Civilian Internee
![Liberated Allied civilian internees at the Santo Tomas Internment Camp, 1945](/Images/godic/202501/04/Liberation-Men--_santo_tomas1132.jpg")
![Boy Scouts at Manzanar War Relocation Center, 1942](/Images/godic/202501/04/lossy-page1-220px-Manzanar_Relocation_Center,_Manzanar,_California._Evacuee_Boy_Scouts_took_a_leading_part_in_the_Mem_._._._-_NARA_-_538507.tif1132.jpg")
![Allied civilian internees at Camp Stanley during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong](/Images/godic/202501/04/Stanleywarprisoner1132.jpg")
![](/Images/godic/202501/04/Internment-Resettlement-Facility-for-Dislocated-Civilians1132.png")
A civilian internee is a civilian detained by a party to a war for security reasons. Internees are usually forced to reside in internment camps, often pejoratively called concentration camps and similar to prisoner of war camps or civilian prisons. Historical examples include Japanese American internment and internment of German Americans in the United States during World War II. Japan interned 130,000 Dutch, British, and American civilians in Asia during World War II.