Book Description
The only anthology of its kind, Only What We Could Carry is a collection of literature from the internment experience, including poetry and fiction written and published in the camps, personal diaries, letters, and the haunting recollections of other American citizens who saw what was happening.
Customer Reviews:
The Pacific War from the homefront........2007-08-28
For World War II history buffs, this book is an excellent view from the eyes of Japanese Americans. They were amazing people in how they dealt with the situation.
One section of the book gets a little bogged down covering the issue of "Question 28", and I passed over the poetry, but beyond that it is a great read.
Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience.......2007-08-25
I thought I knew a good bit about the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II before I read this book, but I was badly mistaken. This is a very good gathering of different sources: journal excerpts, recollections, legal documents, photos, poetry, ect., that give a complete and horrible picture of these events. The parallels to an unfortunate number of things happening currently in our government/society are a real demonstration of the adadge that if we don't learn from history we are condemned to repeat it.
What National Panic makes us think........2003-09-11
Only what we could carry, edited by Lawson Fusao Inada, is a compilation of photography, drawings, poems, personal stories, legal documents, and memoirs of the Japanese Americans that were put into internment by the American government after the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. Not only did this book include the interneesEexperience and their feelings, the interneesEAmerican friends and the media who were on the government side were included.
Some of the interesting facts in this book were the propaganda images. One that really struck me as an interesting propaganda was titled, "How to spot a Jap.E In a cartoon style, it mentions the differences between a Chinese and a Japanese. The drawings are put there so that it'll be easy for the public to differentiate them. I'm Japanese and I found this propaganda amusing. By just looking or reading the propaganda, it gives the reader the history and portrays how so many Americans were narrow minded and easily persuaded.
Perspectives.......2001-11-05
This book has an impressive collection of accounts from various sources and manages to touch upon any significant Japanese American experience during World War II.
I purchased this book for its coverage of the Nisei 100th and 442nd batalions, and was impressed at the varied perspectives included. From an excerpt from Daniel Inouye's account to a reflection by a concentration camp survivor liberated by men of the 442nd, Only What We Could Carry certainly covers the map.
A good source for those studying any aspect of Japanese American life during the war, and an excellent one for those studying the subject in general.
An important account of the Japanese American internment.......2001-01-17
Only What We Could Carry provides an important account of the Japanese American internment experience after the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. Personal documents, art and propaganda are presented in a title which captures the camp experience in a series of personal autobiographical revelations. Highly recommended.
Average customer rating:
- still holds up
- Manzanar - Japanese - California Desert
- Chavez, Carlos, and Elsie's Reviews
- Internment Camp
- japanese
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Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston , and
James D. Houston
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience
ASIN: 0553272586
Release Date: 1983-03-01 |
Book Description
Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when her family was uprooted from their home and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp--with 10,000 other Japanese Americans. Along with searchlight towers and armed guards, Manzanar ludicrously featured cheerleaders, Boy Scouts, sock hops, baton twirling lessons and a dance band called the Jive Bombers who would play any popular song except the nation's #1 hit: "Don't Fence Me In."
Farewell to Manzanar is the true story of one spirited Japanese-American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced detention . . . and of a native-born American child who discovered what it was like to grow up behind barbed wire in the United States.
Download Description
The U.S. government's internment of 120,000 Asian Americans in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 is a thorny era that many Americans have chosen to ignore. Farewell to Manzanar is a factual narrative by Jeanne Toyo Wakatsuki and James D. Houston that follows Jeanne, her family, and 30,000 other Asian Americans along a three-decade-long journey of silent denial and racial degradation.
Customer Reviews:
still holds up.......2007-09-28
i read this book when i was about 11 and purchased it for my 12 yr old son last month. he loved it as much as i did. loves to read, loves world war ii history and had no idea that the u s had holding camps for u s citizens of japanese descent. started a diolog with his g'pa, s f born and bred, about japanese americans he'd known as a child who were imprisoned. should be required reading for all
Manzanar - Japanese - California Desert.......2007-06-12
This is the greatest film depicting life in the Manzanar camp in the California desert. It should teach us all about prejudice and where it brings us.
Chavez, Carlos, and Elsie's Reviews.......2007-05-30
Farewell to Manzanar is a novel about a girl and her family going into an internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
This book is very well written. It explains the struggles that many Japanese people went through during World War Two and Pearl Harbor during the early 1940s. This books states how it was like to be Japanese inside an interment camp and the uncertainty of what was going to happen the next day. This book is based on one main thing, oppression. It is a novel based on oppression because there is negative power being used by the government for only one specific social group or race, which in this case are Japanese people. The main characters in this book are the father who is taken away from his family by the government and his family, who is not sure when he is coming back. The mother is a strong, independent woman during the novel and Kiyo, who is the little brother, is always trying to make someone laugh. Finally there is Martha, who is the girl telling the family's story.
Overall, I think this is a good book to read because you get to see what Japanese Americans' experiences were like in internments camps and what it felt like to not know what was going on or coming next. -by Carlos
Martha remembers lots of things, but this one she will never forget. She remembers it was December and there had to be about 20-25 boats bombed in Pearl Harbor. Her dad is taken away from her house, because the U.S wants to get information from all Japanese Americans to check and see if they are responsible for Pearl Harbor.
In my opinion, this girl suffered more than anyone I know, because she loses everything. She loses her dad, her family, and also her house. There is nothing left for her. I've never seen my dad, but I would hate to have seen him then lose him. Her family is taken to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp. She is with them, but not living the way she wants to. She is with her brother and mother in the camp. She loses her house, because the U.S thinks she is potentially responsible for Pearl Harbor, or has something to do with it. Overall, I think this book is very good because it gives you very good details on how a little girl experiences a traumatic event at a young age. -by Chavez
A Farewell to Manzanar is a very well written book. It is about a little Japanese girl and what her family had to go through during three years in the Japanese interment camp, Manzanar. There are things she loses like her dad, her house, and her personal belongings. While she is in the interment camp, she goes to school. She has to get permission from parents to spend time with their children while in the camp. Her dad gets taken because the FBI finds evidence that the father has been giving Japan fuel and oil. They are wrong, but just like that, take him away.
Its really interesting reading what the little Japanese girl has to go through in the interment camp. She stands strong even though her dad is taken away. Even though she suffers, she still keeps on strong. It's a good example that even though things might seem hard, there is always a solution for everything. -by Elsie
Internment Camp.......2007-04-23
Jeanne is only seven years old and living in California when Pearl Harbor is attacked. Her parents were from Japan but had been living in the United States for most of their lives. Jeanne and her eight older siblings had all been born in this country and raised as English-speaking Americans. Jeanne's father is now a fisherman who owns two of his own fishing boats. Their family is moderately successful.
All of their success and security ends when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. All of a sudden, people begin looking at Japanes Americans, who are not allowed to become citizens, as the enemy. The American government is terrified that people of Japanese background will pass secrets to the Japanese who are attacking us, so the government takes rights away from anyone who has Japanese blood.
Jeanne's family is considered a particular danger, because they live on the west coast and they fish. They are no longer allowed to fish. Their boats are confiscated. They are then sent to Manzanar, a relocation camp further inland, where thousands of Japanese Americans are sent to live in a fenced-in area until the war is over.
