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United States · Arizona

Gila River War Relocation Center

Low
Verified
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on

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Photograph of Gila River War Relocation Center

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • "Table 1. Wartime Properties Identified in Public Law 102-248" (PART 1), from- Japanese Americans in World War II, a National Historic Landmark theme study (page 15 crop).jpg

    Photo by United States National Park Service via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Minidoka (Hunt), Gila River, Rohwer, Granada (Amache), Poston (Colorado River), Jerome War Relocation Centers 2010 (page 2 crop).jpg

    Photo by United States National Park Service via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Butte and Canal Camp Ruins.jpg

    Photo by Technodivva via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Canal Camp Monument.jpg

    Photo by Steven Jarrett Bernstein via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

  • NPS internment-camp-map.gif

    Photo by U.S. National Park Service, restoration/cleanup by National Park Maps (https://npmaps.com) via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

  • Sacaton-Japanese Relocation Camp Ruins-1.JPG

    Photo by Marine 69-71 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Sacaton-Japanese Relocation Camp Ruins-3.JPG

    Photo by Marine 69-71 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Sacaton-Japanese Relocation Camp Ruins-4.JPG

    Photo by Marine 69-71 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Background

The Gila River War Relocation Center was an American concentration camp in Arizona, one of several built by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) during the Second World War for the incarceration of Japanese Americans from the West Coast of the United States. It was located within the Gila River Indian Reservation (over their objections) near the town of Sacaton, about 30 mi (48.3 km) southeast of Phoenix. With a peak population of 13,348, it became the fourth-largest city in the state, operating from May 1942 to November 16, 1945.

Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.

Capacity

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Current population

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Occupancy

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Year opened

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Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 29 May 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Operator

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Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

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Region

Arizona

Security level

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Death-row facility

No

Conditions

No conditions summary available yet.

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Notable inmates

  • Miiko Taka
    Miiko Taka
    1925–2023 · actor

    Miiko Taka (高美以子, Taka Miiko) (born Miiko Shikata July 24, 1925 – January 4, 2023) was an American actress, popular for her film and television roles from the late 1950s until the early 1980s.

  • Paul Terasaki
    Paul Terasaki
    1929–2016 · surgeon
  • Evelyn Nakano Glenn
    1950 · sociologist

    Evelyn Seiko Nakano Glenn is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

  • Nao Takasugi
    Nao Takasugi
    1922–2009 · politician

    Naoyuki Takasugi (高杉 直行, Takasugi Naoyuki; April 5, 1922 – November 19, 2009) was an American politician from California, a member of the Republican Party, and a survivor of the Japanese American internment camps.

  • Michi Weglyn
    1926–1999 · writer

    Michi Nishiura Weglyn (Japanese: 西浦 道子, November 29, 1926 – April 25, 1999) was an American author.

  • James Takemori
    1926–2015 · judoka

    James Haruyuki Takemori (Japanese: 竹森 晴行, February 3, 1926 – May 15, 2015) was an American judoka and World War II veteran.

  • George Hoshida
    1907–1985 · artist

    George Yoshio Hoshida (1907, Japan-1985, Hawaii) was a Japanese American artist known for his drawings made during World War II, when he was incarcerated in three US internment camps and two Justice Department camps between 1942 and 1945.

  • George Aratani
    1917–2013 · businessperson

    George Tetsuo Aratani (荒谷 哲夫, Aratani Tetsuo; May 22, 1917 – February 19, 2013) was a Japanese American entrepreneur, philanthropist and the founder of Mikasa china and owner of the Kenwood Electronics corporation.

  • Roy Murotsune
    1925–2021 · proprietor

Showing 9 of 12. Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

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Data completeness

16%

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Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Gila River War Relocation Center. Retrieved October 23, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/gila-river-war-relocation-center
Chicago
"Gila River War Relocation Center." World Prisons. Accessed October 23, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/gila-river-war-relocation-center.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-gila-river-war-relocation-c,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Gila River War Relocation Center},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/gila-river-war-relocation-center},
  urldate = {2026-10-23}
}