When the U.S. government forced 70,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry into internment camps in 1942, it created administrative tribunals to pass judgment on who was loyal and who was disloyal. Muller relates the untold story of exactly how military and civilian bureaucrats judged these tens of thousands of American citizens during wartime. This is the only study of the Japanese American internment to examine the complex inner workings of the most draconian system of loyalty screening that the American government has ever deployed against its own citizens. At a time when our nation again finds itself beset by worries about an "enemy within" considered identifiable by race or religion, this volume offers crucial lessons from a recent and disastrous history.
American Inquisition
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Excellent evidence-driven research. . . . [A] valuable contribution."
-American Studies
"[A] clearly written history. . . . A close and nuanced reading of the hunt for Japanese American disloyalty during World War II. . . . Points to new areas of profitable research for historians of Japanese America."
-- Journal of American Ethnic History
"Muller once again does an exemplary job of unearthing new archival materials and shedding a substantial amount of light on a well-studied topic. . . . Fascinating."
-American Historical Review
"An excellent study of the mid-level agencies' messy job at evaluating the loyalty of Japanese Americans, and concludes by contextualizing this case within past and present governmental evaluations of loyalty."
— Western Historical Quarterly
"The author places this work within the broader context of history and ties into the development of subsequent loyalty programs to ferret out communists during the Cold War. . . . Recommended."
— Choice
"Insightful."
— Arkansas Historical Quarterly
"[A] good book on an unexplored dimension of a sorry chapter in American history."
— Journal of American History
Combining intensive archival research and brilliant analysis, Eric Muller gives us another example of bad news from the good war.
-American Studies
"[A] clearly written history. . . . A close and nuanced reading of the hunt for Japanese American disloyalty during World War II. . . . Points to new areas of profitable research for historians of Japanese America."
-- Journal of American Ethnic History
"Muller once again does an exemplary job of unearthing new archival materials and shedding a substantial amount of light on a well-studied topic. . . . Fascinating."
-American Historical Review
"An excellent study of the mid-level agencies' messy job at evaluating the loyalty of Japanese Americans, and concludes by contextualizing this case within past and present governmental evaluations of loyalty."
— Western Historical Quarterly
"The author places this work within the broader context of history and ties into the development of subsequent loyalty programs to ferret out communists during the Cold War. . . . Recommended."
— Choice
"Insightful."
— Arkansas Historical Quarterly
"[A] good book on an unexplored dimension of a sorry chapter in American history."
— Journal of American History
Combining intensive archival research and brilliant analysis, Eric Muller gives us another example of bad news from the good war.
—Roger Daniels, University of Cincinnati, Emeritus, and author of Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II
About the Author
Eric L. Muller is George R. Ward Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is author of Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Important and Timely Study,
By Bao (California, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II (Hardcover)
Contrary to the first review, I believe that Eric Muller's book is an important and timely study of the Japanese American internment, and while narrowly focused on the question of "loyalty," this question and how it was determined and the racial prejudices that were exhibited by the various military agencies and WRA point to the ways in which the line between those deemed "loyal" and "disloyal" were arbitrarily drawn, largely by the prejudices of those involved (DeWitt being foremost among those who has been documented as saying that the internment was revenge for Pearl Harbor--a troubled and flawed and revealing comment if ever there was one since it demonstrated that DeWitt, like to many others during WWII could not distinguish between Japanese nationals, Japanese miltitary, Japanese in America of the first generation unable to apply for citizenship due to racist immigration/citizenship laws, and Japanese Americans whose cultural influences included Mickey Mouse, the Boyscouts, and American jazz, as well as Akido, Sushi, and Buddhist practices).
The work that Muller has done will resonate with the questions we are currently facing as a society living in a post-9/11 world; Muslim and Arabs living in America are at risk in a similar way currently. We need to remember the lesson of internment and this question of "loyalty" as not being commensurate with race or religion.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
American Inquisition:The hunt for Japanese American.......,
By
This review is from: American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II (Hardcover)
This book is well researched and written in a manner that, although scholarly, is very readable and full of information of facts not previously known to me. In the light of the current state of afairs in our country, this book points out how we have previously acted under the stress of war.
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Inaccuracy,
By
This review is from: American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II (Hardcover)
There were many inaccuracies in this book regarding Dr. George Ochikubo. Much data was gathered from the national archives written by persons that did not care for Dr. Ochikubo due to the fact that he embarassed them in the courts. One of the discrepancy was that he did not speak the Japanese language. The fact is that he was fluent in the language because his grandparents only spoke Japanese. That was his only method to communicate with his parents.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
(learn more)
community analysis section, individual excludees, expatriation requests, leave clearance hearing, mass exclusion, war plant work, loyalty screening, registration questionnaire, loyalty questionnaires, individual exclusion, loyalty findings, military witnesses, relocation center, indefinite leave Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Japanese Americans, United States, West Coast, War Department, Pearl Harbor, World War, Japanese-American Branch, Joint Board, Dillon Myer, George Ochikubo, Civil Affairs Division, Tule Lake, War Relocation Authority, Western Defense Command, Justice Department, Major General Bonesteel, Judge Hall, Captain Hall, Los Angeles, Colonel Hazzard, Commanding General, Heart Mountain, President Roosevelt, Poston Relocation Center, University of California Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
community analysis section, individual excludees, expatriation requests, leave clearance hearing, mass exclusion, war plant work, loyalty screening, registration questionnaire, loyalty questionnaires, individual exclusion, loyalty findings, military witnesses, relocation center, indefinite leave Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Japanese Americans, United States, West Coast, War Department, Pearl Harbor, World War, Japanese-American Branch, Joint Board, Dillon Myer, George Ochikubo, Civil Affairs Division, Tule Lake, War Relocation Authority, Western Defense Command, Justice Department, Major General Bonesteel, Judge Hall, Captain Hall, Los Angeles, Colonel Hazzard, Commanding General, Heart Mountain, President Roosevelt, Poston Relocation Center, University of California Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
