Abstract
This study attempts to explore how the Japanese-Amierican camp newspaper covered the first winter holiday season in evacuation camps. Specifically, this study conducts a qualitative analysis of the three camp newspaper, the Topaz Times (Utah), the Manzanar Free Press (California), and the Heart Mountain Sentinel (Wyoming). This study concludes that, although their holiday coverage was essentially constrained by the framework of the camp authority's enlightenment and Americanization policies, they also exposed some negative aspects of in-camp holiday celebrations. These newspapers acknowledged that the winter season of 1942 was far from the ordinary one and also articulated that evacuees were developing bitter-sweet, ambivalent feelings about "celebrating" inherently the most festive moments of a year behind barbed wires. This dual character must not be ignored for more complete understanding of the camp papers' editorial activities.
