Why does the National Museum use the term “concentration camp” when speaking of the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans?
The terms used to describe what happened to 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II—relocation, evacuation, incarceration, internment, or concentration camp—vary among scholars, government officials, and even Japanese Americans themselves. While most people associate “concentration camp” with the Holocaust and many Americans feel more comfortable with milder terms like internment camps, the National Museum uses the term “concentration camp” because by definition a concentration camp is a place where people are imprisoned not because they are guilty of any crimes, but simply because of who they are. The U.S. government, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, used the phrase “concentration camp” in speeches and written documents during World War II.
