Were We The Enemy?: American Survivors of Hiroshima (1998)

This book is about Japanese Americans who were trapped in Japan at the start of the war and were unable to return to the US until the war was over.

One question, of course, is why were they in Japan in the first place? Generally, they were visiting relatives since their grandparents and other relatives still lived in Japan. Probably some were just visiting the country of their parents' birth. In either case, they were trapped when the war started.

Also, the book points out that more Japanese emigrated from Hiroshima Prefecture (kind of like a county) then any other prefecture in Japan, so naturally there would be more relatives there to visit than elsewhere.

Atomic Bomb Deaths

The book states that the actual number of people killed in the atomic bombing was around 140,000 in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki, much higher than original estimates.

The book also points out that some people are still dying from cancers caused from the radiation. At first, many US officials didn't believe the stories of radiation sickness, and the book notes that the government attempted to supress the information. Stillbirths and neonatal deaths were abnormally high.

Hibakusha

These are survivors of the atomic bombing. They often had severe burns and scars and were generally ostracized by other people, even if they were native born Japanese and had lived in Japan their entire lives.

Korean deaths

There were many Koreans in Japan doing forced labor, and thousands were killed in the two bombed cities.

Nisei in the cities

Nisei are those born to Japanese parents and who have US citizenship. Around 3000 were living in Hiroshima at the time, although this fact was not known by those flying the Enola Gay.

Censorship

The Japanese military did not allow the use of the words “atomic bomb” to say what was used against the two cities. (Actually, they tried to downplay the effects of the bomb.)

Tule Lake

The Tule Lake camp had been converted to one for “troublemakers,” basically; those who answered no-no to questions 27 and 28 on the survey they had to fill out. The Los Alamos facility was about twenty miles northwest of the camp.

Anyhow, many at the camp were very, very pro-Japanese and they actually had a major problem believing that Japan lost the war, some not believing the fact until they returned to Japan.

Nisei in Japan

There were around 15,000 Nisei living in Japan at the end of the war; abut 10,000 of those were ultimately given permission to return to the US. Anyone who served in the Japanese military or voted in a Japanese election was not allowed to return.

Internment Camps

The book briefly mentions internment camps in general, and the 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were placed in them. It notes that the people in the camp were not advised to return to the West Coast when the camps were closed down, since anti-Japanese feeling there was still so high. They ended up going to cities all over the US, including 13,000 to Chicago, 3000 to Cleveland, and 600 to Cincinnati.

The book also notes that the internees had major financial losses when they had to leave their homes and businesses, and only about 10% of their losses were ever replaced by the US government.



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