"Infamy" covers all the familiar bases of the story of Japanese internment: propaganda, Executive Order 9066, the No-No votes, and the 442nd regiment. Though Reeves' work is a historical chronicle, it is also a testimony to the diversity of experiences, as it includes many personal stories and narratives. It is important that this story be told, and be told repeatedly. What separates Reeves' work from others, though, is that he deliberately connects to the political dangers of 2015 and the current political era: that without this knowledge of Japanese experiences during WWII, the United States is able to commit the same crimes against its Muslim, Latino, and other non-white citizens today. ( )

A must read, especially in these times when people are talking about maybe putting Muslims in internment camps. God forbid we ever attempt something like that again! ( )

A powerful read! ( )

I requested this book through Early Reviewers, then misplaced it, now found it again. I am descended from Scottish and Norwegian families who immigrated to the US in the 18th and 19th centuries, and I heard lots of family stories about those forebears without any sense that I was anything but American. When WWII broke out, my father tried to enlist but was rejected for medical reasons, so he spent the war years working in the Kaiser Shipyards in Portland, Oregon. When I entered first grade after the war, one of my classmates was Japanese-American boy who had spent the war, with his parents, in an internment camp, and many of our classmates abused him as if he were the enemy. Fortunately for me, my parents rejected those assaults, made friends with his parents, and always welcomed him at our house. So I grew up knowing the basic story of the internments, including its injustice. I was glad to receive this book and read it, for it gives the larger picture, gives it accurately, and explores its origins in basic human insecurities and flaws. I think, in these Trumpish days, everyone should be aware of how easily such events could recur. Read it. ( )

This book was sent to me by LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for an honest review

...Infamy is written in a matter of fact style, purely written, I believe, as a reminder to us all of what we are capable of when we feel threatened. Those who are interested in History, as well as History experts will find this book fascinating; by connecting the victims with their names, professions, backgrounds and most of all, their rights as American citizens, I believe that Mr. Reeves has added a level of humanity that enables us all to put ourselves in the place of the victims. That said, there is no guarantee that this couldn’t happen again in our lifetime. Highly recommended

Read entire review on The Thugbrarian Review @ http://wp.me/p4pAFB-u9 ( )

Richard Reeve’s Infamy is a useful contribution to the study of one of the darkest periods for civil liberties in US history, namely the treatment of West Coast Japanese and Japanese Americans during the Second World War. The myriad stories of families ripped apart, dreams destroyed, confidence dashed and even lives lost makes for difficult reading at times. Over and over again each individual anecdote causes one to pause, shakes one’s head and continue reading in a desire to become a witness to this hitherto hidden and painful history.

While Jan Jarboe Russell’s recent book focuses specifically on the Crystal City, Texas federal detention center in her excellent book, The Train to Crystal City, Reeves’s book covers not only the detention centers but also the assembly centers in various states across the Western US. These were places where internees were originally sent before more ‘permanent’ accommodation could be made available. It is astonishing to realize just how many centers there were and how little of their history is yet to be fully explored. Yet what little Reeves has uncovered is enough to get a glimpse of the deprivation; places full of dust, dried animal excrement and despair greeted those rounded up with no charge. The conditions within, Reeves notes, were well below the acceptable standard for even the most violent of criminals housed in federal penitentiaries of the time.

Whereas Crystal City is more measured in its look at the actions of members of the administration, Infamy does not hold back, printing damning racist quotes from President FDR and similar statements from various people in charge like the infamous General “A Jap is a Jap” DeWitt. Reeves even goes so far as to imply that civil libertarian Roger Baldwin, President of the ACLU at the time, was too busy pandering to FDR to take up Japanese internment cases, which is based more on opinion than fact. Undoubtedly his sources for a specific quote here and there are impeccable, but Reeves misses an opportunity to give these characters the depth they deserve and delve deeper into the very real fear that was felt by the vast majority of Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor to discover motives which extended well beyond simple racism.

