Between Incarceration and Care: Disability, Bureaucracy, and Pedagogy in Japanese American Wartime Camps

This essay offers a portrait of Japanese Americans with disabilities who were incarcerated on U.S. soil during World War II. The unexpected presence of disability in the wartime camps challenged the War Relocation Authority's self-perception as caretaker, exposing tensions between its narrative of protection and the racial animus underlying Executive Order 9066. Camp systems imposed a pedagogical approach focused on managing non-normative bodies, while also exacerbating debility through bureaucratic violence. These stories illuminate the multiple layers of exclusion that limited individuals' access to citizenship and state protection.