National Education Center
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Cable Act | Federal legislation of 1922 that denied citizenship to female US citizens who married aliens and to female aliens who married US citizens. Although the act allowed women who had lost their citizenship through marriage to an alien to regain it through naturalization upon the ending of that marriage through death or divorce, Asian American women were ineligible because of their race. Formally repealed in 1936. |
| Campaign | A connected series of military operations forming a distinct phase of war. |
| Captain | An Army commissioned officer commanding a company. Ranking above a First Lieutenant and below a Major. Primary task to command units, provide tactical plans, and make decisions. |
| Casualty | A military person lost to service through death, wounds, injury, sickness, internment, capture, or because of undetermined whereabouts. |
| Cave Flushing | Term that refers to the evacuation of people from caves. The Military Intelligence Service flushed out enemy soldiers and civilians in such places as Okinawa and Iwo Jima during World War II. |
| Citizen | An individual who owes loyalty to a country or state and who is entitled by birth or naturalization to certain protections and rights of that country or state. The US government defines a citizen as an individual born in the US or its territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, or the US Virgin Islands; an individual whose parent is a US citizen; a former alien naturalized as a US citizen. |
| Civil Liberties | Protections against government interference or restraints. These include the rights or freedoms given to the people of the United States by the First Amendment to the Constitution, like the liberties of free thought, expression, assembly, worship or petition without government action. |
| Civil Rights | A broader concept than civil liberties. Refers to legal actions that the government puts into place to ensure that all people receive equal treatment. Some examples are the right to an equal education; the right to be free from employment discrimination; the right to vote; and the right to equality in public places. |
| Civilian | One not on active duty in a military, police, or fire-fighting force. |
| Colonel | An Army commissioned officer typically commanding a brigade-sized unit. Ranking above a Lieutenant Colonel. Primary task to command units, provide tactical plans and make decisions. |
| Combat Engineer Company | A unit that can reorganize as infantry when needed and provides engineer support for its regiment to ensure troop mobility and the transport of materials, supplies, and personnel. This includes the construction of bridges, obstacles, and defensive positions as well as the destruction of bridges and roadblocks as needed. The 232nd Combat Engineer Company supported the 442nd Regimental Combat Team as well as other units throughout WWII. |
| Combatant | One that is engaged in or ready to engage in combat. |
| Commander | One in an official position of command or control. |
| Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) | A Congressional commission charged with studying the mass removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and recommending an appropriate remedy. |
| Commissioned Officer | A military officer who holds rank by appointment at or above the rank of Second Lieutenant or Ensign. |
| Company | A tactical-sized unit typically composed of three to five platoons, commanded by a Captain. Contains a headquarters (administrative) detachment. Generally three rifle platoons and one heavy weapons platoon. Identified by letters: A Company, B Company, etc. Depending on the type of unit, referred to as a Troop (e.g., Ground or Air Cavalry) or Battery (e.g., Field Artillery). |
| Concentration Camp | A place at which persons are confined or imprisoned, typically under harsh conditions, usually because of their membership within a particular persecuted group. Although the term has been used as early as the twentieth century in the Spanish American and Boer Wars, today it is most commonly used to refer to the Nazi camps of World War II, which held millions of Jews as well as other persecuted minorities including homosexuals, Gypsies, and Poles, and at which at least six million died under horrendous conditions. The term “American concentration camps” is used to refer to the relocation centers or internment camps that housed Americans of Japanese ancestry and Japanese nationals who were forcibly removed from their homes during World War II. |
| Convoy | A group of vehicles organized for the purpose of control or orderly movement with or without escort protection. |
| Corporal | A non-commissioned officer ranking in the Army above Private First Class and Specialist and below Sergeant. |