Having said that, one character of the book who does come out very well is attorney Wayne Collins who represented the nearly 2,000 US citizens, many children, who were deported to Japan in the aftermath of internment in a gross violation of their constitutional rights. The determination of Collins to see justice done is incredibly moving. He seems to have had no other motive than seeing that the rights of these citizens were adhered to and he wins citizenship back for many.

Finally, Reeves enlightens readers about the sacrifices made by the young men who volunteered straight out of the camps, while in many cases their families remained interned, to fight in the famed all Japanese American 442nd in Europe, the most decorated regiment per capita of any in the history of US warfare. Those who survived went on to be US representatives, actors and artists. Those that didn’t clearly changed the tide of US opinion of Japanese Americans through their ultimate sacrifice, becoming posthumous heroes in cities and small towns across a forever changed United States. ( )

This nonfiction book covers a time in US history when we behaved disgracefully towards Japanese Americans, out of fear and prejudice, and has been too often glossed over.

In 1965, not that many years after the internment in concentration caps of Japanese Americans, I was ignorant that it even happened. It sure wasn't covered in my US history class. I found out about it when one of my high school friends, a Japanese American, told me that her parents had been interned and had lost their strawberry farm. Good, solid people, good solid citizens, treated like traitors and prisoners.

While I've looked for books on the American internment, I hadn't found one as informative as this one. The author seems to have done his homework. The book is highly readable, as well. There were a couple of spots that were a bit dry for me, but for the most kept my interest. While I like knowing the facts, it is the stories of individual people and families that give heart to the statistics.

There were a couple of things the author should have researched a bit more, like his reference to “...miso, the Japanese soup....” Miso soup is a common use for miso, but miso is not soup. That did make me wonder if there were other mistakes I was missing.

What especially amazed me, and not in a good way, is the hatred and disregard for democracy shown by so many people who later would become famous as the good guys. Some of them changed their outlooks later and apologized; many did not. Even the president of the American Civil Liberties Union would not help, apparently not wanting to embarrass “his friend the president.” Even the man who would become known as “Dr. Seuss.”

“The sweeping story of what happened to the Japanese Americans and the Caucasians who imprisoned them is not a series of isolated events, but a look into the dark side of the 'American way.'The story goes back at least to the treatment of Native Americans, to the persecution of the British loyalists after the American Revolution, to the enslavement of Africans in the New World, to the treatment of American Germans during World War I, to Jewish quotas and 'Irish Need Not Apply,' to the excesses of official bodies such as the House Un-American Activities Committee. And, at least to me, it seems there is always the possibility of similar persecutions happening again if fear and hysteria overwhelm what Abraham Lincoln called .the better angels of our nature.'”

While I do not agree with all that our country is doing now, we have improved. Still, you don't have to look far to find entire religions and people painted with the same broad brush because of some radicals and terrorists who claim to speak for people they do not have the right to speak for.

This book is an excellent look at a time in our history, but also a warning to all of us. For me, it was a solid 4 ½ out of 5 star book.

I was given an advance readers copy of this book for review. The quotes may have changed in the published edition. ( )

Revised Review April 21, 2015:

Infamy Best "Big Picture" History A Reader Could Hope to Find -- Concisely Details Causes, Human Impact & Present Significance of Great Injustice with Passion & Clarity

I. Why I Read This Book --

Because of the gravity and continued relevance today of the issues raised by our country's disgraceful treatment of Japanese-American citizens under color of law during WWII, I was immediately drawn to this book when I saw it listed among the titles available in a recent Early Reviewer giveaway. I studied the Supreme Court case failing to invalidate the "internment" program under the Constitution in law school (i.e. Korematsu). However I didn't know any of the details of the policy's development and enforcement -- let alone the experience of the people forced from their homes and collected in concentration camps (that was the name used in government documents apparently -- the term was not linked with the Nazi genocide program directly at that time). I wanted to know more.

