Kenedy Enemy Alien Detention Site, World War II
Kenedy, Karnes County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Shocked by the December 7, 1941, Empire of Japan attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii that propelled the U.S. into World War II, one U.S. Government response was the incarceration of more than 120,000 Issei (first generation, Japanese immigrants) and Nisei (second generation, U.S. citizens) in war relocation authority camps across the country. Through separate confinement programs, thousands of Japanese, German, and Italian citizens in the U.S. (and in many cases, their U.S. citizen relatives), classified as enemy aliens, were detained by the Department of Justice (DOJ) through its enemy alien control unit, and, in Latin America, by the Department of State's special war problems division. Enemy aliens were held until paroled or exchanged for U.S.. and allied citizens seized overseas by axis nations. Texas hosted three DOJ confinement sites, administered by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) at Crystal City, Seagoville, and here, as well as two U.S. army temporary detention stations at Fort Sam Houston and Fort Bliss. Previously Camp Kenedy served as a World War I training camp and later as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp In March 1942, the site transferred from the CCC to the INS. On April 21, 1942, the confinement site's first detainees arrived -- primarily adult males from Latin American republics. The site had accommodations for 1,200 internees and a staff of 84; however, the population averaged closer to 600 internees per month. Detainees had access to large athletic fields and a garden outside the fence. The INS ceased operation of the facility in September 1944 and the remaining internees were transferred to other camps, paroled, or repatriated. After the enemy alien detention station closed the site became a German, and later a Japanese enemy prisoner of war camp. Texas in World War II - 2013
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into World War II, the government detained tens of thousands of people it classified as 'enemy aliens' — Japanese, German, and Italian nationals, many seized in Latin America, along with U.S.-citizen relatives. Texas hosted several confinement sites, and Camp Kenedy, a former WWI training camp and Civilian Conservation Corps site, was converted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1942. Its first detainees, largely men from Latin American republics, arrived that April; the camp held internees until 1944, when it became a prisoner-of-war camp.
Why it matters
Kenedy is a stark reminder that wartime incarceration reached beyond the well-known Japanese American relocation camps to sweep up German, Italian, and Latin American detainees, raising enduring questions about civil liberties in wartime.
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Related events
- · Attack on Pearl Harbor
- · World War II enemy alien detention
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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During World War II the United States interned not only its own residents of German, Japanese, and Italian ancestry but also civilians seized from Latin American nations, holding many as bargaining chips to exchange for Americans trapped overseas. The camp at Kenedy opened in April 1942 and passed more than 3,500 internees through its fences over thirty months before becoming a branch prisoner-of-war camp for Fort Sam Houston. Five people who died in confinement lie buried here, their graves marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1976 and the ground designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2005.
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