Preface: This episode contains testimony from an internment denier. Lillian Baker, a far-right activist, read Dillon S. Myer’s statement before the Commission. Myer was the wartime head of the War Relocation Authority, the civilian agency that ran the camps. His testimony minimizes the injustice of incarceration and may upset some listeners. Still, this is part of the historical record of the hearings.

• Who Was Dillon S. Myer? Appointed by FDR in 1942 to lead the War Relocation Authority, which oversaw the camps. He insisted on calling them “relocation centers,” not concentration camps.

• Framing the Camps: Claimed the WRA’s mission was constructive — providing housing, education, food, medical care, and opportunities to “relocate into normal communities.”

• Denial of Harm: Rejected the term “concentration camp,” citing the Supreme Court’s Korematsu decision. Called the phrase offensive, saying it tarnished his staff’s work.

• Tributes & Praise: Pointed to testimonial banquets by the Japanese American Citizens League in 1946 and later, as proof he and the WRA were once respected.

• Attacking Redress: Criticized Japanese American activists for “forsaking” him and pursuing reparations. Claimed stories of shootings, barbed wire, and guard towers were exaggerated or invented.

• Revisionist Narrative: Insisted the WRA kept families together, that evacuees were not internees, and that guards were mostly protective. Endorsed Lillian Baker’s denialist book Watergate West: The Concentration Camp Conspiracy.

• Emotional Appeal: Baker closed by saying Myer was on his deathbed and wanted to die believing history would not remember him as “director of concentration camps.”