Japanese American Relocation in World War II: A Reconsideration
Cambridge University Press, 5/3/2018
EAN 9781108410397, ISBN10: 1108410391
Paperback, 362 pages, 22.8 x 16.4 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
In this revisionist history of the United States government relocation of Japanese-American citizens during World War II, Roger W. Lotchin challenges the prevailing notion that racism was the cause of the creation of these centers. After unpacking the origins and meanings of American attitudes toward the Japanese-Americans, Lotchin then shows that Japanese relocation was a consequence of nationalism rather than racism. Lotchin also explores the conditions in the relocation centers and the experiences of those who lived there, with discussions on health, religion, recreation, economics, consumerism, and theater. He honors those affected by uncovering the complexity of how and why their relocation happened, and makes it clear that most Japanese-Americans never went to a relocation center. Written by a specialist in US home front studies, this book will be required reading for scholars and students of the American home front during World War II, Japanese relocation, and the history of Japanese immigrants in America.
Introduction
relocation, a racial obsession
Part I. The Reach of American Racism?
1. Racism and anti-racism
2. The ballad of Frankie Seto
winning despite the odds
3. Chinese and European origins of the West Coast alien dilemma
4. Impact of World War II
a multicausal brief
5. The lagging backlash
6. The looming Roberts Report
7. Races and racism
Part II. Concentration Camps or Relocation Centers? Definitions versus Historical Realities
8. Definition versus historical reality
concentration camps in Cuba, South Africa, and the Philippines
9. Resistance or cooperation?
10. Bowling in Twin Falls – an open-door leave policy
11. Daily life
food, labor, sickness, and health
12. Wartime attitudes toward relocation
13. Family life, personal freedom, and combat fatigue
14. Economics and the dust of Nikkei memory
15. Consumerism
shopping at Sears
16. The leisure revolution
Mary Kagoyama, the sweetheart of Manzanar
17. Of horse stalls and modern 'memory' – housing and living conditions
18. Politics
19. Culture
of Judo and the Jive bombers
20. Freedom of religion
21. Education, the passion of Dillon Myer
22. The right to know, information and the free flow of ideas
23. Administrators and administration
Part III. The Demise of Relocation
24. Politics of equilibrium – friends and enemies on the outside
25. Endgame
termination of the centers
26. Conclusion
the place of race
27. Appendix
Historians and the Racism and Concentration Camp Puzzles by Zane l. Miller.