Japanese internment terms

Nisei

American-born children of Japanese immigrants; second generation Japanese Americans. Most mainland ____ were born between 1915 and 1935; in Hawaii, large numbers were born about a decade earlier.

Sansei

American-born grandchildren of Japanese immigrants; third generation Japanese Americans.

Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)

a Japanese American civil rights organization that has emphasized assimilation and Americanization. This is the largest and most influential Japanese American political organization, and has been controversial, particularly during World War II.

Jap

a derogatory, hostile term used to refer to Japanese and Japanese Americans.

Nikkei

a person of Japanese ancestry.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

a private organization dedicated to fighting civil liberties violations. They have often defended the civil rights of unpopular groups or individuals--those who need the protection of the Bill of Rights the most. Given its purpose of defending civil liberties, it is not surprising that they were one of the only organizations to come to the defense of the Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed and detained during World War II.

442nd Regimental Combat Team:

a segregated U.S. Army regiment made up of nisei that saw heavy action during World War II. The ____ fought in Italy, France and Germany. The ____ rescued the "Lost Battalion," liberated survivors of the Dachau concentration camp, and was the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in U.S. military history.

"No-no boy"

a term that refers to Japanese Americans (both male and female) who refused to answer the "loyalty questions" or answered in the negative. Many were unfairly stigmatized as being "disloyal" to the United States and were segregated to the Tule Lake camp.

Yellow peril:

a term used by anti-Japanese agitators in the early 1900s to describe the "threat" of Japanese immigration as a precursor to a Japanese invasion.

"Relocation centers"

a term used by the U.S. War Relocation Authority to refer to the camps in which most Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. These were prisons surrounded by barbed wire fences and patrolled by armed guards, which inmates could not leave without permission. Because "______" inadequately describes the harsh conditions and forced confinement of the camps, terms such as "incarceration camp" or "prison camp" are more accurate. As prison camps outside the normal criminal justice system, designed to confine civilians for military or political purposes on the basis of race and ethnicity, they fit the definition of "concentration camps."

Resettlement

a term used by the War Relocation Authority to refer to the migration of Japanese Americans from the incarceration camps in which they were imprisoned during World War II. Those who were allowed to leave the camps for _____ could not return to the West Coast; they were told to move to the eastern and northern areas of the United States.

Internment or Incarceration camps:

camps administered by the Justice Department for the detention of enemy aliens (not U.S. citizens) deemed dangerous during World War II. Most of the several thousand people in these camps were issei and kibei who had been rounded up after the attack on Pearl Harbor because they were perceived as "dangerous." Japanese Latin Americans were also placed in these camps. "_______" is used by some to describe the "________." The term "_______" is problematic when applied to U.S. citizens. Technically, ______ refers to the detention of enemy aliens during time of war, and two-thirds of the Japanese Americans ______ were U.S. citizens. Although it is a recognized and generally used term even today, many prefer "______" as more accurate.

Evacuation

forced removal of Japanese Americans in early 1942 from the West Coast. They were forbidden to return. The government called this an "________," a euphemism that implies it was done as a precaution for Japanese Americans' own safety, when in fact, it was motivated by economic greed and racial prejudice. "Mass removal" and "exclusion" are better terms for the event, because Japanese Americans were expelled from the West Coast and forbidden to return.

Picture bride

issei women who participated in marriages that included the exchange of photographs between them or their families in Japan and their prospective husbands in the U.S. This was an affordable way for issei men to marry and begin families without the cost of returning to Japan.

Alien land acts

laws enacted by various Western states that prevented Japanese (and other Asian) immigrants from purchasing land. First enacted in the 1910s, the laws generally remained in effect until well after World War II.

Immigration Act of 1924

legislation that restricted overall immigration to the United States and banned further Japanese immigration.

Assembly centers

temporary incarceration camps that imprisoned Japanese Americans who had been forcibly removed from the West Coast in the early months of World War II. In Washington, Japanese Americans were assembled at Camp Harmony (or the Puyallup _____). By mid-1942, Japanese Americans were transferred to more permanent "relocation centers," also known as concentration camps.

War Relocation Authority (WRA)

the U.S. government agency charged with administering the incarceration camps in which Japanese Americans from the West Coast were imprisoned during World War II.

Issei:

the first generation of immigrant Japanese Americans, most of whom came to the United States between 1885 and 1924. They were ineligible for U.S. citizenship and considered "enemy aliens" during World War II.

Civil Rights

the freedoms and rights that a person has as a member of a given state or country.

Incarcercation

the state of being in prison, or being confined.

Executive Order 9066

this order, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorized the War Department to prescribe military areas from which "any or all persons may be excluded." This provided the basis for the exclusion and mass incarceration (or "internment") of all Japanese Americans from the West Coast.

"Loyalty questions"

two questions on questionnaires distributed to Japanese Americans in incarceration camps. Despite serious problems with the wording and meaning of the questions, government officials and others generally considered those who answered "no" to the two questions to be "disloyal" to the United States. "Yes" answers to these questions made internees eligible for service in the U.S. Army, and some became eligible for release and resettlement in areas outside of the West Coast exclusion zones.

Redress and reparations

two terms used to refer to Japanese American efforts to get compensation from the U.S. government for being wrongfully detained in incarceration camps during World War II. While often used as synonyms, "____" can imply an apology; "_____" specifically refers to monetary compensation.

Japanese American

two-thirds of those imprisoned during World War II were nisei born in the United States and thus U.S. citizens. This is the proper term. Their parents, the issei, were immigrants who were legally forbidden from becoming naturalized citizens. While they were technically aliens, the issei had lived in the U.S. for decades by the time of World War II and raised their children in this country. Many of them considered themselves to be culturally Japanese, but were committed to the United States as their home. Calling the issei this as opposed to "Japanese" is a way to recognize that fact.