Understanding the preferred terminology about the Japanese Americans in World War II.
Power of words Handbook
When referring to Japanese Americans who were imprisoned because of their country of origin, what is the proper way to discuss it?
The Densho Project is the authority on the WW2 incarceration of Japanese Americans and Executive Order 9066. They have thousands of articles as an Encyclopedia of Japanese American History: An A-to-Z Reference. Densho documents the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. We offer these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy and promote equal justice for all.
Densho is a Japanese term meaning “to pass on to the next generation,” or to leave a legacy.
They have hundreds of interviews, teaching plans, articles, videos and even a podcast.
Campu: A Podcast – Densho
Campu weaves together the voices of survivors to spin narratives out of the seemingly mundane things that gave shape to the incarceration experience: rocks, fences, food, paper. Follow along as hosts Hana and Noah Maruyama move far beyond the standard Japanese American incarceration 101 and into more intimate and lesser-known corners of this history. Campu tells the story of Japanese American incarceration like you’ve never heard it before.
Order 9066 Podcast – APM Reports and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
Order 9066 chronicles the history of this incarceration through vivid, first-person accounts of those who lived through it. The series explores how this shocking violation of American democracy came to pass, and its legacy in the present.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 just months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forced from their homes on the West Coast and sent to one of ten “relocation” camps, where they were imprisoned behind barbed wire for the length of the war. Two-thirds of them were American citizens.
