Contributed by Kevin Jones, Digital Collections and Metadata Archivist and Anne Bahde, History of Science and Rare Books Librarian

As part of our ongoing work to address racist, outdated, and inaccurate descriptive language in our finding aids, we recently looked at the use of the term “internment” and reviewed the descriptions in our collections for material related to Japanese and Japanese American incarceration in the United States during World War II.

We relied heavily on the guidance and recommendations created by the Reparative Archival Description Task Force at Yale Library. This task force consulted with Japanese American community groups to identify preferred terms to replace terminology that was racist or erased the harm done to Japanese and Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II represented in archival collections. Written between 2020 and 2021, the best practices put forth by this group include multiple recommendations related to the remediation of legacy descriptions for materials documenting the so-called internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. These recommendations include template language for inclusion in multiple fields available to authors of finding aids, as well as suggestions for language to use in MARC catalog records. Notably, the task force also published a table of eighteen terms related to the legacy internment era that itemize preferred community terms, local terms used by Yale (which often match the community terms), clarifying notes, and the sourcing for this work. Examples of terms considered in this table include: ‘incarceration’ as a replacement for ‘internment’; ‘incarceree’ as a replacement for ‘detainee’; ‘forced removal’ as a replacement for ‘evacuation’ or ‘relocation’; and ‘American concentration camp’ as a replacement for ‘internment camp.’ We highly recommend the use of these guidelines when undertaking similar work.

We reviewed the descriptions for seven collections in total. Several collections, such as the William H. Maas Scrapbook, the Hans Plambeck Papers, the Richard Y. Morita Papers, the Japanese-American Association of Lane County, Oregon, Oral History Collection, and the Rebecca Landis Papers, required fairly straightforward updating of legacy terms with alternative terms recommended from the Yale task force.

For all seven finding aids, a Statement on Description was also added that included this language:

“The terminology surrounding the legacy term ‘internment’ has been adjusted. Some materials in this collection use derogatory language to describe ethnic groups. We acknowledge the racism represented by the use of these phrases and the harm they may cause our users. Providing access to these historical materials does not endorse any attitudes or behavior depicted therein.”

Two other collections required more consideration of these terms within the context of the collection.

Collection 1 ~ The Mildred and Frank Miles Scrapbook of the Santo Tomás Internment Camp describes the Miles’ experience of imprisonment at the afore-mentioned camp in Manila, Philippines for three years and one month. Largely because of the scrapbook’s geographical setting, this collection required additional consideration of the Yale terms within the context of the collection, as well as the addition of more precise subject headings, such as Concentration camps — Philippines. 

Statement on Description for the Mildred and Frank Miles Scrapbook of the Santo Tomás Internment Camp, 1942-1947 collection finding aid:

“The terminology surrounding the legacy term “internment” has been adjusted. Some materials in this collection use derogatory language to describe ethnic groups. We acknowledge the racism represented by the use of these phrases and the harm they may cause our users. Providing access to these historical materials does not endorse any attitudes or behavior depicted therein.”

Collection 2 ~ Particularly regarding our collection of War Relocation Authority reports, the original descriptions in the finding aid mirrored the neutral social scientific language used in the reports. This “scientific” language erased the harm the incarceration and the act of researching imprisoned Japanese and Japanese Americans did to the prisoners. Following the guidelines, we attempted to replace existing language with recommended terms that more accurately reflects the damage done in and through these reports. “Internment” continues to show up in the finding aid where it is part of a formal name or title in keeping with the Yale guidance. This is both necessary because it is a matter of the historical record and also aids in research as many potential users have been educated using ‘internment’ as the reference term for Japanese American incarceration. We recognize that, while we attempted to be thorough, future revision to these and other descriptions may be necessary to further address as yet unrecognized bias. 

Statement on Description for the United States War Relocation Authority Reports, 1942-1946 collection finding aid:

“Please be aware that content within this collection may be disturbing or activating, and racist, derogatory language is used toward Japanese Americans and other groups. We acknowledge the racism represented by this language and the harm it may cause our users. Providing access to these historical materials does not endorse any attitudes or behavior depicted therein.”

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In making these decisions, we recognize that future revisions to these and other descriptions may be necessary. In our teaching and outreach, we will also seek to continue pushing this conversation forward, such that legacy terms like “internment” might begin to lose their currency among researchers and become less of a concern with respect to issues of keyword searching.

Internment subgroup: Kevin Jones, Digital Collections and Metadata Archivist; Anne Bahde, History of Science and Rare Books Librarian; Julie Judkins, Department Head