Judgment without Trial: Japanese-American Imprisonment during World War II

Tetsuden Kashima, 2003

The book starts out with some basic definition of terms which is a good idea and something I haven't seen any other books do. It then goes into the pre-WWII history of German, Italian and Japanese espionage, the Justice Department, the War Department and the various classifications of Japanese American groups.

The book also deals with other levels of government and even talks about the Magic Cables and notes that none of then indicated any sabotage being carried out or planned by Nisei or Issei in the U.S.

In the next chapter the book uses a flowchart to show what happened to various aliens of German, Italian and Japanese ancestry in relation to the various forms of internment camps. Public fears, types of arrests, paroles and early releases are all covered in this chapter.

Chapter 4 deals with Hawaii. It starts off by going into the military and political background of the Hawaiian Islands. It discusses those who were held in Hawaii, the camps, a flowchart showing what happened to the individuals involved, and a lot of other information.

Chapter 5 deals with Alaska and Latin America. Chapter 6 deals with something not talked about much in other books and that's Department of Justice and Army camps that were used to house Issei and Nisei. The book goes into Executive Order 9066 and the WRA camps, the way that the German and Italian prisoners were treated, how the centers differed in nature, and trouble at the camps.

Inmate resistance and the various isolation camps are also discussed.

By this time we are to chapter 8 which starts right off with the loyalty questionnaire. Worsening conditions, renunciation of citizenship and draft resistance are all covered. Chapter 9 deals with abuses in the camps, protests and the Geneva Convention. Conflicts at the isolation centers and imprisonment are next to be discussed. The book also contains around 80 pages of notes and bibliographical information.

This is an extremely detailed book and spends a lot of time going into areas that most other books ignore or cover only briefly, and that relates to the isolation camps and the actual prisons used. A very interesting book.



Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page