Japanese-American Internment

This is the poignant story of a young teacher and his bride who came to Seattle from Japan in 1919 so that he might study English language and literature, and who stayed to make a home. On December 7, 1941, the FBI knocked at the Matsushitas' door and took Iwao away, first to a jail cell at the Seattle Immigration Station and then by special train, windows sealed and guards at the doors, to Montana. He was considered an enemy alien, "potentially dangerous to the public safety", because of his Japanese birth and professional associations. The story of Iwao Matsushita's determination to clear his name and be reunited with his wife, and of Hanaye Matsushita's growing confusion and despair, unfolds in their correspondence, presented here in full. Louis Fiset helps us to read between the lines to understand Hanaye's displacement from everything safe and familiar and Iwao's unfaltering commitment to his adopted country, despite his imprisonment and the ignominy of suspicion of disloyalty.

This book has a dual purpose. The first is to present a biography of Yamato Ichihashi, a Stanford University professor who was one of the first academics of Asian ancestry in the United States. The second is to present, through Ichihashi's wartime writings, the only known comprehensive first-person account of internment life by one of the 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who, in 1942, were sent by the U.S. government to "relocation centers", the euphemism for prison camps. In the comprehensive biographical essay that opens the book, Gordon Chang explores Ichihashi's personal life and intellectual work until his forced departure from Stanford, examining his career, publications, and experiences in American academia in the early twentieth century. He also relates Ichihashi's involvement in international conferences, including the 1922 Disarmament Conference - an involvement with later consequences. Ichihashi's internment writings take various forms: diaries, research essays, and correspondence with friends and Stanford colleagues. The editor has extensively annotated and interwoven them into a coherent narrative. As a trained social scientist and an experienced writer fluent in both English and Japanese, Ichihashi was uniquely prepared to observe and record the dramatic events he experienced. In addition to Ichihashi's writings, the book includes touching correspondence from Kei to a close friend at Stanford. The editor closes the book with an Epilogue about the Ichihashis' lives after the war. Ichihashi's writings convey to us, as no other account does, the cut and drift and anxiety of everyday existence in the camps. We experience the grinding tedium and frequently harsh conditionsof daily life and the ever-present uncertainty, suspicion, and even fear that permeated the internees' existence. Equally knowledgeable about American and Japanese ways, Ichihashi offers valuable insights into administrators

Drawing on diaries, letters and journals kept by children, Emmy Werner shows the universality of war experience. Children from many countries are represented through some 150 eye-witness accounts, revealing their endurance, and how they were changed forever by events beyond their control.

This book describes the historical and legal experiences of Americans of Asian ancestry who began to come to the United States in the mid-19th century. Like all immigrants in America, they arrived with hopes of making a better life and home in a free country. Instead, Asian-Americans have been mistreated and discriminated against by their fellow Americans--even by Congress and the Supreme Court, which should have made and judged laws without prejudice. This study examines the way immigration and naturalization laws were unfairly administered against Asian immigrants and throws light on a less than admirable period of American legal history. It will be of great interest to scholars in Asian American studies, legal history, and American history.

Covering the past 150 years, this documentary history critiques major Supreme Court decisions on litigations that Asian Americans brought before the Court. Separate sections written by contributing scholars focus on cases pertaining to the question of the government's right to exclude, expel, or deport persons of Asian ancestry, the constitutional question of U.S. citizenship for persons of Asian ancestry, the alien laws of California and Washington, and Japanese internment. A seventh section casts the problem of denying Asian Americans their constitutional rights within the framework of Asian American "foreignness" as viewed by white America. The final chapter reviews major immigration laws passed by Congress in the 20th century and discusses the implications of the Immigration Act of 1990. The volume concludes with a case, name, and subject index.

Beyond Loyalty is the powerful and inspiring story of a young man whose life and education were rudely disrupted by the U.S. government's imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II. A high school student when interned in 1942, Minoru Kiyota was so infuriated by his treatment during an FBI interrogation and by the denial of his request to leave the camp to pursue his education that he refused to affirm his loyalty as required of all internees. For this he was sent to Tule Lake Segregation Center in northern California - a holding pen for "dangerous" and "disloyal" individuals. While imprisoned there under deplorable conditions, Kiyota learned of a new law offering Japanese Americans the "opportunity" to renounce their U.S. citizenship. Although barely old enough to do so, Kiyota took this drastic step. Throughout his four long years of incarceration, he refused to resign himself to the injustices he witnessed and experienced. His story shares the fury and frustration aroused by gross violations of his rights as a U.S. citizen and shows how the painful years of internment determined the course of his life.

A fast moving, vibrant biography of an outstanding communist activist for labor's rights, civil rights, peace and justice. Rich anecdotes as well as facts. 27 photos. Bibliog., Appendix, Index.

Offering a rich and insightful road map of Asian American history as it has evolved over more than 200 years, this book marks the first systematic attempt to take stock of this field of study. It examines, comments, and questions the changing assumptions and contexts underlying the experiences and contributions of an incredibly diverse population of Americans. Arriving and settling in this nation as early as the 1790s, with American-born generations stretching back more than a century, Asian Americans have become an integral part of the American experience; this cleverly organized book marks the trajectory of that journey, offering researchers invaluable information and interpretation. • Part 1 offers a synoptic narrative history, a chronology, and a set of periodizations that reflect different ways of constructing the Asian American past. • Part 2 presents lucid discussions of historical debates -- such as interpreting the anti-Chinese movement of the late 1800s and the underlying causes of Japanese American internment during World War II -- and such emerging themes as transnationalism and women and gender issues. • Part 3 contains a historiographical essay and a wide-ranging compilation of book, film, and electronic resources for further study of core themes and groups, including Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hmong, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, and others.