It is helpful for students to preview vocabulary and important terms when studying historical events to help give them context. This storyboard also focuses on the euphemisms employed by the U.S. government and the media to describe the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII encouraging students to analyze the importance of words to accurately describe historical events.
Storyboard-Text
EUPHEMISM
You are going to love this fantastic "pre-owned" vehicle!
"Pre-owned"?? More like extremely used, old, and damaged!
FORCED REMOVAL vs. "EVACUATION"
INCARCERATION vs. "INTERNMENT"
(n.) A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.
In 1942, Executive Order 9066 permitted the government to forcibly remove Japanese Americans from their homes and into concentration camps. The orders were carried out by soldiers. It was called an "evacuation”, implying that it was a precaution for safety.
"Internment" is commonly used to describe what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II. A more accurate term is "incarceration". Thousands of people who had committed no crimes were denied due process, forced out of their homes, and confined in prisons for nearly four years.
JAPANESE AMERICAN vs. "JAPANESE"
JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN WWII
CONCENTRATION CAMPS vs. "RELOCATION CENTERS"
Most people imprisoned had lived in the U.S. for decades or were born in the U.S. The media and government often referred to them as "Japanese”, erasing their American identity and conflating Japanese Americans with citizens in Japan as a strategy to prey on fears to justify the E.O.
The camps were called "assembly or relocation centers" but were surrounded by a fence and guarded by military police. "Assembly" or "Relocation" implies gathering by choice. Japanese Americans were prisoners. They committed no crimes, but were forced to remain in the camps.
Image Attributions: (https://pixabay.com/en/closing-barbed-wire-iron-metal-1373306/) - gisoft - License: Free for Commercial Use / No Attribution Required (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0)