The Japanese Americans

book by Harry Kitano, 1996

This is not a book specifically about the internment camps, although it does have that part of history included. It starts out talking about Japanese immigration to the U.S. and talks about the racism they faced but it also talks about problems with cultural misunderstandings.

The book then goes on to example the influences of Shinto, Buddhism and Christianity on the Japanese. It also discusses the early history of the shogunate and the Tokugawa response to Christianity.

The first immigrants from Japan went to Hawaii in 1868. By 1899 there were more than 65,000 Japanese workers in Hawaii. The book then goes on to talk about how the Japanese then emigrated to California and some of the problems they faced. It then discusses the "yellow peril" problem and its origins in Japanese expansionism into China and other areas.

Next to be discussed as the various generations of Japanese Americans and how each generation was related to the way they were brought up.

The fourth chapter specifically deals with the evacuations, including the evacuations themselves and the time right after the internment was ended.

The book then goes into Japanese-American society after the war and includes information on typical Japanese foods and festivals. After that it talks about various Japanese-Americans that have made important contributions to our society.

A small, concise but good book on Japanese Americans. The chapter on Japanese-Americans who have made important contributions to our society is particularly interesting.

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