II. My Personal Opinion After Reading --

Ultimately, author Richard Reeves did more than satisfy my intellectual curiosity with an engaging, accessible and concise history of the key events. However, these qualities would not suffice to constitute an outstanding history. Reeves managed to accomplish what I think is the more difficult and more important work of the historian -- to give the reader a fuller, more palpable and cognizable sense of the toll on human dignity involved in what happened. He achieved this due to the combined effects of two strengths of this history:

1) The reader got a textured sense of the impact of the incarceration on the substance and quality of daily life of the people affected and on individuals' lifetimes, which was tantamount to stealing years of time from the totality of human beings' experience on this earth! This is to say nothing of the disruptions to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness of each victim that could not be remedied upon release from internment. Lives could not be picked up and continued as if nothing had happened, to grossly understate the matter. This history makes sure readers get some understanding of what that specifically meant in individual victims' post-war lives. Through reading this book, one way readers can better appeciate the injustice done to Japanese Americans by their government during this period.due to this wise choice to particularly focus on its human impact despite the book's relative brevity. Different histories might have focused primarily on explication of the causes and machinations of state that made the injustices possible as well as detailing exactly what (as well as how,.why, where and to whom) it happened. Rather than going into further analysis of the unfolding of this awful chain of events, Reeves balanced his history with a sense of the lives impacted by the events at issue.

2) Granted I came to this book with a deep sense of personal outrage at what my country's governemnt did -- as an American and as a human being. But, I think that the second way this history does an outstanding job of presenting the breadth, depth and sheer grievousness of what happened is Reeves's own contagious passion -- which is appropriately contained between the lines, yet constant throughout -- about what happened. Because Reeves does not assume a false neutrality to the question of whether actions taken which effectuated this chain of events were right or wrong, he does an outstanding job on maintaining a laser like focus on what is most important. I, for one, couldn't ask for a better big picture from a historian.

This book effectively argues that what was done during WWII in the western part of the United States to some people on the sole basis of personal connections to Japan through ancestral descent and/or nativity, are deeds which should most properly -- most vitally -- live ever on in infamy among the people of this country and every country.

III. My Thoughts for Prospective Readers

In conclusion, I will go so far as to say that whatever you think of the title when you start reading, you will probably better appreciate the relative fitness of the choice when you finish. I personally think this is an outstanding contribution to American historical discourse that should reach as many people as possible of every nationality. I’ve set forth some of its particular strengths that distinguish it from the pack, IMHO, for your consideration...

But for reallies, who the heck am I to estimate your final valuation of a purely hypothetical reading of some book I happen to love? This is the rub: the good people at LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program gave me a free copy of this gem to read on the condition that I'd share my honest impressions in a review posted on their site. I have always thought in such cases: “Why not copy to Goodreads and Amazon?” I figure it couldn't do any great harm. So here we are. Thank you for considering my ideas, and in all seriousness, I really hope they prove useful to some of you. ( )

I knew something about the internment of Japanese-Americans from reading books like "Farewell to Manzanar" and from hearing friends talk about their family history. For example, a neighbor, now deceased, had been interned in Arizona with his family as a high school student. Reeves' book lays out the background and the history of the creation, operation and disbanding of the concentration camps, using government documents, news reports and personal letters and statements from Japanese Americans. It is a sordid tale of racism, and I kept thinking about the stereotypes many people have today of Americans and immigrants based on skin color and origin. ( )

I was never taught as a part of my school curriculum about the incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans on United States soil during World War II. I found out about it quite by accident while visiting an American history museum. I was astounded and continue to be astounded that so many U.S. citizens never learn about that particular part of the war, which is why I believe books like Richard Reeves' Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II are so important. Reeves is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author of more than a dozen long-form works on American politics and history. Infamy, published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015, is a book that he had wanted to write for years. I was very happy to have the opportunity to read an advance copy of the work.

In Infamy, Reeves explores the history of Japanese residents of the United States and Japanese American citizens during World War II. While a large focus of the book is on their evacuation from the West Coast and their internment within concentration camps, the work also devotes some time to the efforts made by the U.S. government to relocate and detain people of Japanese descent living in Latin America (which before reading Infamy I had not known about), as well as to the service of Japanese Americans in the military as translators, support personnel, and combatants. The narrative of Infamy is largely chronological, beginning with Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the signing of Executive Order 9066 soon after in February 1942, which allowed for the establishment of the camps, and ending with V-J Day in August 1945, going on to examine some of the immediate and lasting impacts the internment had on individuals and on the country as a whole.

