Episode 208 – Across the Sea, Part 4

September 3, 2017

This week: why did the American government think it was necessary to round up Nikkei on the West Coast? And what did that policy mean for the people who actually lived it?

Listen to the episode here.
Sources
Reeves, Richard. Infamy.
Himel, Yoshinori. “Americans’ Misuse of ‘Internment‘”
The Archives.gov entries for Executive Order 9066
Densho.org’s fine collection of sources on the subject.
Images
I feel like this one speaks for itself in terms of wartime attitudes towards fellow American citizens.
By late spring, 1942, notices like this one from the San Francisco area began to crop up all over the US West Coast.
Photos like this one disturb me quite deeply because of both the imagery of the camp itself, and because of the number of people who are actually smiling.
The Tule Lake “War Relocation Center” as seen from the air.
Isamu Noguchi chose to be incarcerated in a camp even though he did not have to be, and spent the war years trying to make conditions better for the people inside.
The color guard of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated military unit in American history.
Daniel Inouye sans right arm, receiving an incredibly well-deserved Medal of Honor from Bill Clinton.