When they first arrive at Manzanar, things are pretty bad. The barracks have been hastily constructed and do not do much to keep out the cold or the dust swirling all around. They are not large enough for families to live comfortably. The food that is served is almost inedible, because the people planning the meals have no concept of what Japanese people eat. Worst of all, though, is the knowledge of the people living there that their government doesn't trust them.
Jeanne and her family are forced to live at this camp for years. This book is an honest look at what the camp was like and what effect it had on Jeanne's family to be stationed there.
I liked that Jeanne doesn't portray her family as perfect. They have as many problems as any other family, and her father is especially flawed. Before I read this book I didn't know much about the Japanese camps, so it was interesting for me to get to know a whole new aspect of the war that isn't discussed as much as the things happening overseas.
This was one person's story, which is both a strength and a weakness. It offers a first-hand account of day to day life, but it lacks in well-rounded historical information. I would like to have know what the government's reasoning was, and how the authorities justified keeping these people locked up for so long.
japanese.......2007-04-19
when i read this book i cried because the americans were fighting against the germans who were doing horific things to the jews and the americans do that to american citizens who are japanese. i'm japanese but an american citizen.
Book Description
This diligently documented book shows that neither the internment of ethnic Japanese--not to mention ethnic Germans and Italians--nor the relocation and evacuation of Japanese Americans from the West Coast were the result of war hysteria or race prejudice as historians have taught us.
Customer Reviews:
Refuted by Ken Burns' "The War".......2007-10-07
Ken Burns' PBS production, "The War", absolutely refutes this garbage. Malkin is repugnant and ridiculous. I know Japanese Americans whose families experienced this violation of the Constitution (such as "due process"). No, I did not buy this diatribe and nonsense; I read portions of it at the bookstore because good, reasonable and intelligent people should not patronize seriously flawed authors, such as Malkin, Ann Coulter, David Horowitz et al with their hatred and outrageous invectives. One should NOT ever pay attention to her opinion. She has lost all credibility.
Bigotry Sells.......2007-10-07
Michelle Malkin conducted absolutely no scholarly research in the writing of this ridiculous book. She argued that Japan controlled the entire Pacific Ocean, maintained a vast network of spies in the US, and planned to invade the West Coast. Through subterfuge and falsification of information, she thus concluded that internment camps were not morally reprehensible because they were of military necessity and because, in her mind, racism did not exist during the 1940s.
Fortunately, Eric Muller, a law professor at UNC -- Chapel Hill, revealed that Malkin's arguments were entirely unsubstantiated and willfully falsified. As historian Greg Robinson observed, "there were no reports of sabotage or espionage" following Pearl Harbor or before Japanese-Americans were unlawfully imprisoned. Allied forces maintained a Germany-first strategy because they considered Japan to be a lesser threat, in part because it did not have absolute control of the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, internment camps were established in June 1942, after the Battle of Midway, in which Japan's defeat greatly diminished its threat to the US mainland.
Despite the great deal of criticism she received, Malkin refused to budge from her position that MAGIC cables established the military necessity of internment camps. She underscored how important MAGIC was to her argument by dedicating her book to David Lowman, whose "research" on MAGIC she borrowed extensively from. However, James C. McNaughton, Command Historian of the US Army, Pacific, declared that Lowman's work on MAGIC to be of no merit and dismissed Lowman's "polemics ... as symptomatic of the lingering bitterness stemming from Pearl Harbor and the emotions raised by apologies and compensation."
Even the Historians' Committee for Fairness proved that Malkin's book represented "a blatant violation of professional standards of objectivity" -- "decades of scholarly research, including works by the official historian of the US Army" have contradicted every one of her intellectually dishonest claims. Following a report by the US government Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, President Reagan authorized that compensation be paid because the denial of civil rights to Japanese-Americans had been "motivated by racism" instead of veritable military concerns. As the noted biographer Jean Edward Smith pointed out, during their internment, Japanese-Americans lost more than $400 million from 1942 to 1945, a sum when adjusted for inflation equated to almost $5 billion. These financial losses were never fully or adequately recouped.
Lastly, it should be noted that the segregated Japanese-American 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team became the most highly decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the US Army. When the European Theatre finally ended, the 100th/442nd had received 7 Presidential Unit Citations, and its members were awarded numerous decorations for valor and competence, including 21 Medals of Honor, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars, 4,000 Bronze Stars, and 9,486 Purple Hearts. Their sacrifice was astounding because they suffered a casualty rate of 314 percent, which meant, on average, every man was injured more than three times.
About time!.......2007-08-29
Take an unpopular (conservative) stance on this issue and you are sure to be villified! In the context of the times, our government's response to the unprovoked sneak attack of Pearl Harbor and the invasion of the Phillipines was absolutely correct. The Japanese government refuses to this day to acknowledge many of the unspeakable atrocities that were committed by its soldiers during the war. The tentacles of its spy rings reached far and deep into this country. Good job Michelle!
To Protect a Nation.......2007-08-06
Meticulously researched, well-organized, logically presented. In order to protect a nation the measures taken must be sufficient to address the threat. Mistakes will be made. Nothing is perfect. If the mistakes occur on the side of protecting too much, the nation stands a chance of survival. If the mistakes are made on the side of not protecting enough the nation will perish. There is no such thing as "just the right amount." (When you have bacterial pneumonia and the doctor prescribes an antibiotic, do you want him to prescribe the minimum strength or the maximum? Do you stop taking the antibiotic as soon as your symptoms are gone, or do you finish the medication even after you are asymptomatic? Try stopping the medicine too soon and see what happens.) If it makes a nation safer to round up a large group of people who fit the enemy profile when the enemy threat is imminent then profiling is good, racial or otherwise. If you can't accept this then let's just ignore the borders, give everyone the benefit of doubt and we'll see who you blame the next time people who share appearance, enthicity and religion fly a jetliner into a city.
You Cant Handle The Truth.......2007-07-17
Michelle Malkin gives the facts and nothing but the facts.You will be surprised at what has been kept out of our history books and why.As michelle said in the book,to forget the past is dangerous but to fabricate the past is a much bigger sin.
Book Description
Censored by the U.S. Army, Dorothea Lange's unseen photographs are the extraordinary photographic record of the Japanese American internment saga.
This indelible work of visual and social history confirms Dorothea Lange's stature as one of the twentieth century's greatest American photographers. Presenting 119 images originally censored by the U.S. Army—the majority of which have never been published—Impounded evokes the horror of a community uprooted in the early 1940s and the stark reality of the internment camps. With poignancy and sage insight, nationally known historians Linda Gordon and Gary Okihiro illuminate the saga of Japanese American internment: from life before Executive Order 9066 to the abrupt roundups and the marginal existence in the bleak, sandswept camps. In the tradition of Roman Vishniac's A Vanished World, Impounded, with the immediacy of its photographs, tells the story of the thousands of lives unalterably shattered by racial hatred brought on by the passions of war. 104 photographs.
