The History of Disappearing and Internment

People are disappearing in New City. There have been rumors of a “re-education system” that takes people the government suspects of causing trouble or sewing sedition. In fact, they pretty much come right out and say they’re doing this — at least Judi says so when you get your tour upon arrival. Etcetera is working on What Happened to Jerry?, a quest to find someone who has disappeared.

Making people disappear and putting them into internment camps is nothing new. Governments the world over use this to control elements of the population they view as threatening to their power.

Let’s do some research about modern-day and historic examples of disappearing people and placing them in political prisons and internment camps. We’ll use this to develop Jerry’s story and a thread of STF about the politics of authoritarian systems.

Making

Feature Image: From Densho “Japanese American Artists Behind Barbed Wire“: Harry Hiroshi Imamura created several paintings depicting the journey to and life in Manzanar. Decades later, in the 1970s, he returned to painting after selling his truckstop restaurant. This painting shows Japanese Americans arriving in Manzanar: “Journey’s end is Manzanar, attained by the desert-dusty convoy as the long shade of the Sierras reaches across Owens Valley from the west.” Courtesy of the Imamura family and the National Park Service, Manzanar National Historic Site.