The literature of Japanese American incarceration / edited with an introduction by Frank Abe and Floyd Cheung.

810.9 Literatu

[New York] : Penguin Books, [2024]

©2024

xiii, 314 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm

"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 shared 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"-- Provided by publisher.

American literature -- Japanese American authors.

Japanese Americans -- Forced removal and internment, 1942-1945 -- Literary collections.

Fiction.

Poetry.

Essays.

Autobiographies.

Personal correspondence.

Abe, Frank, 1951- editor, writer of introduction.

Cheung, Floyd, 1969- editor, writer of introduction.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [309]-314).

Online version: Literature of Japanese American incarceration [New York] : Penguin Books, 2024 9780525505044

Preface / Frank Abe and Floyd Cheung -- Before camp -- Introduction to part i -- Arrival and community -- Arrival in San Francisco / Henry (Yoshitaka) Kiyama -- The Turlock incident / Henry (Yoshitaka) Kiyama -- Whither immigrants / Ayako Ishigaki (as Haru Matsui) -- Lil' Yokohama / Toshio Mori -- Arrest and alien internment -- Those airplanes outside aren't ours / Shelley Ayame Nishimura Ota -- 1941 (Showa 16) / Kamekichi Tokita -- I must be strong / John Okada (as Anonymous) -- Arrest / Bunyu Fujimura -- They took our father too / Fujiwo Tanisaki -- Fort Sill internment camp / Otokichi Ozaki (as Muin Ozaki) -- Sand Island and Santa Fe internment camps / Yasutaro Soga (as Keiho Soga) -- I can't bear to be stigmatized as 'potentially dangerous' / Iwao Matsushita -- Cooperation and refusal -- Executive order -- Has the Gestapo come to America? / James Omura -- Decision to cooperate / Mike Masaoka -- Instructions to all persons of Japanese ancestry -- Why I refuse to register for evacuation / Gordon K. Hirabayashi -- Kicked out of Berkeley / Charles Kikuchi -- The camps -- Introduction to part ii -- Fairgrounds and racetracks -- Life in Camp Harmony / Monica Sone -- Curfew / Mitsuye Yamada -- Resolution and readiness, confusion and doubt / Portland senryū poets -- Lover's lane / Yoshio Abe -- Deserts and swamps -- Recommendations to Milton Eisenhower, director, war relocation authority -- Fry bread / Lily Yuriko Nakai Havey -- Barracks home / Toyo Suyemoto -- That damned fence / Authorship uncertain -- I am a prisoner in a concentration camp in my own country / Kiyo Sato -- Gila relocation center song / Masae Wada -- The unpleasantness of the year / Cherry Tanaka -- Alice hasn't come home / Hiroshi Nakamura -- The martyrs of Camp Manzanar / Joe Kurihara -- The paper / Iwao Kawakami -- Send back the father of these American citizens / Nao Akutsu -- Registration and segregation -- Statement of United States citizen of Japanese ancestry -- We respectfully ask for immediate answers / Topaz Resident Committee -- The factual causes and reasons why I refused to register / Kentaro Takatsui -- Loyalty / Sada Murayama -- Cincinnati / Mitsuye Yamada -- Confidential statement to Dillon Myer, director, war relocation authority -- This is like going to prison / Kazuo Kawai (as Ryōji Hiei) -- The army takes control / Noboru Shirai -- Several brethren arrested after marital law was declared at Tule Lake in November 1943 / Hyakuissei Okamoto -- Brother's imprisonment / Violet Kazue de Cristoforo -- Hunger strike / Tatsuo Ryusei Inouye -- Geta / Bunichi Kagawa -- Volunteers and the draft -- A lonely and personal decision / Minoru Masuda -- The activation of Company K / Tamotsu Shibutani -- She is my mother, and I am the son who volunteered / Toshio Mori -- Father of volunteers / Jōji Nozawa -- Petition to President Roosevelt / Fuyo Tanagi and the Mothers Society of Minidoka -- Fair play committee / Yoshito Kuromiya -- We hereby refuse... in order to contest the issue / Frank Emi and the Fair Play Committee -- Song of Cheyenne / Eddie Yanagisako and Kenroku Sumida -- Resegregation and renunciation -- An act to provide for loss of United States nationality under certain circumstances -- Wa shoi wa shoi, the emergence of the 'headband' group / Noboru Shirai -- Badges of honor / Motomu Akashi -- Japs they are, citizens or not / Joe Kurihara -- Starting from Loomis... again / Hiroshi Kashiwagi -- After camp -- Introduction to part iii -- Resettlement and reconnection -- The year is 2045 / James Takeda (as Bean Takeda) -- Internment camp psychology / David Mura -- Returning home / Shizue Iwatsuki -- Topaz, Utah / Toyo Suyemoto -- We, the dangerous / Janice Mirikitani -- December 7 always brings Christmas early / Amy Uyematsu -- Your hands guide me through trains / Brian Komei Dempster -- 1942: in response to executive order 9066, my father, sixteen, takes / Christine Kitano -- Redress -- An appeal for action to obtain redress for the World War II evacuation and imprisonment of Japanese Americans / Shosuke Sasaki and the Seattle Evacuation Redress Committee -- Personal justice denied, part 2: recommendations -- The complaint / William Minoru Hohri -- Coram Nobis press conference / Jeanne Sakata -- Letter from the White House -- No redress / Traci Kato-Kiriyama -- Repeating history -- Evacuation, the sequel / Perry Miyake -- Do we really need to relearn the lessons of Japanese American internment? / Fred Korematsu -- We have been here before / Brandon Shimoda -- Theses on the philosophy of history / Brynn Saito -- Never again is now / Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura, Ross Ishikawa, Matt Sasaki.

9780143133285

0143133284

* 9780525505044