Customer Reviews:
Great photography and history.......2007-01-12
Outstanding description and photographs documenting the terrible injustice done to American citizens and residents solely because of their Japanese ancestry throughout the Second World War. The indecencies suffered by these people can barely be described adequately, but this book attempts to further illustrate the horrors that can be inflicted on an ethnic group if racism is allowed to influence government policy, as it did in this country during that war.
Text, yes. Photographs, no.......2007-01-10
These important photographs taking during WW2 in the Japanese internment camps scattered around the American west are almost unreadble. The are reproduced very small, and without the requisite skill to make deteriorated images look half decent on the printed page.
The text is informative, especially about Dorothea Lange's trials in gaining access to the camps in California.
Impounded: Important Photography of the Internment and American History.......2007-01-08
Dorothea Lange's photographs document an important American event that is still unknown to a large number of Americans. The fact that the government impounded the photographs speaks for itself.
Heartbreaking images of a shameful past........2006-11-06
Although the text is informative in telling the history of Japanese internment during World War II, the images speak for themselves, page after page in stark black and white, the young and innocent, the old and careworn, carrying rope-bound suitcases and cardboard boxes, standing in long lines, waiting to be processed by indifferent jailors, an entire race herded into the camps that will be home for the war years, disenfranchising them of investment in community and the pride of being Americans. As history has proven over and over, fear is a monster that cannot be contained once the public is infected, the vulnerable a source of suspicion, marked by the color of their skin and the shape of their eyes.
Whole families gather in these telling photographs, leaving treasured belongings behind, grandparents to infants, all swept up in an infamous display of mistrust in a country suddenly driven to panic by a surprise attack, demanding a quick response from their government. Lange has a particular talent for capturing the very human face of the internment camps, children with ID tags attached to their coats, chain link fences topped with barbed wire circling the arid landscape, family laundry hanging from a window, the barren rows of housing units assailed by constant dust storms, women working on camouflage nets for the War Department.
Famous for her Depression era photos of migrant farm workers, this series of photographs, while ordered by the US Government, were censored for the duration of the war. The most striking feature of the collection is the very American look of these people, standing proud while saluting the flag, teenagers trying to act cool in spite of their surroundings, family gatherings that are familiar Americana. It is also important to mention that, in spite of the extreme measures undertaken, "no Japanese-American was ever found guilty of espionage". Lange's work is enhanced by the two essays that precede the collection of photographs, Linda Gordon's biographical essay on Lange's life and work and Gary Okihiro's "An American Story", outlining Japanese immigration to America and the history of Japanese internment, with personal anecdotes by detainees. This is a moving portrait of a country's response to threat, reminding us to value the precious tenets of freedom. Luan Gaines/2006.
Book Description
In 1941, Mary Matsuda Gruenewald was a teenage girl who, like other Americans, reacted with horror to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Yet soon she and her family were among 110,000 innocent people imprisoned by the U.S. government because of their Japanese ancestry. In this eloquent memoir, she describes both the day-to-day and the dramatic turning points of this profound injustice: what is was like to face an indefinite sentence in crowded, primitive camps; the struggle for survival and dignity; and the strength gained from learning what she was capable of and could do to sustain her family. It is at once a coming-of-age story with interest for young readers, an engaging narrative on a topic still not widely known, and a timely warning for the present era of terrorism. Complete with period photos, the book also brings readers up to the present, including the author's celebration of the National Japanese American Memorial dedication in 2000.
Customer Reviews:
Powerful and Personal.......2007-07-13
I loved this book. As a Sansei, 3rd generation Japanese in America, I learned so much from reading this book. Both of my parents were interned during the war, but in all these years, they've only shared bits and pieces or vague generalities of their own experiences. Reading Mary Matsuda's vivid and detailed account of her own experience gave me a much greater appreciation and understanding of this traumatic, stressful period, along with a better understanding of basic Japanese customs and beliefs that have guided my own life. It has been a powerful step towards better understanding my own family's history, and I so appreciate that this story was shared by the author. It was beautifully written. I highly recommend this book to all.
Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps.......2007-06-14
A must. Extremely readable. Should be required reading for Junior or High School students. Evokes a sense of what it felt like to be Japanese during that infamous time.
Eye Opening.......2007-02-14
My family was also sent to internment camps, actually some of the same ones as this author. We came from the same beloved Vashon. Being a child of a parental figure who came from that era and having had aunts and uncles, grandparents and great grandparents who had lived that experience but never spoken of it, this book has opened my eyes and helped me understand the severity of it all. I can understand now the turmoil emotionally and physically that they under went. I cried with this author. For even today, in this wide spread nation, I can still see the ripples of underlying current made from this time period and the choices made by our leaders. This is a wonderful book. You'll learn something, and if you don't, you should ask yourself some hard questions.
Strongly recommended to all Americans.......2007-01-28
Even if one is aware of the internment of the American Japanese, I doubt that most people can form any real idea of what it was like without reading a personal chronicle like this. It is difficult to express how painful it is to read, and I already knew the basic story. Sure, now we know that it didn't turn into a second Holocaust, but the people in the camps didn't have that comforting foreknowledge. One needs to be reminded that although the intense portions of a tragedy may be long over with, the ramifications for the people who suffered through it can last all their lives, even for those who didn't lose everything that they had owned before the catastrophe.
Jeanne Wakatusi Houston also wrote a classic memoir: Farewell to Manzanar, and it is well worth reading both of the books for the similarities and differences between the two experience. Houston was perhaps 8 or 10 years younger than Mary Matsuda, and her family dynamics were quite different, so they really complement one another. Being older, Mary Matsuda had to confront personally and directly issues that Jeanne Wakatusi Houston didn't, although of course her family members did. JWH tells us more about her life after the camps; MMG ends her books in 1945, with only an afterword summarizing the later lives of the Matsudas.
I found the book very vivid. I could easily imagine how I would feel having to destroy so much family history, even being afraid to keep a set of dolls lest it add fuel to the anti-Japanese fervor. And I feel that I have some inkling of what it was like to live for years under constant strain, not knowing what would come next, or if it would ever end. I was close to crying at points, which is unusual for me. The Matsudas lived on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound, which should make the book all the more interesting to fans of Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars.
The book includes a bibliography, a glossary and numerous black-and-white photographs of the Matsudas and the camps.
Brings back old memories.......2006-07-05
Although I have never met the author, I did know her brother Yonichi. I also know his 4 daughters. This book brought back memories of my time in the relocation camp in Minidoka, ID.
Customer Reviews:
Re-assessment of an influential reference book.......2007-06-26
This book has become the great oracle upon which most subsequent works and educational curricula on the subject have been based. In this short review, I will deal with only the Summary (pp. 1-23) as the remainder of the Report (which includes the Recommendations) is simply an amplification of the major theories, assumptions and speculations advanced in the summarized portion.
The original Report was published in December 1982; a reprint was published in 1997 with a prologue by The Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, and a forward by Tetsuden Kashima, who praises the Report as infallible. It is regrettable, however, that this new edition does not include any documentary evidence, of which there is an abundance, showing the other side of the story. It is no wonder, however -- unbiased revelation of facts would have been too hard a pill to swallow.
