the civil affairs staging area (casa) also known as the civil affairs holding and staging area was a combined u.s. army, u.s navy military formation authorized by the joint chiefs of staff on june 18, 1944 during world war two for military government theater planning, training and provision of military government personnel to areas of the far east liberated from the empire of japan, including east china, formosa and korea. casa had two divisions: the operations and training division focused on language instruction and execution of civil affairs duties at a local level. these duties varied greatly and, as an example, included mass feeding of civilians, camp sanitation, provision of medical supplies, containment of epidemic diseases, labor relations and rodent control. the theatre planning & research division developed plans for military government at a national level such as control of japan's economic institutions, control of japan's education system and methods for increasing the overall supply of food throughout, not only japan, but also previously occupied areas like east china. casa provided comprehensive training and planning in civil affairs administration to officers coming from six schools of military government established at various universities throughout the united states. army & navy personnel trained by casa numbered in the thousands, with more than 1,000 officers assigned to a wide variety of civil affairs positions for the initial occupation of japan alone. the goal of the u.s. army's civil affairs division in the creation of casa was to replicate the same success in the far east experienced by the civil affairs division in the european theatre. general john h. hilldring ordered colonel hardy c. dillard, commander of the civil affairs training division for the european theater of operations, to take command of casa from colonel william a. boekel and implement the european civil affair's planning and training program. colonel dillard was relieved of command on 20 july 1945 by brigadier general percy l. sadler.