Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience
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Book Summary Information
Editor: Lawson Fusao InadaCorporate Author: California Historical Society
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-08-01
ISBN: 1890771309
Number of pages: 439
Publisher: Heyday Books
Book Reviews of Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience
Book Review: Racial Profiling is nothing new in U.S.
Summary: 5 Stars
If you think about it Racial Profiling, much in the news of late, is not a new phenomena in the U.S. We have a long history, almost a tradition, of singling out groups of citizens, usually in the name of some war (Indian wars, War on Drugs), for special treatment under the law. It's not a new practice but it invariably ends up being a tragic mistake. One such tragedy was the imprisonment of Japanese American citizens during the Second World War. While there are a number of books dealing with the political and legal consequences of such governmental action, as well as a growing number of memoirs, to date there has not been an anthology of the voices of the Internment. That oversight has been corrected with this book and what a wonderful addition to the literature it is. In less than 3 months following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor with it's understandable wartime panic, in excess of 100,000 Japanese Americans living in the Western United States were forced from their homes, many with only 48 hours notice, and sent to internment camps scattered among 14 states. Men, women, and children, whose only crime was being of Japanese descent, were banished to what many scholars call concentration camps. They "fit the pattern" and indeed governmental agencies published posters of detailing what "typical" Japanese looked like so they would be easier to detect. This book,using the personal recollections, art, documents, and poetry of many of the internees as well as a number of witnesses and friends, tells the story of the camp experience which is a haunting description of fear, anger, confusion and shame. These voices, reduced to paper, are a tragic reminder of the affects of war, not only on direct participants but frequently on innocents as well. This description by an internee of the physical conditions at a California Assembly Center, where she lived for 6 months, is typical: "Posts strung with chicken-wire appeared on the northeast corner of the camp near the back gate by the railroad siding. The entire area around the gate, including the laundry and the toilets, was completely fenced off, leaving one section open." Perhaps this description of the Tule Lake, California camp will sound familiar:"The guard towers were turrets equipped with machine guns. The outer perimeter was patrolled by a half-dozen tanks and armored Jeeps." There were 18,000 internees in Camp Tule Lake. Half were children. This poem by an internee, one of many in the book, was of particular interest to me: "A daybreak stars disappear, where di I discard my dreams?" Some of the art in the book depicting conditions in the camps will break your heart. Space does not permit a review that will do justice to this book. Suffice to say that it is a testament to the spirit, will, determination, dignity and strength of the Japanese American citizens that were forced to endure such humiliation, degradation, and emotional trauma. A friend of mine say's she knows why the lady holding the scales of justice before the U.S. Supreme Court building is blindfolded. She says there is a tear slipping from her eye. I think if that is true, she must have read this book.
Summary of Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience
During WW2, the US government suspended due process, rounded up more than 100,000 Japanese and American citizens of Japanese descent, and banished them to prison camps in desert wastelands. They were not charged with any crime, except, of course, being Japanese. This collection of haunting reminiscences, letters, stories, poems, and graphic art gives voice to the powerful emotions with which these victims of wartime hysteria struggled. Included are stories of those outside the camps whose lives were interwoven with those inside.20th Century Books
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