The title of the Report is presumptuous, in that it implies the justice of all the Nikkei was denied. There is no mention, however, of the injustices committed by any of those arrested, or who engaged in subversive activities while at the centers, or the renunciants, or even the injustices committed by the Issei, the Nisei and the Kibei against each other. The Report one-sidedly places all the blame upon the U.S. Government and the general American public. The Nikkei, including enemy alien Japanese, are portrayed consistently as the innocent victims, "against whom no charges were, or could have been, brought" (page 10), a statement as wild as it is nonsensical. Thousands of Nikkei were never affected by the evacuation -- what personal justice of theirs was denied?
If there is anything "denied" in this Report, it is a full and unprejudiced view of the facts made available to the American public.
Here, then, are my comments on a few excerpts from the Summary:
Page 1: "the Commission held 20 days of hearings... hearing testimony from more than 750 witnesses"
This would mean there were 40 witnesses per day, at approximately 15 minutes per testimony. It is hard to see how this was accomplished, especially with time for questioning. The actual number of witnesses giving testimony, as listed in the Report's Notes, is only around 340. Most of the Report's conclusions are apparently, therefore, taken from these few testimonies, as well as already existing books, testimonials, diaries, letters, memos, and transcribed telephone conversations dealing with the subject. Objectivity is an apparent victim in this Report.
Page 2: "Japanese immigrants who,... despite long residence in the United States, were not permitted to become American citizens"
This is a commonly-heard assumption that all Issei in the U.S. would have become U.S. citizens had they been allowed. Yet history shows otherwise, where not all resident aliens wanted U.S. citizenship. Many Issei were planning on returning to Japan once they were able to make enough money, and tens of thousands did return prior to WWII. This intention of eventual return to Japan is not taken into consideration in the Report. Instead, the U.S. Govt. is blamed for its callous and unmerciful immigration laws. It is presumptuous of the Commission to imply all Japanese aliens wanted to become Americans.
Also ignored are the 20,000 or so Nikkei who were living outside of the military zones, hence never under obligation to evacuate. Their testimonies are lacking from this Report. Similarly lacking are the testimonies of tens of thousands who did not "lose everything they had," but returned to their farms and businesses after leaving the relocation centers.
Page 2-3: "This policy of exclusion, removal and detention was executed against 120,000 people without individual review... without regard for their demonstrated loyalty"
This statement in itself is reason enough to doubt the integrity of this Report. The number 120,000 is taken from official War Relocation Authority statistics, and is the total of all who were ever in a relocation center, including those who were born there. Why the Commission uses this number is without explanation -- some 10,000 souls who were never there at the start were somehow excluded, removed and detained. The historians and advisers to the Commission must have been out to lunch when this figure was decided upon. There was obviously an ulterior motive.
How can one execute "exclusion, removal and detention" against the unborn? Furthermore, how can babies and toddlers demonstrate loyalty? How could any of the 50,000 or so children at the centers been able to demonstrate their loyalty to the U.S.?
Finally, I shall use the following paragraph as a summary of the Summary:
"The promulgation of Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity, and the decisions which followed from it -- detention, ending detention and ending exclusion -- were not driven by analysis of military conditions. The broad historical causes that shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership. Widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan. A grave injustice was done to American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who, without individual review or any probative evidence against them, were excluded, removed and detained by the United States during World War II."
This is the main theme of the entire Report -- there was no necessity. There was no "documented act of espionage, sabotage or fifth column activity" by any Nikkei. This, however, flies in the face of the facts -- an abundance of intelligence documentation proving there were both Issei and Nisei involved in espionage on the West Coast. The Commission was ignorant, willfully ignorant, of this overwhelming evidence. They are the ones, sadly, who do not permit the conclusion, for a truthful conclusion would abruptly end their premeditated demands of apology and redress.
There indeed was "analysis of military conditions." To say otherwise shows a lack of honest research and a great disrespect toward our military leaders, leaders who knew far more than those on the Commission. The ineptitude lies at the feet of those advisers and researchers who purposely left out hard evidence that would have shown the Commission the sandy foundation upon which they were building.
The mantra, "race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership," in reality comes back to sting the Commission.
There was no racism -- thousands of Japanese Americans in the U.S. did not complain of racism before or during WWII, including those who evacuated or were relocated to other parts of the U.S. They lived without prejudice. The Commission seems to have trouble understanding the difference between race and nationality. No wonder, of course, since the Commission thought "resident alien Japanese" were somehow different from the Japanese against whom the U.S. was fighting at the time. For a real study of racism, the Commission should have checked into Imperial Japan of the past, and the Japan of 1982.
"War hysteria" is a most-odd term chosen by the Commission. That the American people were hysterical about the war and took it out on the Nikkei is taking social behavior too far, and blaming all Americans for the behavior of a few. The truth was that there were thousands of Americans helping their fellow Americans evacuate, and then also to relocate and resettle. Was it "war hysteria" that caused teachers and pastors and neighbors to go out of their way to help the Nikkei, including those who had become their enemies after Pearl Harbor?
The hysteria surely must have been on the part of the Commission, and the activist audience at the hearings. This, by the way, is not at all far from the truth -- only a short reading of the record of hearings will be convincing.
Finally, the "failure of political leadership" means, to the Commission and its crowd of supporters, that, first of all, our President failed, then next our Vice-President, then the President's Cabinet, then all the members of Congress, then the State Governors, and then, most of all, our military leaders. In other words, the United States was in a state of utter chaos, existing under an oppressive lack of leadership. In its place was the rule of hysterical prejudice aimed at the people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast.
Ah, but such was not the case at all, most fortunately, and for which all Nikkei now should ever be grateful. When the empire of Japan suddenly and deliberately attacked the United States of America, an amazing piece of American political and social machinery was put into motion. Quick was our resolve, and intense our deliberations, to use all measures possible for the safety of our beloved country, for every citizen of the United States, knowing full well the implications of what the Japanese forces had just accomplished in relative short time throughout the whole Pacific region.
No, there was no failure, especially on part of our political leaders, especially concerning the treatment of 71,531 Americans of Japanese descent and 38,709 enemy alien Japanese. On the contrary, our leaders, whom we elected, even our President for the 4th time, and those whom he chose to assist him in leading our country, by that very God-given right of authority, planned and executed, most successfully, one of the greatest mass movements of people in the history of the United States, beginning from an evacuation and culminating in a resettlement, a program unequaled in its care and preservation of a sole ethnic group, comprised of both citizens and aliens.
The only failure I am able to ascertain is of this Report's main objective -- to prove that the constitutional rights of American citizens were violated. Nikkei stereotyping, pro-redress activism, and the lack of political discernment were the reasons the Recommendations were approved. Serious researchers look forward to the day a new Commission will correct the injustices of this Report.
Garbage History created by activists for politicians.......2004-05-06
Ron Takagi's weak excuses attempting to explain away the disloyalty of Japanese-Americans segregated at Tule Lake is absurd!
Disloyals were caught up in the fanatical propoganda of Japanese militarism, a cult equally as insidious as Nazism. Hakko-ichiu, the Kokutai, Japanese racial superiority and military successes from Tsushima Strait to Manchukuo caught the attention of ethnic Japanese in colonies throughout the world, regardless of where they were born. The doctrine was being taught in Japanese "language-schools" throughout the world, and by Nichi-ren priests at Buddhist Temples throughout the world...
