Discrimination: Japanese Americans Struggle for Equality

The book first defines discrimination, then goes into the history of persons of Japanese ancestry in the US, starting from the earliest immigration on through the incarceration and then to the 1990's. (The book is from 1992).

The book notes that discrimination doesn't just come from “regular” people, but from people high up in the government.

”The Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox made matters worse on the West Coast when he held a press conference in Los Angeles on December 15, 1941, after a brief inspection of Pearl Harbor. He spoke of the treachery that took place in Hawaii and stated that much of the damage had been caused by saboteurs. In fact, the level of damage at Pearl Harbor was the result of military incompetence and lack of readiness, and Knox knew that when he made his statement to the press.”

This is one of the books that refers to the places where the Japanese Americans were held as “concentration camps,” noting that President Roosevelt used that term himself.

The book also talks about the controversial questionnaire the Japanese Americans had to fill out, noting that 75,000 did so and of those 65,000 answered yes to both questions relating to if they were willing to serve in the US military and if they would give up any form of allegiance to the Emperor.

The book also notes that discrimination against Asian Americans is still going on in today's US.

This is a nicely done, easy-to-read book on the subject, covering the main points of Japanese immigration and incarceration quite well.

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