In writing Infamy, Reeves relies heavily on existing interviews, newspaper articles, and first-hand accounts as well as on official government and court documentation. Infamy is only one among hundreds of works about the Japanese American internment; its extensive notes and bibliography will aid in guiding readers who are interested in learning more to other sources. Stylistically, Infamy is intended for a broad, general audience. It's approachable, engaging, and easy to read, requiring very little previous knowledge of the subject matter. However, readers looking for an academic or impartial approach will likely be disappointed—Reeves has very strong feelings about the people and events surrounding the internment. While Infamy is factual, Reeve's personal opinions on the matter are readily clear in his writing; he is outraged and it shows. Initially I had worried the work would be sensationalistic—the subtitle isn't just "the story of" but "the shocking story of"—but it's more that Reeves is simply emphatic.

Many factors led to the Japanese American internment during World War II, but the two most prominent to be addressed in Infamy are racism—something that the United States continues to struggle with—and the additional fear and hysteria cause by the war itself. While some German and Italian American citizens and resident aliens were detained, those of Japanese descent were the only ones to be imprisoned or forced to relocate en masse and nearly all of them were innocent of any wrong-doing. In addition to racial tensions, generational conflict was also a significant component that complicated the mass imprisonment. The different generations of Japanese Americans experienced the war and the camps differently, but they were all betrayed by the country in which they lived. Reeves makes a point to address those differences in Infamy in addition to other aspects of the internment. Overall, Infamy is both a readable and informative examination of a part of American history that shouldn't be forgotten but that is often overlooked.

Experiments in Manga ( )

Excellent treatment of the sad story of the Japanese American Internment of WWII. I personally had previously visited the " Manzanar Relocation Center" located near the city of Lone Pine, California. How very sad!
Such a remote location. Thank god our Country has come a long way since then. I highly recommend this book, which should be read by all citizens of our otherwise great Country. I trust our government never again discriminates against U.S. Citizens soley on Race or Country of Origin. This book is especially timely coming out just as our Country has just established THE HONOLULU NATIONAL MONUMENT, just outside Honolulu. ( )

The internment of Japanese Americans sat on the outer edge of my awareness; we learned about it, briefly, in American History but we did not study it. More's the pity.
Infamy, the shocking story of Japanese American internment in world war 2 brings together the many actors who engineered the monumental feat of identifying, collecting and impounding over 100,000 citizens and non-citizens who were legal residents of the USA, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. We read the reasons given by elected officials: California Attorney General Earl Warren,Governor Culbert Olson and military leaders: Lt General John DeWitt, Major General Allen Gullion, Karl Bendetsen and statesmen: Secretary Stimson and undersecretary John McCloy accusing people of possible treason,that undermined the rights of fellow citizens. These are people who were charged with the protection of all US citizens. We read about their fears of betrayal from within and attack from without after a Japanese submarine torpedoed an oil company tanker and 2 smaller freighters. So without due rights, American citizens were rounded up and placed under guard. We see that in the middle of chaos and confusing reports, poor decisions were made and it took years to reverse them once the errors were clear. The part that is shocking to me is that the journalists were so instrumental in whipping up fear and hatred. A few were valiant in their editorials to stand up for the rights of the Japanese Americans and due process, but few people wanted to heed them. Sadly, there were many people who resented having neighbors that didn't look like them and it didn't take much to stoke the fires of prejudice and fear and greed. We learn about the many Japanese Americans who lived through this ignominy with grace and fortitude. Many did not and were resentful. Many served in the armed forces. We learn a little about how families readjusted after the internment was ended and the war was over.
The author, Richard Reeves, recognizes that there were atrocities being perpetrated by Japan, so it is understandable that people would wonder if it were possible to know that there weren't like minded Japanese in America, but he points out the many ways that Japanese Americans, both citizens and non-citizens went out of their way to proclaim their loyalty and love for America. I got the feeling that he was pointing out that if we can do this to them, where would it stop? Do the Constitution and Bill of Rights really stand for anything?
My takeaway: Because we are faced with similar situations in every generation, it is necessary to know this history as well as our history with the other groups of our society so that we do not see our society as Us and Them. We are citizens together, making up this United States of America.
This book is repetitive and so at times tedious. There are lots of facts to keep straight, but that is history, it is complex. I got angry about the way people in power were so shortsighted and misused their positions and why we don't learn from history. Getting to know the different families made this all the more real and just points out that if we would take time to know people, we could maybe avoid the ugly wars.
the book I read was free through LibraryThing early reviewers group, and was an Advance Reader's Copy. ( )

