A civilian internee is a

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not " combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant ...

detained by a party to a

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

for security reasons. Internees are usually forced to reside in internment camps. Historical examples include Japanese American internment and

internment of German Americans Internment of German resident aliens and German-American citizens occurred in the United States during the periods of World War I and World War II. During World War II, the legal basis for this detention was under Presidential Proclamation 2526, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Japan interned 130,000 Dutch, British, and American civilians in Asia during World War II.

Internment of civilians by the Japanese during World War II

From December 1941 to April 1942 in World War II, Japan conquered much of

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

and the Pacific region. In doing so, Japan acquired colonies of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and the

. Tens of thousands of non-combatant civilians of countries at war with Japan resided in those territories. Japan interned most of the civilians in makeshift camps located throughout the region and in China and Japan. Many of the civilians were interned for more than three years from early 1942 until the end of the war in 1945. In general, civilian internees of the Japanese were treated less harshly than were prisoners of war (POWs). Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs administered the internee camps while the Ministry of War administered the POW camps. The Japanese left the internal administration of the camps mostly in internee hands, providing only small amounts of food, fuel, and other necessities to the internees. As the fortunes of war turned against Japan, conditions for internees worsened and by the end of the war starvation threatened in many camps. The self-rule, self-sufficiency, and cooperation of the internees permitted the Japanese to control internee camps with a minimum of resources and personnel, amounting at times to only 17 administrators and 8 guards for more than 3,000 internees at

Santo Tomas Internment Camp Santo Tomas Internment Camp, also known as the Manila Internment Camp, was the largest of several camps in the Philippines in which the Japanese interned enemy civilians, mostly Americans, in World War II. The campus of the University of Santo ...

in the Philippines. Conditions for internees were worst in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) where large numbers of widely dispersed internees, mostly Dutch, overwhelmed Japanese resources and capabilities resulting in a high death rate for internees.Waterford, pp. 299, 319

Internment of civilians in occupied Germany after World War II

Long before 1945, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force had worked out automatic arrest categories ranging from the top

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

leadership to the ''ortsgruppenleiter'' (local group leader) from the top '' Gestapo'' agents to leaders of the Hitler Youth, the Peasants' League, and the Labor Front. In May and June 1945 about 700 civilians a day were arrested, and a total of over 18,000 in August. In September 1945, 82,000 suspects were being held in internment camps, available for possible trial and sentencing as members of criminal organizations

Well over 100,000 Germans were incarcerated by December 1945, according to

Harold Marcuse Harold Marcuse (born November 15, 1957 in Waterbury, Connecticut) is an American professor of modern and contemporary German history and public history. He teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara.Pat Dowell"German Filmmaker Tackle ...

. Members of the SS and functionaries of the Nazi Party and its affiliated organizations who were covered by the category of "automatic arrest" were interned by the U.S. occupation authorities in the former Dachau concentration camp. The first of these prisoners were released at the beginning of 1946. The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

set up ten special camps in the Soviet Zone of Occupation, the former Buchenwald concentration camp became Special Camp No. 2 while

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoner ...

became Special Camp No. 7. They were run by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

. The British also set up a number of camps: the former

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, th ...

near

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

became No. 6 Civil Internment Camp and KZ Esterwegen became No. 9 Civil Internment Camp.

Facilities

Internees including civilians are typically contained in an area enclosed by barbed wire fences and guard towers. Internment-Resettlement-Facility-for-Dislocated-Civilians

Internment-Resettlement-Facility-for-Dislocated-Civilians

References

Geneva Conventions Prisoners of war Prisoners and detainees of Japan World War II civilian prisoners held by Japan cs:Internace ru:Интернирование

Internment of civilians by the Japanese during World War II

Internment of civilians in occupied Germany after World War II

Facilities

See also

References