Takagi's comments are a weak attempt at explaining away the history 60 years later.....
Here's but one example of the many pro-Japan military groups that existed long before Pearl Harbor and who's followers were segregated at Tule Lake...
The Black Dragons were the Amur River Society (Kokuryu-kai) in 1930s and 1940s Japan. The Black Dragons were ultranationalists heavily involved in the conquest of China, and as spies and fifth columnists subverting nations targeted for conquest. The Black Dragons were active up and down the Pacific Coast of North and South America. In the United States, Black Dragons were a concern to Lieutenant Commander K.D. Ringle of U.S. Navy Intelligence and other security officials. On December 7, 1942; Black Dragons led Banzai! cheers at the U.S. Manzanar Relocation Center; the anniversary of the Japanese attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor in 1941. The Black Dragons led and fomented riots and carried out acts of violence at Manzanar, Tule Lake Segregation Center, and other sites where Japanese enemy aliens and Americans of Japanese ancestry were located. The Black Dragons and other ultranationalist organizations provided the nucleus for the formation of the postwar Yakuza organized crime syndicates. See (Dubro and Kaplan, pages 36, 67, 85 and 192). Also see Tony Matthews in Shadows Dancing, pages 43, 46 and 222-223. A number of Black Dragon members were in the Japanese government and many were charged as war criminals in 1945.
Well Done Summary and Analysis of WWII Internment.......2004-02-07
This book is a masterful summary of events surrounding the wartime relocation and detention activities, and a strong indictment of the policies that led to them. The report and its recommendations were instrumental in effecting a presidential apology and monetary restitution to surviving Japanese Americans and members of the Aleut community.
As for the accusations and charges that all Japanese Americans were probably disloyal and untrustworthy, it should be known that INTERNED Japanese Americans did volunteer to serve in the Japanese-American 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442d Regimental Combat Team during World War II. If you read the book Go For Broke (written by Chester Tanaka), it tells about the bravery of one of the MOST decorated combat unit in the U.S. Army. At least 680 of them were killed in action fighting the Germans in Italy and Western Europe. At least 1200 came from mainland U.S. concentration camps and rest came from Hawaii, where Executive Order 9066 to intern the West Coast Japanese-American community did not apply.
And in Strangers From A Different Shore by Ronald Takaki (pages 397-404), it states at least 33,000 Japanese-Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces.
They also served in the Pacific front as translators, reconnaissance, etc. and General Charles Willoughby, chief of intelligence in the Pacific, estimated that Japanese-American intelligence work help shorten the Pacific war by 2 years
So if Japanese Americans were considered to be DISLOYAL, then why would the President of the U.S. allow them to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces?
Well in Mr. Takaki's book on page 397 it states that President Roosevelt wanted to neutralize Japanese propaganda about WW II being a race war. So in February 1943, President Roosevelt authorized to allow Japanese-American men, including those INTERNED in detention camps such as Tule Lake center, to register for the draft by signing loyalty questionnaires in which they simply answer "yes" to serving in combat duty and swearing to unqualified allegiance to the U.S.
I would like to also reply to comments made by other customers about this book.
* One customer made this comment: "After loyalty screening, eighteen thousand Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans were segregated at a special center for disloyals at Tule Lake California where regular military "Banzai" drills in support of Emperor Hirohito were held. "
The customer is correct that Japanese-Americans detained at the Tule Lake detention center held mass demonstrations, but they were NOT expressing support for the Japanese emperor.
If you read the book A Fence Away from Freedom by Ellen Levine (pages 134-137, 231-240), the author writes that the Japanese-Americans were protesting on October 15, 1943, the death of an inmate who was killed in a truck accident.
In February 1943, President Roosevelt authorized to allow Japanese-American men to register for the draft by signing loyalty documents.
Several young Japanese-American men protested about the unfairness of being interned inside detention centers AND being asked to register for the draft by NOT showing up for Army physical exams.
These Tule Lake internees were actually INDICTED for trying to resist the draft registration!
But on July 29, 1944, Federal Judge Louis E. Goodman dismissed indictments against 26 Tule Lake draft resisters and declared: "It is shocking to the conscience that an American citizen be confined on the ground of disloyalty, and then, while so under duress and restraint, be compelled to serve in the armed forces, or be prosecuted for not yielding to such compulsion."
* Another comment that was made: "In a questionnaire, over 26% of Japanese-Americans of military age at the time said they would refuse to swear an unqualified oath of allegiance to the United States."
As mentioned above President Roosevelt DID authorized in 1943 to allow Japanese-American men to register for the draft by signing loyalty questionnaires.
But as Mr. Ronald Takaki states in his book Strangers From A Different Shore on page 397, these Japanese-American men wanted to PROTEST their INTERNMENT in the detention camps and therefore answered "no" to unqualified allegiance to the U.S.
They were placed in detention camps BECAUSE the U.S. government thought they might be DISLOYAL enough to commit sabotage or espionage, and ALL of them were classified by the Selective Service as IV-C - enemy aliens - because they were considered untrustworthy and therefore were NOT allowed to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces!
All of these books should be read by all those who want a more detailed overview and background of the controversial relocation and detention of Japanese Americans during WWII, which is now more relevant and important as ever because of the September 11 terrorist attack and the resulting racial profiling and detention of Arab Americans.
This isn't a report. It's a legal brief!.......2004-01-09
This is what happens when the history of the United States is decided via politically motivated congressional commissions. Personally, I believe the role of the legislature is to legislate, not re-educate.
This "study" as some call it was prepared by a commission that included NOT ONE recognized World War Two historian or intelligence specialist. It was prepared by a group of activist, liberal products of the 1960s counter movement who were hand-picked by the Japanese American Citizens League and the National Council on Japanese American Redress. The conclusons of this study are terribly flawed, having been decided before the "research" had even begun.
Upon publication, the commission embarassingly admitted they had never heard of MAGIC intelligence, although it was readily available to them as declassified NSA documents. (MAGIC was the name for the broken Japanese diplomatic code indicating widespread espionage amongst ethnic Japanese along the West Coast. In fact this type of "total intelligence" had been the norm as early as the Nishin War and Russo-Japanese War.)
None of the witnesses were required to testify under oath. Japanese-American politicians planted many of the most heinous myths on the floor of congress and not under oath. Witnesses called to support government's decision were met with catcalls and howling from the opposition. In short it was a circus.
For the truth, read "MAGIC" by retired National Security Executive David Lowman. Two-Thirds of the book contains declassified NSA documents related to the era. Read and decide for yourself.
In the meantime, did you know:
It is well-documented that the evacuation was not motivated by racism, as so often claimed today, but by information obtained by the U.S. from pre-war decoded Japanese diplomatic messages and other intelligence revealing the existence of espionage and the potential for sabotage involving then-unidentified resident Japanese aliens and Japanese-Americans living within the West Coast Japanese community. Many of these messages and associated intelligence documents have since been declassified and are available in a number of historical publications.
