Densho Encyclopedia
Camp Blanding (detention facility)
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| US Gov Name | Camp Blanding Internment Camp |
|---|---|
| Facility Type | U.S. Army Internment Camp |
| Administrative Agency | U.S. Army |
| Location | Starke, Florida (29.9333 lat, -82.1000 lng) |
| Date Opened | |
| Date Closed | |
| Population Description | Held German Latin Americans and German POWs |
| General Description | U.S. Army Internment Camp located in Starke, Florida, southwest of Jacksonville, in northeast Florida. |
| Peak Population | |
| National Park Service Info | |
A large army training center in north-central Florida during World War II—among those who trained there were some Nisei destined for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team or Military Intelligence Service —Camp Blanding also had a separate compound that held around three hundred German Latin American internees in the spring and summer of 1942. In Judgment Without Trial , Tetsuden Kashima cites documents noting five "Japanese" also interned there. There is no further information on who these "Japanese" internees were, whether Japanese Latin American , local resident Issei , or others. Later in the war, Camp Blanding was the site of a large camp for German POWs, with over 4,000 having been held there.
For More Information
Robert D. Billinger Jr. "With the Wehrmacht in Florida: The German POW Facility at Camp Blanding, 1942–1946." The Florida Historical Quarterly 58.2 (Oct. 1979): 160–73.
George E. Cressman, Jr. "Camp Blanding Station Hospital in the War Years." The Florida Historical Quarterly 93.4 (Spring 2015), 553–86.
Kashima, Tetsuden. Judgment Without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment during World War II . Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002.
Last updated July 6, 2021, 9:27 p.m..
