As of 2018, the current authorized form is “Japanese Americans–Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945”. This heading has been frequently mentioned as a problem for its euphemistic language, but a challenge in revising it is that it is part of a pattern of 14 other headings that use this subdivision.
Allison Bailund researched each of these cases, making recommendations specific to each case, for example, proposing revising the current “Japanese–Canada–Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945” to “Japanese–Canada–Forced removal and incarceration, 1942-1945,” but at the same time, keeping the “evacuation” wording when appropriate, such as in the new proposal for “World War, 1939-1945–Evacuation of civilians–Great Britain.” Find her work on each of these headings at this Google document. These proposals were submitted February 12, 2021 and accepted in June 2021.
To represent the work on these headings, the “Japanese Americans” proposal is shown below. Additions & revisions to the existing heading are highlighted.
010 $a sh 85069606
053 $a D769.8.A6
150 $a Japanese Americans $x Forced removal and incarceration, 1942-1945 [new heading]
450 $a Evacuation and relocation of Japanese Americans, 1942-1945
450 $a Internment of Japanese Americans, 1942-1945
450 $w nne $a Japanese Americans $x Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945 [previous heading]
450 $a Relocation of Japanese Americans, 1942-1945
550 $a Concentration camps–United States [new related term]
550 $w g a World War, 1939-1945 $x Forced removal of civilians $z United States [new related term]
670 $a Work cat.: Un-American : the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, 2016: $b p. 14 (“Japanese Americans on the West Coast were not ‘evacuated,’ which connotes that they were taken away for their own good. They did not go to an ‘assembly center,’ which sounds like a place to gather for a parade”) $w (OCoLC)941875582
670 $a Concentration Camps on the home front: Japanese Americans in the house of Jim Crow, 2008: $b p. 14 (“Though obviously quite different from Nazi death camps, these compounds for the forced, indiscriminate incarceration of an entire ethnic minority population have earned the designation concentration camps from many scholars of Asian American history”) $w (OCoLC)184906156
670 $a Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest: Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians in the Twentieth Century, 2005: $b p. 14 (“points out the improper use of ‘internment’ to describe the incarceration resulting from President Franklin Roosevelt’s executive order. The legal internment of enemy aliens followed the rules set down in american and international law, but, says Daniels, the incarceration of West Coast Japanese Americans in army and War Relocation Authority concentrations camps was ‘simple lawless’”) $w (OCoLC)56517802
670 $a Power of words handbook: a guide to language about Japanese Americans in World War II, 2013 $b p. 9 (Usage of evacuate/evacuation “to describe the forced removal by the federal government of over 110,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast and Arizona is not accurate. They were not ‘evacuated’ to protect them from a disastrous environment […]. The words ‘forced removal’ should be used instead, which more accurately describes the lack of choice provided to Japanese Americans who were ordered to leave their homes”) p. 10 (“The word incarceration more accurately describes those held in WRA camps. Incarcerate is generally defined as to confine or imprison, typically as punishment for a crime. This term reflects the prison-like conditions faced by Japanese Americans as well as the view that they were treated as if guilty of sabotage, espionage, and/or suspect loyalty”) $u https://jacl.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Power-of-Words-Rev.-Term.-Handbook.pdf
670 $a Densho [the Japanese American Legacy Project website], viewed online September 18 2018 $b Terminology page (“Although ‘internment’ is a recognized and widely used term, we encourage the use of ‘incarceration,’ except in the specific case of Japanese Americans detained by the Army or DOJ) $u http://densho.org/terminology/
Because “Evacuation and relocation” is a recurring subdivision (it’s not free-floating, but is used with different dates attached several times: “Italian Americans–Evacuation and relocation, 1942,” “Japanese–Peru–Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945,” “Ukrainians–Canada–Evacuation and relocation, 1914-1920” etc.), the justification that LC is likely to use for it is consistency with the other headings.
So I think the proposal will be stronger if it anticipates this argument. That could be done by pointing out which other instances in which that phrase is used should also be changed to “Forced removal and incarceration” and including proposals for them too, and/or by explaining how this particular instance is categorically different from the others. If indeed it is–I’m not familiar enough with all of these events to know if *any* of them were actually a benign “evacuation” done for the safety of the people involved. I very much doubt it!
Thanks for pointing that out, Tina, I hadn’t realized that. There are 15 headings that use this subdivision: 14 are during WWII, and one is during WWI. I’ve just looked at a few of them, but from what I can see I think there’s a decent case to be made for changing it to “forced removal” in all cases, though “incarceration” doesn’t fit all. I wonder if LC would be more inclined to approve if we proposed changing “Evaluation and relocation” to “Forced removal,” then proposed a second heading specifically for “Incarceration”.
So… I have been thinking about these headings for awhile and I started working on finding sources to change the various headings to make them all forced removal and either internment or incarceration. This is what I have thus far: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zb3L_1AFYoqrBE67B31WrqXBSX80BzomUZdLecULxww/edit?usp=sharing (hopefully you can view it).
University of Washington made a proposal to change the Japanese Americans heading which LC set aside because of the bigger implications for other headings. That’s been sitting now for several years with no follow up.
I’m curious if folks here have thoughts about the recent revision to this heading, which has been changed to Japanese Americans |x Forced removal and internment, 1942-1945 (https://lccn.loc.gov/sh85069606) — I’m glad that evacuation has been changed to “forced removal,” but less enthused about the continued inclusion of the term “internment,” which Japanese Americans have long recommended not using. This also comes alongside a change to the previous heading “concentration camps” which has been supplanted by “internment camps” and “Nazi concentration camps,” which I find problematic for a number of reasons. I’m planning to use an alternate vocabulary heading for concentration camps for this term, but I’m wondering if there are any solutions being batted around to address to use of “internment”?
I don’t have an answer to your actual question, but I’m interested in what is problematic about the change from Concentration camps to Internment camps and Nazi concentration camps, if you would like to say more about that. Thanks.
I found this and now I understand a little better: https://wp.nyu.edu/specialcollections/2020/12/11/righting-and-writing-wrongs-reparative-description-for-japanese-american-wartime-incarceration/
If you have other reading suggestions beyond that article and the works it cites, I would value them!
As a Japanese-Canadian, I feel we should be included in the heading as well. Though we are mentioned in the description, we also deserve to be a part of the actual subject heading. Japanese-Canadian experiences were similar yet different at the same time, particularly due to the following dispersal policy, and are often overlooked in this conversation.
That would be a separate subject heading, and multiple options are already established. In LCSH, librarians can use: Japanese–Canada–Forced removal and internment, 1942-1945. In the Canadian Subject Headings, librarians can use: Japanese Canadians–Forced relocation and internment, 1941-1949.
Thank you, I wasn’t aware. Is there discussion about updating those subject headings as well?
Those are the updated headings. In June 2021 those headings were changed in LCSH from Japanese–Canada–Evacuation and relocation, 1942 to 1945 to Japanese–Canada–Forced removal and internment, 1942-1945. Please feel free to email me if you’d like to discuss, I’m happy to chat.