The literature of Japanese American incarceration
Book - 2024
"The collective voice of Japanese Americans defined by a specific moment in time: the four years of World War II during which the US government expelled resident aliens and its own citizens from their homes and imprisoned 125,000 of them in American concentration camps, based solely upon the race they shared with a wartime enemy. A Penguin Classic This anthology presents a new vision that recovers and reframes the literature produced by the people targeted by the actions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress to deny Americans of Japanese ancestry any individual hearings or other due process after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. From nearly seventy selections of fiction, poetry, essays, memoirs, and letters emerges a shar...ed story of the struggle to retain personal integrity in the face of increasing dehumanization - all anchored by the key government documents that incite the action. The selections favor the pointed over the poignant, and the unknown over the familiar, with several new translations among previously unseen works that have been long overlooked on the shelf, buried in the archives, or languished unread in the Japanese language. The writings are presented chronologically so that readers can trace the continuum of events as the incarcerees experienced it. The contributors span incarcerees, their children born in or soon after the camps, and their descendants who reflect on the long-term consequences of mass incarceration for themselves and the nation. Many of the voices are those of protest. Some are those of accommodation. All are authentic. Together they form an epic narrative with a singular vision of America's past, one with disturbing resonances with the American present"--
- Subjects
- Genres
- poetry
autobiographies (literary works)
personal correspondence
Fiction
Poetry
Essays
Autobiographies
Personal correspondence - Published
-
[New York] :
Penguin Books
[2024]
- Language
- English
- Other Authors
- ,
- Physical Description
- xiii, 314 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [309]-314).
- ISBN
- 9780143133285
- Preface
- The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration
- Part I. Before Camp
- Introduction to Part I
- Arrival and Community
- 1. Henry (Yoshitaka) Kiyama, "Arrival in San Francisco" and "The Turlock Incident"
- 2. Ayako Ishigaki (as Haru Matsui), "Whither Immigrants"
- 3. Toshio Mori, "Lil' Yokohama"
- Arrest and Alien Internment
- 4. Shelley Ayame Nishimura Ota, "Those Airplanes Outside Aren't Ours"
- 5. Kamekichi Tokita, "1941 (Showa 16)"
- 6. John Okada (as Anonymous), "I Must Be Strong"
- 7. Bunyu Fujimura, "Arrest"
- 8. Fujiwo Tanisaki, "They Took Our Father Too"
- 9. Otokichi Ozaki (as Muin Ozaki), "Fort Sill Internment Camp"
- 10. Yasutaro Soga (as Keiho Soga), "Sand Island and Santa Fe Internment Camps"
- 11. Iwao Matsushita, "I Can't Bear to Be Stigmatized as 'Potentially Dangerous'"
- Cooperation and Refusal
- Executive Order
- 12. James Omura, "Has the Gestapo Come to America?"
