Contingent Captivity: Resettling Japanese Men, Women, and Children 1941–1945.

This article examines the global internment, incarceration, and forced migration of people of Japanese descent (Nikkei) across Allied-controlled countries and colonies during World War II, highlighting significant regional variations in policies and experiences. It explores how international law, citizenship status, race, and wartime security concerns shaped the treatment of Japanese civilians and subjects in places including the United States, Canada, Britain and its empire, Australia, New Caledonia, India, and the Netherlands East Indies. The article details specific cases such as the mass uprooting and dispossession of over 21,000 Japanese Canadians, the internment and repatriation of Japanese civilians from the Netherlands East Indies to Australia, and the complex status of Japanese and mixed-race populations in New Caledonia under French colonial rule. It underscores the interplay between international norms and local political, social, and diplomatic factors, revealing how these wartime policies constituted a form of forced migration embedded within racialized and geopolitical frameworks. [Extracted from the article]