Only persons of Japanese ancestry (alien and citizen) residing in the West Coast military zones were affected by the evacuation order. Those living elsewhere were not affected at all.
It is not true that Japanese-Americans were "interned. Only Japanese nationals (enemy aliens) arrested and given individual hearings were interned. Such persons were held for deportation in Department of Justice camps. Those evacuated were not interned. They were first given an opportunity to voluntarily move to areas outside the military zones. Those unable or unwilling to do so were sent to Relocation Centers operated by the War Relocation Authority.
At the time, the JACL (Japanese American Citizens League) officially supported the government's evacuation order and urged all enemy alien Japanese and Japanese Americans to cooperate and assist the government in their own self interest.
It is also misleading and in error to state that those affected by the evacuation orders were all "Japanese-Americans." Approximately two-thirds of the ADULTS among those evacuated were Japanese nationals--enemy aliens subject to detention under long-standing law. The vast majority of evacuated Japanese-Americans (U.S. citizens) were children at the time. Their average age was only 15 years. In addition, between 50 and 75 percent of Japanese-Americans over age 17 were also citizens of Japan (dual citizens) under Japanese law. Thousands had been educated in Japan, some having returned to the U.S. holding reserve rank in the Japanese armed forces.
During the war, more than 33,000 evacuees voluntarily left the relocation centers to accept outside employment in areas outside of the military zones. An additional 4,300 left to attend colleges in the East.
In a recent study made by the National Park Service for the Manzanar memorial site, it was revealed that during the war over 26% of Japanese Americans over military age said they would refuse to swear an unqualified oath of allegiance to the United States.
According to War Relocation Authority records, 13,000 applications renouncing their U.S. citizenship and requesting expatriation to Japan were filed by or on behalf of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Over 5,000 such applications had been processed by the end of the war.
After loyalty screening, eighteen thousand Japanese nationals and Japanese-Americans were segregated at a special center for disloyals at Tule Lake California where regular military "Banzai" drills in support of Emperor Hirohito were held.
The Supreme Court of the United States upheld the Constitutionality of the evacuation/relocation in Korematsu v. U.S., 1944 term. In summing up for the 6-3 majority, Justice Black wrote:
"There was evidence of disloyalty on the part of some, the military authorities considered that the need for action was great, and time was short. We cannot -- by availing ourselves of the calm perspective of hindsight -- now say that at the time these actions were unjustified." That decision has never been reversed and stands to this day.
It should be noted that the relocation centers had many amenities. Accredited schools, their own newspapers, stores, churches, hospitals, all sorts of sports and recreational facilities. The centers also had the highest per capita wartime birth rates for any wartime U.S. community with over 6,000 babies being born therein during the war.
After the war, personal property losses of those evacuated were compensated under the Evacuation Claims Act of 1948 in which over 26,000 claims were settled in amounts up to $100,000. Only 15 claims were ever appealed.
Ever since Pres. Reagan signed into law (against the advice of his own Justice Department) the results of this terribly flawed "study", million of taxpayer dollars have been provided annually to support it. That's why this subject is in your newspapers, on T.V., museums, libraries, bookstores and especially schools...all at taxpayer expense and it isn't correct history!
Well, your kids are learning it anyway.
Politicians have no place writing this country's history.
Fataly flawed yet accepted almost everywhere.......2003-11-25
Yes, Personal Justice Denied purports to be thorough
Yes, Personal Justice Denied claims to be an unbiased reading of all of the relevant material on the subject of Relocation and Internment during WWII
Yes, Personal Justice Denied was produced by a body of respected lawmakers and appointees.
No, Personal Justice Denied report what it claims too.
Being neither Japanese nor alive at the time of the WWII internment, I assume that my discussion of this book will be roundly ignored. That's fine - I am rarely ever accused of being the most PC guy on the block. I do, however, know my military intelligence.
As a specific indictment of this work (and as mentioned in other reviews), read David Lowman's MAGIC,The Untold Story of US Intelligence and the Evacuation of
Japanese Residents from the West Coast During WWII.
Really.
The commission that produced PJD was created in a political atmosphere by politicians with an agenda. That agenda was to rewrite the history of Japanese nationals living in the US during WWII. A political commission may well be biased towards, and ignore data that damages, the political climate of the day. PJD is exactly that - a political document which totally ignores military fact.
Military fact is this; you can't tell everyone every chunk of data you use to come to a decision. Doing that endangers your ability to continue to GAIN information using secret channels. If you tell people where you got your data, it's no longer a secret you see. This is the case with MAGIC and the Japanese internment camps. The error on the part of the government in preventing the full story of why people were relocated (and in some cases repatriated) is in waiting too long to declassify relevant documents.
The important point about declassifying documents, especially in this case, is you as the government do not KNOW the agenda of every special interest group out there. Had the folks in charge of declassifying documents realized that Japanese lobbyists were about to bring up a long dead and assumed settled issue I bet they would have hustled those documents out of their storage boxes. It is quite difficult to keep track of every lobby and which issues are going to become popular at any given time. I mention that the issue was considered settled due to the fact that, after WWII US citizens in internment camps were returned to their homes(where possible) and offered redress for the financial burden they suffered. This they accepted and life went on. PJD is the result of lobbyists succeeding in convincing politicians that that redress was for the specifically FINANCIAL burden suffered - not for MENTAL anguish. That where PJD came from you see; legal word craft.
All of that said, the commission then proceeded to ignore relevant intelligence data. That data being intercepted communications between persons living in the US and Japan specifically creating a Japanese intelligence network BEFORE Pearl Harbor with the express purpose, stated in CLEAR TEXT(post decryption) of providing war time intelligence and committing acts of sabotage within the US.
But why should I rewrite Lowman's book! Buy this book but do NOT make up your mind about this issue without reading David Lowman's; MAGIC,The Untold Story of US Intelligence and the Evacuation of
Japanese Residents from the West Coast During WWII.
If you make up your mind about US internment of Japanese peoples during WWII without reading the WHOLE story, you will be wrong.
Book Description
In 1942,Executive Order 9066 mandated the incarceration of 110,000 Japanese Americans, including men, women, children, the elderly, and the infirm, for the duration of the war. Allowed only what they could carry, they were given just a few days to settle their affairs and report to assembly centers. Businesses were lost, personal property was stolen or vandalized, and lives were shattered. The Japanese word gaman means "enduring what seems unbearable with dignity and grace. "Imprisoned in remote camps surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by soldiers with machine guns, the internees sought courage and solace in art. Using found materials at first and later what they could order by catalog, they whittled and carved, painted and etched, stitched and crocheted. What they created is a celebration of the nobility of the human spirit under adversity. THE ART OF GAMAN presents more than 150 examples of art created by internees, along with a history of the camps.
Customer Reviews:
Crafts behind the wire.......2007-08-30
Delphine Hirasuna is to congratulated on producing a fascinating and moving tribute to the 120,000 Japanese who were interned, firstly in makeshift Assembly Centers for a few months then in Relocation Camps until 1946. It took until 1988 before a Presidential apology was forthcoming for the blatant violation of their civil rights by the federal government.
