Chloë Brooks-Kistler

IT 320

Dr. Minervini

September 26 2019

The Importance of Words

At the Amache Relocation Center, the topic of whether or not to call the location a

“center” or a “camp” often came up during the tour. If a person wants to change someone’s

outlook on something, they can spin their language use by using words which will provoke

certain emotions. When it comes to the Amache Relocation Center, and other Japanese

relocation centers, the question whether or not the terms used to describe these settings are

simply euphemisms to lessen the dark stain they left on American history is raised.

In America, the centers where the Japanese-Americans were forced into are often called

“relocation centers” or “internment camps”. A relocation center implies that the Japanese-

Americans were just being relocated for their own good during World War II. This allows people

who are not educated on this topic to believe that Japanese-Americans went to these centers on

their own accord. In the document “Power of Words”, an internment camp is described as

“reserve for DOJ or Army camp holding alien enemies under Alien Enemies Act 1798” (“Power

of Words Handbook: A Guide to Language about Japanese Americans in World War II

Understanding Euphemisms and Preferred Terminology”). By calling the centers, “internment

camps”, one can infer that the Japanese-Americans were enemies to the United States. It would

be easier for Americans to believe the government was right for imprisoning Japanese-

Americans because they were seen as enemies to the state during World War II. Even in modern
times, it would be easy for people look back on 1940’s America and believe it was in the best

interest of the American citizens to keep these “Japanese enemies” away.

In the late 1990’s, it was debated whether or not the term “concentration camp” should be

allowed to be used to describe the Japanese relocation centers. The American Jewish Committee

and the National Park Service claimed that by calling the Japanese relocation centers

concentration camps, it would confuse the public because of the association of Nazi death camps

the term concentration camps held (Lee). According to the Oxford Dictionary, a concentration

camp is “a place in which large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of

persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate

facilities, sometimes to provide forced labour or to await mass execution” (Lexico). Based on

this definition, the Japanese-American camps are in fact concentration camps. The Japanese-

Americans were political prisoners and persecuted minorities who were forced to be imprisoned

in facilities which were inadequate. The Japanese-Americans were forced to join the military

even though they were being imprisoned by the government, they were forced to defend. Due to

this, it can be argued that the Japanese-Americans were forced into labor. In the definition, it

says that “sometimes” the imprisoned were forced to await mass execution. The Japanese-

Ameircans did not suffer from mass executions like those persecuted in European concentration

camps faced, but they were still in concentration camps because it is not required for a

concentration camp to be a death camp.

I believe that the reluctance to use the term concentration camp to refer to the Japanese-

American “relocation” centers, is due to the fact that Americans do not want to acknowledge the

fact that this event happened in history. Concentration camps hold such a negative connotation in

the world, so by not using this term, the fact that America imprisoned its own citizens due to
racist ideologies, can be looked passed. It lessens the negative effect these camps left on

American history and the effect it left on the Japanese-American future generations in America.

It is almost impossible to compare evils, but by using different terms to describe the same events,

it can make the illusion that one evil is more “humane” than others.

Works Cited