Facilities and types of Japanese American confinement sites
War Relocation Authority (WRA) Concentration Camps
These "relocation centers" (the name used by the WRA) confined Nikkei (those of Japanese ancestry, citizens and non-citizens) Americans, two-thirds of whom were American-born citizens.
Assembly Centers
Initial temporary detention sites used to assemble Nikkei for transit to more long-term incarceration facilities, predominantly outside of the "exclusion zone." They were relatively near JA communities and were prepared by the Wartime Civil Control Administration (WCCA) and included racetracks and fairgrounds.
Department of Justice (DOJ) or U.S. Army Internment Camps
Internment sites that primarily detained male Issei, or alien residents of Japanese descent, who were excluded from seeking citizenship through naturalization because of federal exclusion bans (these were in place until 1952).They were run by the Immigration and Naturalization Services, part of the DOJ. Nisei, who were forced to renounce their U.S. citizenship, were also detained in these sites.
WRA Isolation Centers and Temporary Camps
Department of War (DOW) sites. Primarily U.S. Army centers where predominantly male Issei or alien residents of the U.S. of Japanese descent were detained and/or confined en route to long-term interment or incarceration sites.
U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS) or other training facility
Other suggested terms include detention center, confinement site, incarceration center.
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