I think the strength of the book is the background to why the art and craft was produced. Hirasuna explains the rounding up process and public perceptions towards the Japanese only a few months after Pearl Harbor, the locations of the camps (as remote as possible it seems) and daily struggle in a hostile environment.
On page seventeen there is a map of the US and some camp statistics including a reference to Crystal City in Texas which bizarrely held 2264 ethnic Japanese from Latin and South America (1811 from Peru) who, having been forcibly taken to the camp, were then accused of entering the country illegally! After the war the Peruvians were not allowed to return home until Congress sorted out this injustice in 1953.
Look at the paintings, sculpture, craftwork and furniture and be amazed that most of it was created from whatever materials were available, discarded wood, sacking, vegetation, rocks, shells and anything that could be cut, woven or molded. My favorites are twenty-two brooches made from shells, ribbon and wire and they look just stunning. On pages 104-5 you can see a Buddhist shrine, five foot tall, with the most intricate carvings and hard to believe that it was probably made from firewood.
In the back of the book there is some background information about Japanese history museums and a short bibliography which strangely misses out Manzanar: Photography by Ansel Adams, Commentary by John Hersey. A more recent look at the subject is Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment a portfolio of photos by Dorothea Lange. Unfortunately the reproduction and design of the book don't do the photos justice.
The Art of Gaman is beautifully printed and designed (by Kit Hinrichs of Pentagram) and a suitable tribute to creativity in hard times.
***FOR A LOOK INSIDE click 'customer images' under the cover.
THe Human Spirit Defined.......2007-04-13
This book will have you in tears with its beauty in the face of diversity so extreme you can't imagine unless you've talked with a survivor of these internment camps. The level of the art is very fine, museum quality. It is hard to believe they had to scrounge the materials from dump piles and surplus. Anyone who doesn't think art can save lives should get this book.
I was moved to tears.......2007-01-11
The heart and spirit of the japanese internees continued to shine within the walls of their confinement. They found beauty and admiration of beautiful things living in desolate and inhumane conditions of the prison camps. This is a understated book with touching stories to tell.
Well done!.......2007-01-10
This book shows artwork done with minimal supplies in the Japanese-American concentration camps of the western US during WWII. The images are high quality, in color, and very thought-provoking.
The Art of Gaman by Hirasuna.......2005-12-21
This work documents the extensive detainment of Japanese
citizens during the later period of WWII. These prisoners
were kept in whitewashed horse stalls in California, Oregon
and the State of Washington. The camps emphasized education
including arts/crafts with a shortage of teachers.
Fine works of art include:
- The Natural Form of a Snake by Obata
- Kobu by Matsuhiro
- A Bonsai Notebook by Iseyama
- Shell Broaches and Corsages by Iwa Miura and Shintaku
The volume is a solid value for the price charged. It is a must
for serious students of WWII and historians everywhere.
Book Description
During World War II, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were removed and confined four years in sixteen camps located throughout the western half of the United States. Yet the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps remains a largely unknown episode of World War II history. In these selections, Alice Yang Murray investigates the U.S. government's role in planning and carrying out the removal and internment of thousands of citizens, resident aliens, and foreign nationals, and the ways in which Japanese Americans coped with or resisted their removal and incarceration.
Customer Reviews:
A Valuable Resource On The American Internment.......2003-04-20
This Review refers to the paperback edition of "What Did the Internment of Japanese Americans Mean? (Historians at Work)", composed by Roger Daniels, Peter Irons, Michi Weglyn, Gary Y. Okihiro, and Valerie J. Matsumoto and as compiled by Alice Yang Murray.
Murray's book is a compilation of several selections from prominent scholars and authors concerning the plight of those of Japanese descent caught in the Americas during World War II. A brief introduction providing insights into the lives of the authors and several questions accompany each selection. There is also a brief historical background of the internment preceding the selections. Murray provides an extensive list of other works witch may aid the reader in further studies of the topics represented following the selections. The book contains the following excerpts by the following authors; "The Decision for Mass Evacuation" - Roger Daniels, "Gordon Hirabayashi v. United States: A Jap's a Jap" - Peter Irons, "Hostages" - Michi Weglyn, "Tule Lake under Martial Law: A Study in Japanese Resistance" - Gary Y. Okihiro, and "Amache" - Valerie J. Matsumoto.
Murray does an admirable job of portraying to the reader popular interpretations and general historical facts regarding the internment. The topics range from the constitutional laws broken by the internment, to the transfer of Latin Americans of Japanese descent to the United States so that the U.S. could barter them for Allied POWs. The book presents popular views of the Americans interned and their reactions to internment, giving the reader a well-rounded look at the current debate over the subject. Each selection is unique and proves invaluable in regards to understanding the internment and its implications on modern society.
Each literary style is quite original therefore denoting that each style will need proper review. Murray writes in an average style, creating places where the sentence structure can be somewhat awkward. The author periodically goes back and forth between present and past tense, but does do a good job of conveying the topic at hand. The compositional style Daniels uses is quite assertive and conveys a more radical tone, he also seems to generally dislike lawyers - often bringing this dislike into his work, causing the reader general annoyance. However he provides proof to back up his statements and uses an otherwise gripping literary style that keeps the reader interested. Irons writes in a very professional tone, and presents the topics without extreme biases resulting in a well-written work. Weglyn presents a descriptive work, which at times appears to have a bit of anger behind it. Okihiro is slightly vindictive, often targeting other prominent authors and dismissing their work as incorrect. He presents a rather compelling work, but his single mindedness taints it. Matsumoto is very open minded, relating to the reader the wide spectrum of opinion instead of the lone mindset promoted by other authors. However, she sometimes overuses some of her sources, which slightly detracts from the work.
"What Did the Internment of Japanese Americans Mean? (Historians at Work)" makes for an excellent introduction to the various facets of internment, but is not a precise work on any individual realm of the subject. Murray's work is a necessary overview and resource for anyone, both seasoned experts and casual readers, interested in one of the darkest chapters of American history.
Book Description
Illustrated with black-and-white photographs. Young Shi Nomura was among the 120,000 American citizens who lost everything when he was sent by the U.S. government to Manzanar, an interment camp in the California desert, simply because he was of Japanese ancestry.
Customer Reviews:
THEY DESERVE BETTER.......1999-05-17
I read this boook because I had a history project all about Japanese Internment. Before I read this book I thought Japanese Interment was only about the Japanese in some camps. I didn't realize the injustice that we set upon these noble and great people. After reading this book I felt enraged at how the Japanese would have to sell or burn their beautiful and valuble items. I think they deserve so much more than a letter from the President. We should have a much better tribute toward them. I have always been proud of living in such a great state such as California, but I am not proud that they were the least tolerant of the Japanese.
