What was the official name given to the U.S. Government's incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II?

McGruff

Internment During World War II, the U.S. government adopted euphemistic terminology in describing the Japanese American incarceration to blunt the reaction to what was in truth a racist and illegal action and a wholesale abrogation of civil rights. In lay terminology the wartime incarceration was and is known as the "internment" or "evacuation," the camps as "internment camps" or "relocation centers," citizen inmates as "non-aliens." In a war in which propaganda played a vital role, this gentler wording helped the American public to feel that what the government was doing was not only reasonable, but moral and compassionate as well. In the post-war period, the phrase "concentration camp" has come to mean more than its literal definition; the words are weighted with the inhuman brutality and genocidal ambitions of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi leaders. The World War II American concentration camps were clearly distinguishable from Nazi Germany's. However, they were indeed concentration camps: places where people were imprisoned not because of any crimes they committed, but simply because of who they were. The government removed a minority group from the general population and the rest of society let it happen. The National Museum uses "concentration camps" in its official terminology because to use the government euphemisms obscures the truth. http://www.janm.org/nrc/q-a.php Mar 10 06, 2:49 PM

RaeRae55

War Relocation Authority???? Mar 10 06, 4:02 PM

lanfranco

I wonder if perhaps Rae is referring to "Executive Order 9066," which I've seen used several times as a euphemistic way to refer to the internment. I did look for an "Operation Such-and-such" term but couldn't find one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_internment Mar 10 06, 8:06 PM

BungeeAZ

I've always known them as internment camps. Mar 10 06, 11:56 PM

McGruff

March 18, 1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9102, which establishes the War Relocation Authority (WRA) within the Department for Emergency Management. The WRA is empowered “to provide for the removal from designated areas of persons whose removal is necessary in the interests of national security….” The WRA is further empowered to provide for evacuees’ relocation and their needs, to supervise their activities, and to provide for their useful employment. Milton S. Eisenhower is named director of the WRA. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/1942.htm Mar 11 06, 12:49 AM

RaeRae55

War Relocation Authority Mar 16 06, 3:37 PM

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