The Managed Casualty

The Japanese-American Family in World War II

THIS STUDY is an assessment of one major aspect of the adjustment of Japanese Americans to the series of events comprising their removal from the communities of the Pacific Coast early in World War II, their sequestration in temporary centers under governmental control, and their eventual release. It is in a sense an “impact” study in that attention is directed toward the effects administrative policies had on family groups and the resources these groups commanded to adapt to and ameliorate the conditions imposed upon them.

The preoccupation of the present study is easily justified. The importance of the family, in Japan as well as in the organization of the Japanese communities in the United States, makes this aspect of the social organization of the minority group a major concern for a rounded understanding of the evacuation. The relevance of the family as the unit of study is also indicated by the administrative policy which explicitly directed that family units be maintained in the processing of the population through the evacuation and relocation programs.