Many years ago when I served as district director of a congressional office, an elderly Japanese gentleman came to see me to discuss the Congressman's position on a resolution apologizing for the internment of over 120,000 Japanese who had resided on the West coast during the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. In later years I would read the Korematsu opinion in which the US Supreme Court would affirm the constitutionality of the Japanese internment without due process of law. At the time, I listened politely and promised to do what I could.

Infamy is the story of how and why loyal Americans of Japanese descent and resident aliens with jobs and property were rounded up and sent to Assembly Centers and then on to concentration camps in the harshest conditions for the remainder of the War. Most did not have sufficient time to secure their property or arrange for the operation of their businesses. In many cases, the greedy offered them a pittance for valuables and property. They lost their homes and their livelihoods.

Richard Reeves has chronicled what happened, why, and with what consequences in this detailed and fascinating history. Racism was rampant when news spread about the deaths at Pearl Harbor and the knee jerk reaction was fear. Executive Order 9906 created a large Japanese exclusion area based in the mistaken belief that people of Japanese descent would form a "Fifth column" to welcome Japanese invaders to the west coast and hasten their victory. Dissenting voices were drowned in the drumbeat of fear and anger.

The most compelling element of this book is Reeves' accounts of individuals on all sides of the chaotic removal policy. He quotes liberally from letters and documents describing the daily lives of internees. What bothered many of them the most were the armed guards and barbed wire surrounding the camps; guns were pointed inward at the people who voluntarily surrendered their lives and property during removal.

Reeves is not a neutral narrator. His outrage is clear between the lines on every page and it is impossible not to feel the same. It reminded me of how I felt about the anti-Muslim tide in the wake of 9/11. Because we are human we can and must learn from the past. Infamy has much to teach. ( )

This was the first book have read that specifically focused on the Japanese internment during WWII. The events covered in this book are frequently mentioned in other books on WWII, but none have really shown how terrible these events really were. The author's style is very casual, as if you were talking to a friend, not hearing a lecture from a professor. It is fairly short and easy to read, which would make this ideal for readers who are interested in the subject, but not looking for a scholarly tome. In addition to covering the events that led to the camps and the events that happened inside them, the author talks about some of the military units that were comprised of Japanese Americans that went on to become some of the most decorated in the military. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a book about WWII, especially if they are looking for something covering the US during the war. ( )

A story of the American citizens seized and forced internment after Dec 7, 1941 just because of their Japanese ancestry. I can understand why it was done, but what use is a bill of rights when your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness is denied you under any emergency the government wants to declare – that never happened? A well written book about what happened on the Pacific west coast by white Americans during those dark and scary days at the beginning of WWII. At least in the end, the federal government (and most citizens) did try to make it right – but was too late for many whose lives were forever changed by their own country’s abuse of their basic civil rights.
Checkout the following web link - http://www.densho.org/
Also, be sure to read the Notes & Bibliography for this book for further research, some very good reading! ( )

Infamy is a typical American history, in that it brings up the past in good measure just to bury it. The overall picture here is that the episode of concentration camps for Japanese Americans was just a step in the growth curve of a fundamentally good society, rather than another part of a long and horrible racist history from the nation's foundation to present. To a great extent the author focuses on the most heroic, patriotic Japanese Americans as if the only way to humanize them is to look at those most assimilated and American. While I appreciate the information presented here, it would have benefited greatly from a more critical approach. ( )

