail; general maintenance and appearance of the block; and communication of block concerns to management, and management dictates to the inmates. In some cases, block managers also presided over\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Block_councils/\" title=\"Block councils\">\n block councils\n </a>\n , informal bodies consisting of representatives from the various barracks within a block. In some camps, block managers also met regularly as a group. Later in the war, some camps allowed block managers to be elected.\n </p>\n <p>\n Depending on the camp and the block, block managers could be seen as powerful figures, administration lackeys, or a combination of both. Writer and playwright Hiroshi Kashiwagi, appointed a block manager at Tule Lake, looked back and reflected that \"... the block managers had little or no voice in the scheme of things. The Administration's primary interest was to see that the block managers clearly understood their directives that they would then convey to the residents. In that sense, the block manager was not much more than a messenger and a convenient tool of the Administration..\" In some cases where distrust of camp administration was high, block manager positions could be difficult to fill.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-2\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-2\">\n [2]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <div id=\"authorByline\">\n <b>\n Authored by\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"/Brian_Niiya/\" title=\"Brian Niiya\">\n Brian Niiya\n </a>\n , Densho\n </b>\n </div>\n <div id=\"citationAuthor\" style=\"display:none;\">\n Niiya, Brian\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n For More Information\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Cates, Rita Takahashi. \"Comparative Administration and Management of Five War Relocation Authority Camps: America's Incarceration of Persons of Japanese Descent during World War II.\" PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1980.\n </p>\n <p>\n Hayashi, Brian Masaru.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/democratizingene00haya\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n Democratizing the Enemy: The Japanese American Internment\n </i>\n </a>\n . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.\n </p>\n <p>\n McVoy, Edgar C. \"Social Process in the War Relocation Center.\"\n <i>\n Social Forces\n </i>\n 22 (Dec. 1943): 188–90.\n </p>\n <p>\n Spicer, Edward H., Asael T. Hansen, Katharine Luomala, and Marvin K. Opler.\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/impoundedpeoplej00spic\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n Impounded People: Japanese Americans in the Relocation Centers\n </i>\n .\n </a>\n Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1969.\n </p>\n <p>\n Taylor, Sandra C.\n <i>\n Jewel of the Desert: Japanese American Internment at Topaz\n </i>\n . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n Footnotes\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <div class=\"reflist\" style=\"list-style-type: decimal;\">\n <div class=\"mw-references-wrap\">\n <ol class=\"references\">\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n The makeup of the block managers varied greatly from camp to camp. While Issei and Kibei predominated at Manzanar, block managers at Heart Mountain were all Nisei. For Manzanar, see Brian Masaru Hayashi,\n <i>\n Democratizing the Enemy: The Japanese American Internment\n </i>\n (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), p. 110; for Heart Mountain, see Rita Takahashi Cates, \"Comparative Administration and Management of Five War Relocation Authority Camps: America's Incarceration of Persons of Japanese Descent during World War II\" (PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1980), p. 376.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-2\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-2\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Hiroshi Kashiwagi,\n <i>\n Swimming in the American: A Memoir and Selected Writings\n </i>\n (San Mateo, Calif.: Asian American Curriculum Project, 2005), 96.\n </span>\n </li>\n </ol>\n </div>\n </div>\n <!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCached time: 20230521153401\nCache expiry: 86400\nDynamic content: false\nComplications: []\nCPU time usage: 0.011 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.016 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 82/1000000\nPost‐expand include size: 514/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 58/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 5/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0/100\nUnstrip recursion depth: 0/20\nUnstrip post‐expand size: 1270/5000000 bytes\nExtLoops count: 0\n-->\n <!--\nTransclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)\n100.00% 12.407 1 -total\n 19.27% 2.391 1 Template:Reflist\n 10.77% 1.337 1 Template:AuthorByline\n 10.66% 1.323 1 Template:Published\n-->\n <!-- Saved in parser cache with key encycmw:pcache:idhash:1570-0!canonical and timestamp 20230521153401 and revision id 30433\n -->\n </div>\n </div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"toplink\">\n <a href=\"#top\">\n <i class=\"icon-chevron-up\">\n </i>\n Top\n </a>\n</div>", "categories": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/categories/Definitions/?format=api" ], "sources": [], "coordinates": {}, "authors": [ "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/authors/Brian%20Niiya/?format=api" ], "ddr_topic_terms": [], "prev_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Block%20councils/?format=api", "next_page": "http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Blood%20Hina%20(book)/?format=api" }