Resettlement
Mere months after the opening of the camps, the War Relocation Authority instituted a scheme for the “permanent relocation” of the Nikkei outside the camps. Henceforth, all social work in the camps became oriented toward this end goal. Resettlement, actively supported by the YWCA and a host of social welfare organizations, was a project that provoked profound dread and anger in much of the incarcerated Nikkei. Social work agencies involved were cautioned to work quietly and inconspicuously to avoid public attention which would inevitably incite opposition from local populations. Resettlement was an assimilationist project, explicitly designed for the “decentralization” of the Nikkei to aid in their Americanization. Such goals of integration and assimilation were promoted in the camps through group work program designed to “counter Japanizing influences” of the Issei and “extend the Americanism” of the Nisei.