My initial thought about Infamy was Why another book about the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII? There have been hundreds of books and articles about this stain on American justice and the over-reaction of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Richard Reeves addresses this issue in the introduction—the “imprisonment” or “internment” or “forced evacuation” of 120,000 Japanese-Americans, many of them US citizens is really a look at the “dark side” of America. History, does in fact, seem to be repeating itself. Maybe not to the extent that resulted in these camps being established, but certainly there is a long-standing history of resistance to immigrants in the US. What Reeves does well is tell the individual stories of those Japanese-Americans incarcerated by the military at the height of the anti-Japanese movement. While in some ways it is difficult to criticize our policy in the fog of war, it is apparent that the Japanese-Americans never posed a threat to US security. This was known long before these camps were dismantled. It is difficult to know what would have happened to this group had they not been interned. Clearly there was a serious case of Japanese-phobia, particularly on the West coast. Some may still argue it was done for their protection. Maybe, but the important story from this book is that we discriminated against an entire class of people in a most primitive way. Racism and war hysteria played the dominant role—this book provides a better understanding of the what happened and a warning that it could happen again. ( )

The internment of Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor is recognized today as one of the most disgraceful and shameful acts of this country's government, made more so by the imprimatur of approval given by the U. S. Supreme Court. Many books have been written about these events - some of which are listed in "Infamy"'s bibliography. Reeves doesn't tell us what he intends his book to add to the literature. I have not read any of the other books, so my assessment of "Infamy" cannot include comparisons.

Reeves' chronicle, which moves chronologically, is good. It is set forth in clear, straightforward prose (although including some nonacademic hyperbole), and it makes effective use of quotations from primary sources. War hysteria, fanned by West Coast politicians and newspapers, allowed the military to promote the relocation scheme. The Japanese in America were loyal to the Home Country, weren't they, and they could assist a Japanese naval bombardment and invasion and could direct Japanese aircraft to bombing _targets? The military and civilian decision makers answered these questions YES.

What is shocking to today's civil libertarians is the complicity of many of our heroes in this process. Reeves shows how these folks endorsed and aided the relocation and internment: FDR; California Governor Earl Warren (later Chief Justice); Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas; journalist Edward R. Murrow; columnist Walter Lippmann; the ACLU, by refusing to take legal action; and even children's book author Dr. Seuss.

This is what happened: Approximately 120,000 Japanese-Americans, citizens and non-citizens alike, were forcibly removed from their homes in the western halves of California, Washington, Oregon and parts of Arizona. Their property was either abandoned or sold at laughably low prices to vulturish buyers. The evacuees were first rounded up in "assembly centers", woefully inadequate to accommodate them, then moved to relocation camps, many hastily built of tarpaper over wooden frames. The camps were erected on barren federal land in dusty, often cold, plains or swampy Southern locations. Amenities were non-existent. These camps were occupied from mid-1942 to early 1945. Barbed wire and machine gun turrets surrounded the camps, and there were many incidents of killings, beatings and other mistreatment of the inhabitants by the American military guards.

The horror did not end with the closing of the camps. Most families who returned to their homes, farms and businesses found them destroyed, looted or stolen outright. The older evacuees found it almost impossible to start a new life; some committed suicide.

In 1988 an act of Congress apologized for the relocation/internment and awarded $20,000 to each of the approximately 80,000 camp survivors.

Reeves is a journalist, not an academic, and his occasional judgmental language is jarring:

"Two army officers of the Western Defense Command . . . both bigots, the former a fool, the latter a brilliant pathological liar, drove the process . . ."

" . . . Walter Lippmann, Edward R. Murrow and hundreds of other raving journalists (supported the relocation)."

"By any modern standards, Roosevelt and millions of people who voted for him were racists and, often, anti-Semites."

"Bendetsen (one military officer in charge of the relocation) was, in fact, a serial liar from a prominent Orthodox Jewish family . . . "

"In addition to the traditionally racist organizations like the American Legion . . . (other organizations did not welcome the returning Japanese-Americans exiting the camps)."

These stylistic excesses aside, this book serves well to tell the internment story all Americans should know.

