“Camp Life” highlights the effect that the Japanese American Internment had on gender roles within the Japanese American community.  Ironically, imprisonment and the implementation of gendered spaces served as the primary factors behind the empowerment of Japanese American women at that time.  For example, something as simple as gendered dining facilities had major repercussions in the lives of Japanese American women – in this case, it eliminated the patriarchal “head of household” which in turn decreased the amount of control that men had over their wives and daughters.  The amount of domestic work that women were responsible for completing not only decreased, but also became a source of income for them as women were paid WRA wages.  Collaborative work also became a part of everyday life which allowed for women to meet new people and form friendships outside of the home – a luxury that wasn’t afforded to them pre-imprisonment.  More importantly, the economic independence that Japanese Americans experienced as a result of incarceration served as a way for non conformists like homosexual, bisexual, and queer individuals to explore their sexuality.