Synopses & Reviews
What did the internment of Japanese Americans mean? This underexamined episode of World War II history affected more than 120,000 Japanese Americans who were removed and confined in sixteen camps throughout the western half of the United States. Authorized by Executive Order 9066, the internment established a legal precedent that has never been overturned. How was the decision justified at the time? These five selections, challenging conventional interpretations, help readers investigate the meaning of the internment. Written by historians who have helped expand the record and alter responses to the internment, the readings examine topics that range from the U.S. government's role in planning and carrying out the removal to the ways in which Japanese Americans, resident aliens, and foreign nationals coped with and resisted it. These interpretive writings show the complexity and continuing consequences of a controversial moment in 20th century American history.
Synopsis
During World War II, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were removed and confined for 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. Indeed, many of the internees themselves do not wish to speak of it, even to their own family members. In these selections, Alice Yang Murray invites students to investigate this event and to review and challenge the conventional interpretations of its significance. The selections explore 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.
About the Author
ALICE YANG MURRAY is assistant professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has published articles on the history of the internment, oral history, and the history of Asian American women. She is currently completing a manuscript entitled Better Americans in a Greater America: Japanese American Internment, Redress, and Historical Memory.
Table of Contents
Foreword Preface
A Note for Students
PART I. INTRODUCTION
The Internment of Japanese Americans
From Pearl Harbor to Mass Incarceration: A Brief Narrative
The Internment Camps
Historians and Internment: From Relocation Centers to Concentration
Camps
PART II. SOME CURRENT QUESTIONS
1. Why were Japanese Americans interned during World War II?
Roger Daniels, The Decision for Mass Evacuation
2. What caused the Supreme Court to affirm the constitutionality of internment?
Peter Irons, Gordon Hirabayashi v. United States: A Jap's a Jap
3. Why did U.S. officials intern people of Japanese ancestry from Central and South America?
Michi Weglyn, Hostages
4. How did some Japanese Americans resist internment?
Gary Y. Okihiro, Tule Lake under Martial Law: A Study of Japanese Resistance
5. What was the impact of internment on Japanese American families and communities?
Valerie J. Matsumoto, Amache
Making Connections
Suggestions for Further Reading