Richard Reeves has researched the history of the Japanese American internment very thoroughly. The brutal facts of their incarceration following President Roosevelt's decree are combined with the personal stories that make this a compelling read. It is haunting to realize how many Japanese Americans served in WWII despite their treatment, and how the lives of so many good Japanese Americans were impacted by the hysteria following the invasion of Pearl Harbor. It isn't easy to read about the greed by those who profited from the internment of their neighbors and the bewilderment of the families who thought of themselves as patriotic Americans prior to their imprisonment. I am grateful to LT for the opportunity to review this riveting account of a shameful period in America's history. ( )

This is really an outstanding book that I received as an ARC through the Early Reviewers program. Books like this matter more than most. The time in 20th century American History when we had our own concentration camps was pretty well buried if not overtly hidden. No one talked about it. I was more than a little surprised to discover later in life that the small town I grew up in had a detention center from 1942-1946. As a child I wondered about the odd Quonset Huts near the archery range that were pretty much all that remained but had no idea until I discovered their history decades later. Perhaps much of younger America first learned of the internment of Japanese Americans in middle school reading "Farewell To Manzanar" which was published in 1973 and is one of the most well known books on the subject.

Reeves' book seems exceptionally well researched and tries to summarize and help us come to terms with how this happened in America. He lets us see from both sides of the barbed wire. I learned a lot from this book. I can recommend this book to any reader with even a casual interest in the subject. It deserves a wider audience than that, however. This is an important book. Perhaps the people who should read it are those who are entirely unaware of what can and did happen in America. I think one of the best points Reeves makes is found in his introduction, which I will quote here:

"The story of the "Japanese Internment," as it is usually called, is a tale of the best and worst in America. I learned, I think, that what pushes America forward and expands our liberty is not the old Anglo-Saxon Protestant views of the Founders, but the almost blind faith of each wave of immigrants-including the ones we put behind barbed wire. The Germans. The Irish. The Italians. The Jews. The Chinese. The Japanese. The latinos. The South Asians. The African-Americans. We are not only a nation of immigrants. We are a nation made by immigrants, foreigners who were needed for their labor and skills and faith-but were often hated because they were not like us until they were us."

I like that line "because they were not like us until they were us."

Reading this book I got angry. Very angry. This story is frightening, detailing how quickly racism, fear, and increasingly greed created a hysteria that spread from the West Coast. There are some true villains in this story, some big, some small. Reeves does an excellent job with some surprising examples (Dr Seuss?!) of the spread of the poison sentiment. This is a very sad time in American History when the constitutional rights of American citizens were completely ignored. We move through each stage of the internment, and see the valuable service that many Japanese Americans still performed in military intelligence and the armed forces. In the end we have an epilogue and see the remorse that came to so many of the perps, perhaps most poignantly that of a weeping Chief Justice Earl Warren. We see the ugly side of America and Americans.

When I started reading this I did not want to put it down. It is that kind of book. Recommended. ( )

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, there was a great deal of anger and fear towards Japanese Americans.

Less than eight weeks later, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 (February 19, 1942) authorizing the Secretary of War and U.S. armed forces commanders to declare areas of the United States as military areas "from which any or all persons may be excluded," although it did not name any nationality or ethnic group. It was eventually applied to one-third of the land area of the U.S. (mostly in the West) and was used against those with "Foreign Enemy Ancestry" — Japanese, Italians, and Germans. In March of 1942, the War Relocation Authority was created to: "Take all people of Japanese descent into custody, surround them with troops, prevent them from buying land, and return them to their former homes at the close of the war."

Even before the Japanese-Americans were relocated, their livelihoods were seriously threatened when all accounts in American branches of Japanese banks were frozen.

On May 19, 1942, western Japanese Americans were forced to move into relocation camps by Civilian Restrictive Order No. 1, 8 Fed. Reg. 982.

More than 120,000 American Japanese were taken from their homes and put in ten “relocation centers” and several prisons in California, Utah, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming. Three categories of internees were created: Nisei (native U.S. citizens of Japanese immigrant parents), Issei (Japanese immigrants), and Kibei (native U.S. citizens educated largely in Japan).

