The late Clifford Hunter, a distinguished veteran of the Pacific War who served in the U.S. Marines, described the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles as "a prime example of major politically correct historical revisionism at its worst." Among other projects, the museum has gone to great expense to dismantle an antique wartime barracks found at Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming and transport it piece-by-piece, then reassemble the building at the museum emphasizing the building as the poor living conditions faced by the "interned" Japanese. But the museum curators fail to mention that the same barracks was the common design used in many American military posts throughout the United States during the war.

Memorable ones were at Camp Wood adjacent to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, the Signal Corps Basic Training camp near Sacramento, California, and the Air Force’s Western Flying Training Command Reception Center at Camp Haan, California.

Emphasis is made by the revisionists that the relocation centers were in desolate desert surroundings. So were some of the American military bases. A memorable one was the Air Force Basic Training Center, Camp Kearns, near today’s Midvale, Utah. This site is adjacent to the Great Salt Lake Desert as was the Topaz, Utah Relocation Center in south-central Utah.

"I don't know what I can add to our previous conversation.... I must confess I have much more knowledge about the relocation camps now thanks to you. There is no doubt in my mind it would be a great injustice to mount markers designating them as 'concentration camps.' Whatever the technical interpretation of such a term, it will always invoke a picture of the horror camps in Nazi Germany. There was certainly no comparison between those camps and the relocation camps here in the United States." - Ronald Reagan to researcher Lillian Baker September 26, 1988

There is great confusion among the public between the word "internment" and the word "relocation." They are not the same. To be "interned," one must be a national - an enemy alien - of a country with which the United States government is at war. The law, nearly 200 years old, prohibits any American citizen from being "interned." Those interned will be deported at the end of the war. In World War II, there were no "internees" among Japanese Americans regardless of how hard historical revisionists strive to make it so. Saying it another way, there were no American citizens of Japanese descent (Japanese Americans) deported because there were none interned. The phrases "internment camps" or "the Japanese were interned" are untrue and are the products of revisionism.

As to "concentration camps" in the United States, which some people claim to have existed, there were none. In fact, Japanese from the mid-west and east coast who were not affected by the West Coast Exclusion Order (Executive Order 9066, Feb. 19, 1942) asked to be admitted to the relocation centers and were accepted.

The Whole Picture? Used in many revisionist publications over several decades, this picture of a little girl by Dorthy Lange seems to suggests that she is being shipped off like baggage.

Revisionists claim that the call-up for evacuation to Assembly Centers was "without notice" or "on short notice" denying the Japanese time to dispose of belongings which they had "to sell at a loss," etc. These are distorted arguments when one looks at the date of the Executive Order (EO9066) February 19, 1942, and the evacuations from cities which were not until April and May.

Each of the 10 Relocation Centers were operated as a "city" with full infrastructure including its own police, neighborhood administration, hospitals, schools, U. S. Post Office, etc. At least one even had its own tattoo parlor!

There were indeed "Internment Camps" in the United States in addition to the Relocation Centers. The Relocation Centers were operated by the War Relocation Authority, a non-military government agency. No person of Japanese ancestry was required to live in a Relocation Center so held the Supreme Court. Persons living in the Relocation Centers were encouraged to leave on work passes or leave permanently when they could find a sponsor away from the West Coast to guarantee a job and that they would not become public wards. Thousands left. However, persons in the Internment Camps were there under guard, having been declared, after individual hearings, to be disloyal to the United States.

"Papa Knows Best" The complete photo shows a very different story. The decision of the male head of each Japanese household determined the family's fate: a relocation center (free food, free medical care and wages if you cared to work), or moving inland away from the west coast, or if "Papa" was found to be disloyal to the U.S.A for any number of reasons, he and his family, as well as German and Italian families in similar situations, were housed in the family internment camp at Crystal City, Texas for the duration of the war, after which they were deported to their respective countries of origin.

There were a number of Internment Camps for men at Santa Fe, New Mexico, Bismarck, North Dakota and Missoula, Montana. There was a Family Internment Camp at Crystal City Texas. Japanese, German and Italian internees, with their families, lived in the same camp at Crystal City. (All governments involved with World War II had internment camps but only the United States kept families together.) None could leave an Internment Camp until they were deported to their country of origin which happened after the war was over.

Every relocation center had its own U. S. Post Office with local delivery of mail to the residents in their quarters. Recalling that the relocation centers were actually cities of around 10,000 people, it was common for persons to write letters to each other within the city, or to friends who resided in different relocation centers. As with the rest of civilian America, letter mail was not censored for those in the relocation centers. Postage for letters within these cities was 1¢. On the other hand, it must be noted that mail in and out of the internment camps was heavily censored.

Some revisionist writers insist that the only luggage that could be taken from home at the time of the evacuation was that which the individuals could carry with them. In the initial instance, when the evacuees were temporality housed in Assembly Centers, this was correct. When determination was made that evacuees could leave the 15 Assembly Centers for new homes and work away from the declared military zone in the west, or were qualified to attend colleges or universities in the mid-west or in the eastern United States, or were moved to relocation centers, heavy personal property, including pianos, would be shipped to ultimate destinations at federal government expense. If the heavy items were not wanted by the evacuees in the relocation centers, this personal property was stored in warehouses for the duration of the war at government expense, then after the war, shipped to the individuals wherever they settled, at government expense.

The declared military zones were the western half of Washington and Oregon, all of California, and the lower third of Arizona. It should be noted that if a Japanese American lived east of Highway 97 that bisected Washington and Oregon, they were not subject to evacuation. For list and map of locations of all the Assembly Centers and Relocation Centers, see the book American and Japanese Relocation in World War II, Fact, Fiction and Fallacy.

There are often stories that the Japanese in the relocation centers "lost their educational privileges." However, every one of the ten Relocation Centers had public schools taught by certified teachers, text books and offered all school activities, especially in the junior and senior high grades as found in city schools from which they transferred. The "school activities" included student body class officers, girl’s league, boy ’s league, drama, band, orchestra, chorus, a cappella choir, school paper, yearbook, wood shop, booster club, shorthand club, future farmers club, baton twirlers, Latin club, Spanish club, home economics club, science club, girl’s athletic association, boys and girls sports.

A student writer in the 1943-1944 yearbook Our World (Manzanar Relocation Center) declared:

"In years to come, many alumnae of Manzanar High School will be able to look back with fond memories - those pep rallies, the after school dances, the bull sessions, the first snow storm, the coming of spring, the many dusty summer days will all be a part of the memories of the graduating class of Manzanar High School. The graduates marked their finish of high school in traditional cap and gown ceremonies."

-Adapted from Chapter 10 "The Japanese on the West Coast of the United States" in Silent Siege-III; Japanese Attacks on North America in World War II - Ships Sunk, Air Raids, Bombs Dropped, Civilians Killed (Documentary) 1997 by Bert Webber and from American and Japanese Relocation in World War II; Fact, Fiction and Fallacy (The Lillian Baker Memorial Edition ) 1996 by Lillian Baker.