Synopses & Reviews
Following World War II, the Allied Powers occupied Japan from 1945 to 1952, leaving a human legacy: thousands of children of Japanese mothers fathered by men from Australia, the United States, New Zealand, India, and Britain. These mixed-race offspring, and often their mothers, faced intense discrimination.
Based on interviews with or research on 150 konketsujiandmdash;a now-taboo word for andquot;mixed-bloodandquot; Japaneseandmdash;journalist Walter Hamilton presents vivid first-person accounts of these adults as they remember their experiences of childhood loss. Using archival material from organizations dedicated to assisting the children, he combines moving personal tales with historical and political analyses of international race relations and immigration policy, particularly in North America and Australia.
Not only were attitudes and behaviors of the Japanese biased against the mixed-race children, but so were the restrictive and prejudicial immigration policies of the fathersandrsquo; native countries. Japanandrsquo;s racial intolerance was fully matched in the nations it fought against. Hamilton examines how attitudes about race relations have evolved and traces the impact of racial ideology on national policy and cultural identity in Australia, Japan, and the United States.
Review
"A wonderful, moving, important book." Paul Spickard
Review
andquot;A deeply moving, well-researched account of an unfortunate human legacy of the Allied occupation of Japan: the lives and fates of the mixed-race children fathered and left behind by the occupiers when they left in 1951. The personal oral histories of these mixed-race children, now adults, are powerful witnesses to the human impact of war and occupation. Highly recommended.andquot;
Review
andquot;A wonderful, moving, important book.andquot;
Review
"Dusselier has given us an excellent thick description of the ways that Japanese American prisoners of both generations used arts and crafts as tools of survival. Future camp studies will have to take her work into account."
Review
andquot;This is a remarkable page-turner of a book. Beyond the usual scholarly audiences from such disciplines as history and material culture, public historians, psychologists, art therapists, and anyone interested in the intersection of art, loss, and agency will find this book a meaningful read.andquot;
Synopsis
Following World War II, the Allied Powers occupied Japan from 1945 to 1952, leaving thousands of children of Japanese mothers fathered by men from Australia, the United States, New Zealand, India, and Britain. These mixed-race offspring, and often their mothers, faced intense discrimination. Based on interviews with or research on 150 konketsujiandmdash;a now-taboo word for andquot;mixed-bloodandquot; Japaneseandmdash;journalist Walter Hamilton presents vivid first-person accounts of these adults as they remember their experiences of childhood loss.
Synopsis
"A wonderful, moving, important book." -Paul Spickard, University of California, Santa Barbara Following World War II, the Allied Powers occupied Japan from 1945 to 1952, leaving a human legacy: thousands of children of Japanese mothers fathered by men from Australia, the United States, New Zealand, India, and Britain. These mixed-race offspring, and often their mothers, faced intense discrimination. Based on interviews with or research on 150 konketsuji-a now-taboo word for "mixed-blood" Japanese-journalist Walter Hamilton presents vivid first-person accounts of these adults as they remember their experiences of childhood loss. Using archival material from organizations dedicated to assisting the children, he combines moving personal tales with historical and political analyses of international race relations and immigration policy, particularly in North America and Australia. Not only were attitudes and behaviors of the Japanese biased against the mixed-race children, but so were the restrictive and prejudicial immigration policies of the fathers' native countries. Japan's racial intolerance was fully matched in the nations it fought against. Hamilton examines how attitudes about race relations have evolved and traces the impact of racial ideology on national policy and cultural identity in Australia, Japan, and the United States. WALTER HAMILTON is a journalist with four decades of experience working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Associated Press in Sydney, Canberra, London, Singapore, and Tokyo. He is the author of Serendipity City: Australia, Japan, and the Multifunction Polis. A volume in the Rutgers Series in Childhood Studies, edited by Myra Bluebond-Langner, Ph.D., Board of Governors Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University, and True Colours Chair in Palliative Care for Children and Young People, University College London, Institute of Child Health
Synopsis
From 1942 to 1946, as America prepared for war, 120,000 people of Japanese descent were forcibly interned in harsh desert camps across the American west.
In Artifacts of Loss, Jane E. Dusselier looks at the lives of these internees through the lens of their art. These camp-made creations included flowers made with tissue paper and shells, wood carvings of pets left behind, furniture made from discarded apple crates, gardens grown next to their housingand#249;anything to help alleviate the visual deprivation and isolation caused by their circumstances. Their crafts were also central in sustaining, re-forming, and inspiring new relationships. Creating, exhibiting, consuming, living with, and thinking about art became embedded in the everyday patterns of camp life and helped provide internees with sustenance for mental, emotional, and psychic survival.
Dusselier urges her readers to consider these often overlooked folk crafts as meaningful political statements which are significant as material forms of protest and as representations of loss. She concludes briefly with a discussion of other displaced people around the globe today and the ways in which personal and group identity is reflected in similar creative ways.
About the Author
WALTER HAMILTON is a journalist with four decades of experience working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Associated Press in Sydney, Canberra, London, Singapore, and Tokyo. He is the author of Serendipity City: Australia, Japan, and the Multifunction Polis.