These Japanese Americans, half of whom were children, were incarcerated for up to 4 years, without due process of law or any factual basis, in bleak, remote camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. Families were crammed into 20- by 25-foot rooms and forced to use communal bathrooms. No razors, scissors, or radios were allowed. Children attended War Relocation Authority schools. None of them were ever charged of any crime against the United States.

"In desert camps, the evacuees met severe extremes of temperature. In winter it reached 35 degrees below zero, and summer brought temperatures as high as 115 degrees. Rattlesnakes and desert wildlife added danger to discomfort. At Gila, there were 7,700 people crowded into space designed for 5,000. They were housed in messhalls, recreation halls, and even latrines. As many as 25 persons lived in a space intended for four." (Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians.)

The Supreme Court delayed challenges to the mass incarceration until after the 1944 presidential election. Reeves quotes Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy in a memo declaring, “We can cover the legal situation . . . in spite of the Constitution. Why the Constitution is just a scrap of paper to me.”

It was not as if there were a great deal of sympathy for the Japanese in any event. Governor Chase Clark of Idaho declared: “The Japs live like rats, breed like rats and act like rats.” Nels Smith, Governor of Wyoming, told the Director of the War Relocation Authority, “If you bring Japanese into my state, I promise you they will be hanging from every tree.”

Reeves tells the story of the incarceration not only in terms of the officials who perpetrated the injustice or the heroes who fought against it, but also by relating the stories of the families themselves and what they endured. As he notes:

“This is an American story of enduring themes: racism and greed, injustice and denial - and then soul-searching, an apology, and the most American of coping mechanisms, moving on.”

But in fact, few of the American Japanese affected by this process were able to return to their prewar lives. They had lost their money and property - losses were estimated by the government as more than $200 million in 1942 - as well as their jobs and their reputations.

Nevertheless, and importantly, Reeves emphasizes that “Through it all, the desert heat and windstorms and bitter cold, the breakdowns and suicides, the overwhelming majority of the Japanese aliens and Japanese Americans remained loyal to the United States.”


In Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944), the United States Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, ruled that the exclusion order was constitutional. The opinion, written by Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, held that the need to protect against espionage outweighed Fred Korematsu's individual rights, and the rights of Americans of Japanese descent.

Justice Frank Murphy dissented, saying that the exclusion of Japanese "falls into the ugly abyss of racism," and compared the rationale for the Japanese exclusion to that supporting "the abhorrent and despicable treatment of minority groups by the dictatorial tyrannies which this nation is now pledged to destroy." He also compared the treatment of Japanese Americans, on the one hand, with persons of German and Italian ancestry, on the other, as evidence that race, rather than the emergency alone, led to the exclusion order which Korematsu was convicted of violating.

His closing paragraph reads: "I dissent, therefore, from this legalization of racism. Racial discrimination in any form and in any degree has no justifiable part whatever in our democratic way of life. It is unattractive in any setting, but it is utterly revolting among a free people who have embraced the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States. All residents of this nation are kin in some way by blood or culture to a foreign land. Yet they are primarily and necessarily a part of the new and distinct civilization of the United States. They must, accordingly, be treated at all times as the heirs of the American experiment, and as entitled to all the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution."

On December 17, 1944, Public Proclamation No. 21, effective January 2, 1945, allowed evacuees to return home, just ahead of two new Supreme Court decisions finding that citizens should be allowed to go home after proving their loyalty.

In order to rejoin society, each individual received a $25 payment and transportation tickets at the time of release.

In 1982, law professor Peter Irons found that the Justice Department had withheld or destroyed evidence before the Korematsu case reached the Supreme Court. He assembled a team of Japanese american lawyers who successfully petitioned for the dismissal of charges against Korematsu forty years before by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 1990, reparations were made to surviving internees and their heirs in the form of a formal apology by the U.S. government and a check for $20,000.

Evaluation: This is an important story about which too many Americans are unaware. In addition, as Reeves quotes one veteran and local historian,

“This is a great nation, and we’ve done many wonderful things. … This isn’t one of them, and we always need to be mindful of how we treat and how we interact with each other.” ( )