Media and Propaganda
The media chronicled incarceration from a range of conservative and progressive perspectives. Religious organizations produced countless pamphlets to educate the public on the positive role of Japanese Americans within U.S. history. The WRA and the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) were equally prolific, distributing propaganda that sought to curb criticism while arguing for the incarceration program as a necessary wartime measure. Media outlets, particularly those in California, were also uncritical of incarceration. Newspapers like The Los Angeles Times used pejoratives like “Japs” and euphemisms like “evacuation” to sanitize news.
Government terms such as “relocation centers” obscured confinement under armed surveillance. This exhibit now uses incarceration and forced removal in its own editorial voice, in line with the AP Stylebook’s 2022 terminology update. Original titles, quotations and historical official names are preserved and identified as source language. The site’s curator applauds this change.