This page includes some vocabulary used at the time of Japanese Internment camps along with links to article that discuss the importance of words in the discussion of this historical event. Several of the entries offer the socially used word vs. the reality words. For example Assembly Centers sound like a place to gather to be organized vs. Detention Centers are where you are held against your will.
Often the words chosen by those in power and those reporting on an event can color the attatudes surounding an event. Consider other events in history that have used words that offer a certain viewpoint of the event. Check out this web page to explore how news can be biased by word choice.
Assembly Centers vs. Detention Centers: Temporary local housing for evacuated Japanese Americans before they were assigned to relocation camps.
Evacuation: The removal of Japanese Americans from their homes due to Executive Order 9066, signed in 1942 by President Roosevelt.
Internment vs. Incarceration: Between 1942 and 1945, more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were held in camps scattered throughout the West and South. Although popularly used to refer to the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans, the term internment more accurately reflects the arrest and trial of non-citizens belonging to a nation the United States was fighting during World War II. Internment procedures were largely regulated by the Geneva Convention. The term incarceration more appropriately reflects the unconstitutional removal of Japanese Americans from their homes to the camps.
Issei (or Isei): Literally, "first generation"; issei (ee'-sey) are Japanese who immigrated to the United States after 1907 and were not eligible or citizenship until 1952.
Nikkei: All peoples of Japanese ancestry in the Americas.
Nisei: Literally, "second generation"; nisei (nee’-sey) are the American-born children of Japanese immigrants and therefore American citizens.
Sansei: Literally, "third generation"; sansei (son’-sey) are the American-born grandchildren of Japanese immigrants and therefore American citizens.
Relocation: Used by the US government to mean being transferred to the camps.
Relocation Camps vs. Internment Camps vs. Concentration Camps vs. Evacuation Centers: Terms often used interchangeably to refer to 10 remote camps in the Western and Southern United States, where more than 120,000 Japanese American men, women, and children were incarcerated during World War II.
Resettlement: Term used by the US government to refer to the release of the internees and their transition and reintegration into postwar American life.
Civilian exclusion order #5, posted at First and Front streets, directing removal by April 7 of persons of Japanese ancestry, from the first San Francisco section to be affected by evacuation. April. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2001705937/>.
Japanese American citizens and non-citizens were "non-aliens" and "aliens." Forced removal was called "evacuation." Incarceration was "internment." Detention centers were "assembly centers." Concentration camps were "relocation centers."
Japanese American concentration camps in the U.S. were distinct from Nazi Germany's concentration camps, designed to exterminate people. The term concentration camp describes any site where minority groups are imprisoned by the government because of their identity, without due process, and with the implicit consent of the rest of society.