Rooms 211 & 213
View of the south wall (background) and east wall (left) of Room 211.
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1910-1912 | Chinese Women’s Dormitory
1912-1915 | Japanese Men’s Dormitory
1915-1940 | Men’s Dormitory
1942-1945 | POW Dayroom
Chinese women are believed to have been detained in Room 211 until 1912. For the two years afterward, Japanese men were held here. It became a multinational men’s dormitory by 1915. Inscriptions reveal that immigrants from Russia, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Denmark, Tahiti, and present-day Bangladesh, Belarus, Moldova, Pakistan, and Ukraine were detained together. During World War I, this room was used to intern German sailors captured off the US coast. German sailors returned to this room in 1939 when the crew of the SS Columbus was held on Angel Island.
View of the west wall (background) and south wall (left) of Room 213.
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1910-1912 | Chinese Women’s Sitting Room
1912-1940 | Men’s Dormitory
1942-1945 | Japanese POW Dormitory
Designed to be a sitting room for Chinese women, Room 213 became an additional men’s dormitory to accommodate the increasing number of European immigrants entering the Pacific through the Panama Canal. Immigrants from China, Japan, Pakistan, Nicaragua, and modern-day Ukraine all left their marks on the walls.