Dear Fellow Adolescents,.......1999-02-05
In this book called I Am An American that I read is a really good book because it is for the kids at the reading level of 9-12 (ages to). If you wanted to know the story. Well in the story their is a yough boy and his family that were intered with others. Also in this story is based one a true one, it is almost like a biography. As I was thinking about this story I realized that is was a very educational it makes you think about the world itself. When I was reading some other reviews I saw one and it caught my attention and I had to write about it. It was about a girl who had experienced what went on in the book. As I was reading on in this review it said that the girl and her family were interned too, just like the boy in the girl in the review. The girl's name that was interned with her family was Shi Nomura. I think being interned is like you having to pack up all of your things and then moving out of the place where you were and then never returning. I think that is just like being interned because you can never go back. And then I started to read another review and it mentioned that this whole thing happened during World War II, and that was one of the worst wars that went on in the world years ago. They said that Japan and many other countries were over world order. "Freedom has a Tousand charms to show". I used this because the people that were interned probably thought that they were going to be free because it makes it seem like they were going to be free but they weren't, going to be free at all. I think that it was a good book because it tells how badly people were treated, it had said that it was a good book. Some people may say that it was not a good book because it might make kids think that when they grow up they will be treated that way. It also might make it seem that this is still going on. It also might make teens think that the world around them is unfair to different people (races). Then it might make teens feel that some people in the world are disrespectful to different people (races), and should be respect to them no matter what race the people are. And it could make them think that people have no kind of respect for others and instead of being mean to them. It is a good book however kids can read it, get an educational idea of their life and the world that surrounds it. I Am An American can get a teen or a child to start reading at the reading level of 9-12. If you by this book then you will enjoy reading it because it will tell you what went on in the world back then instead of now. If you read this book now you will think that "Life isn't the same".
Your Fellow Adolescent, Shanti Lipscomb
Book Description
During World War II some 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and detained in concentration camps in several states. These Japanese Americans lost millions of dollars in property and were forced to live in so-called "assembly centers" surrounded by barbed wire fences and armed sentries.
In this insightful and groundbreaking work, Brian Hayashi reevaluates the three-year ordeal of interred Japanese Americans. Using previously undiscovered documents, he examines the forces behind the U.S. government's decision to establish internment camps. His conclusion: the motives of government officials and top military brass likely transcended the standard explanations of racism, wartime hysteria, and leadership failure. Among the other surprising factors that played into the decision, Hayashi writes, were land development in the American West and plans for the American occupation of Japan.
What was the long-term impact of America's actions? While many historians have explored that question, Hayashi takes a fresh look at how U.S. concentration camps affected not only their victims and American civil liberties, but also people living in locations as diverse as American Indian reservations and northeast Thailand.
Customer Reviews:
Addresses the fact the threat was real........2006-01-21
While Hayashi is critical of the evacuation saying "despite the obvious presence of Japanese nationalistic sentiments before and during the camps, since people cannot and should not be locked up on the basis of political sentiment but rather on the basis of acts committed." - at least he acknowledges the threat of Japanese nationalism.
As for the first reviewer, his history is just plain wrong.
1. Internees included 10,995 Germans, 16, 849 Japanese (5,589 who voluntarily renounced U.S. citizenship and became enemy aliens), 3,278 Italians, 52 Hungarians, 25 Romanians, 5 Bulgarians, and 161 classified as "other". Only a small fraction of enemy aliens were interned. Japanese citizens with families were sent to Crystal City, Texas and lived side-by-side with German and Italian families.
It should be noted that all 16,849 Japanese enemy-aliens including the 5,589 that renounced American citizenship were eligible for an apology from the United States and a $20,000 reparations payment while the Germans, Italians, Hungarians, Romanians and Bulgarians received nothing.
German Americans on the east coast and throughout the country were arrested, interned, and in some cases deported. Almost 11,000 German Americans were interned in the U.S. during World War II. Many German Americans sat, worked, played and went to school in the same camps as their Japanese American counterparts.
Furthermore even before the first person was interned, 600,000 Italian Americans and 300,000 German Americans were deprived of their civil liberties when they (all persons, male and female, age 14 and older) were required to register as "Alien Enemies." This registration entailed photographing, fingerprinting and the issuance of identification cards which the Alien Enemies had to have on their possession at all times. In addition they were forbidden to fly; to leave their neighborhoods; to possess cameras, short-wave radio receivers, and firearms. Finally, these persons were required to report any change of employment or address to the Department of Justice.
2. According to the 1940 census, ethnic Japanese made up 40% of the population of Hawaii. In California, the population was 1.6%. Military authorities had considered moving all ethnic Japanese to Molokai or the West Coast but moving 40% of the population was logistically and indeed financially impossible. That said, there was an internment camp in Hawaii at Sand Harbor. More importantly, Hawaii was under military martial law at the time.
If the the authorities could have evacuated all ethnic Japanese from Hawaii they would have. They could not so they did not.
As an aside, Japan had a battle plan in place for the invasion of Hawaii that intended to utilize ethnic Japanese during the occupation. The plan was scrapped after Japan's defeat at Midway.
3.It is more accurate to say that no Japanese Americans were charged or found guilty of such crimes during the war. Those suspected were simply sent to internment -- not relocation -- camps. For example, in Hawaii, three Japanese Americans on Niihau aided a downed Imperial Navy aviator to the point where they attempted to kill some of their Hawaiian neighbors. One of the Japanese was killed in a struggle and the other two surrendered to authorities. (This "Niihau Incident" is considered the trigger that largely justified the relocation order.)
In another case, AJA Richard Kotoshirodo actively aided Japanese spies keeping track of ship movements in Pearl Harbor. Until martial law, however, watching ships from public property was not a crime. Another AJA was shot in Kaneohe when he fled after being discovered signaling a Japanese submarine.
The last American convicted of treason was a Japanese American, Tom Kawakita. Iva Tokuri D'Aqino also aided Japan rather than be sent to a civilian internment camp in Japan along with her fellow Americans. Japanese American women assisted in the escape of German POWs from a POW camp in the American Southwest during the war....
Americans need to study this history a little more thoroughly. Hayashi has the integrity to be honest at least.
A New View in a Shameful time of American History.......2004-09-13
I first heard of the incarceration of the Japanese-Americans from a friend in Utah. While still a teenager, he and his family who were living in Seattle were given 48 hours to sell their home and business and were moved into a cencentration camp. He lived in the camp until he was 18, at which time he was drafted into the Army. They took one look at him in the Army and said, You're going to be a Japanese interpreter. His reply, Man, I'm third generation American, I don't speak a word of Japanese. His brother enlisted in the Army to get out of the camp and was a member of the famous 442 Regimental Combat Team fighting in Italy where he was severly wounded.
This was one of the more disgraceful acts of our Government. There was not any movement to move Americans of German or Italian descent into camps. The Japanese Americans on Hawaii were not affected, only those on the west coast of the mainland. And there was never a case of spying by the Japanese Americans.
This splendid book brings a new level of research and understanding to thie shameful time in our history.
Books:
- Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition)
- Penny from Heaven (Newbery Honor Book)
- Physik (Septimus Heap, Book 3)
- Please Do Not Open this Book! (Bright & Early Playtime Books)
- Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd: The inventories of the Wardrobe of Robes prepared in July 1600, edited from Stowe MS 557 in the British Library, MS LR 2/121 in the Public Record Office, London, and MS V.b.72 in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC
- Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together
- Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom
- Starting from Scratch: One Classroom Builds Its Own Curriculum
- Statistics
- Stone Butterfly (Charlie Moon Mysteries)
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Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp
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