- 13. Mike Masaoka, "Decision to Cooperate"
- Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry
- 14. Gordon K. Hirabayashi, "Why I Refuse to Register for Evacuation"
- 15. Charles Kikuchi, "Kicked Out of Berkeley"
- Part II. The Camps
- Introduction to Part II
- Fairgrounds and Racetracks
- 16. Monica Sone, "Life in Camp Harmony"
- 17. Mitsuye Yamada, "Curfew"
- 18. Portland senryu poets, "Resolution and Readiness, Confusion and Doubt"
- 19. Yoshio Abe, "Lover's Lane"
- Deserts and Swamps
- Recommendations to Milton Eisenhower, Director, War Relocation Authority
- 20. Lily Yuriko Nakai Havey, "Fry Bread"
- 21. Toyo Suyemoto, "Barracks Home"
- 22. Authorship uncertain, "That Damned Fence"
- 23. Kiyo Sato, "I Am a Prisoner in a Concentration Camp in My Own Country"
- 24. Masae Wada, "Gila Relocation Center Song"
- 25. Cherry Tanaka, "The Unpleasantness of the Year"
- 26. Hiroshi Nakamura, "Alice Hasn't Come Home"
- 27. Joe Kurihara, "The Martyrs of Camp Manzanar"
- 28. Iwao Kawakami, "The Paper"
- 29. Nao Akutsu, "Send Back the Father of These American Citizens"
- Registration and Segregation
- Statement of United States Citizen of Japanese Ancestry
- 30. Topaz Resident Committee, "We Respectfully Ask for Immediate Answers"
- 31. Kentaro Takatsui, "The Factual Causes and Reasons Why I Refused to Register"
- 32. Sada Murayama, "Loyalty"
- 33. Mitsuye Yamada, "Cincinnati"
- Confidential Statement to Dillon Myer, Director, War Relocation Authority
- 34. Kazuo Kawai (as Ryoji Hiei), "This Is Like Going to Prison"
- 35. Noboru Shirai, "The Army Takes Control"
- 36. Hyakuissei Okamoto, "Several brethren arrested after martial law was declared at Tule Lake in November 1943"
- 37. Violet Kazue de Cristoforo, "Brother's Imprisonment"
- 38. Tatsuo Ryusei Inouye, "Hunger Strike"
- 39. Bunichi Kagawa, "Geta"
- Volunteers and the Draft
- 40. Minoru Masuda, "A Lonely and Personal Decision"
- 41. Tamotsu Shibutani, "The Activation of Company K"
- 42. Toshio Mori, "She Is My Mother, and I Am the Son Who Volunteered"
- 43. Joji Nozawa, "Father of Volunteers"
- 44. Fuyo Tanagi and the Mothers Society of Minidoka, "Petition to President Roosevelt"
- 45. Yoshito Kuromiya, "Fair Play Committee"
- 46. Frank Emi and the Fair Play Committee, "We Hereby Refuse … In Order to Contest the Issue"
- 47. Eddie Yanagisako and Kenroku Sumida, "Song of Cheyenne"
- Resegregation and Renunciation
- An Act to Provide for Loss of United States Nationality Under Certain Circumstances
- 48. Noboru Shirai, "Wa Shoi Wa Shoi, the Emergence of the 'Headband' Group"
- 49. Motomu Akashi, "Badges of Honor"
- 50. Joe Kurihara, "Japs They Are, Citizens or Not"
- 51. Hiroshi Kashiwagi, "Starting from Loomis … Again"
- Part III. After Camp
- Introduction to Part III
- Resettlement and Reconnection
- 52. James Takeda (as Bean Takeda), "The Year Is 2045"
- 53. David Mura, "Internment Camp Psychology"
- 54. Shizue Iwatsuki, "Returning Home"
- 55. Toyo Suyemoto, "Topaz, Utah"
- 56. Janice Mirikitani, "We, the Dangerous"
- 57. Amy Uyematsu, "December 7 Always Brings Christmas Early"
- 58. Brian Komei Dempster, "Your Hands Guide Me Through Trains"
- 59. Christine Kitano, "1942: In Response to Executive Order 9066, My Father, Sixteen, Takes"
- Redress
- 60. Shosuke Sasaki and the Seattle Evacuation Redress Committee, "An Appeal for Action to Obtain Redress for the World War II Evacuation and Imprisonment of Japanese Americans"
- Personal Justice Denied, Part 2: Recommendations
- 61. William Minoru Hohri, "The Complaint"
- 62. Jeanne Sakata, "Coram Nobis Press Conference"
- 63. Traci kato-kiriyama, "No Redress"
- Repeating History
- 64. Perry Miyake, "Evacuation, the Sequel"
- 65. Fred Korematsu, "Do We Really Need to Relearn the Lessons of Japanese American Internment?"
- 66. Brandon Shimoda, "We Have Been Here Before"
- 67. Brynn Saito, "Theses on the Philosophy of History"
- 68. Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura, Ross Ishikawa, Matt Sasaki, "Never Again Is Now"
- Acknowledgments
- Suggestions for Further Exploration
- About the Authors
- Credits and Copyright Notices