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Dishonoring America: The Falsification of World War II History

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This is yet another diatribe by self-proclaimed 'historian' Lillian Baker, who led what was virtually a one-woman crusade against Americans of Japanese ancestry for years until her recent death. She wrote a few books on the subject and none of them, including this one, follow the standards of academic research. She fails to provide sufficient evidence to back up her claims and she willfully distorts what really happened--primarily because history has proven that she was wrong in her assertions that Americans of Japanese ancestry were all disloyal during World War II and were threats to national security and deserved to be hauled away and locked up in American concentration camps. Bitter and hate-filled to the end because she mistakenly blamed Americans of Japanese ancestry for the death of her husband in the Pacific Theatre during WWII (she, like many others, did not differentiate between Japanese nationals and Americans of Japanese ancestry), Baker's legacy is certainly the opposite of what she had hoped for. Her racism and hate against Japanese Americans did for more to unify them in their struggle for redress and reparations than it did to hamper the movement. Therefore, don't waste your time on this 'book.' If you want to REALLY learn about what happened, there are other fine works on this subject.

This powerful book by Lillian Baker is an expansion of her material from "The Concentration Camp Conspiracy: A Second Pearl Harbor" (AFHA Publications) for which she received an award in the scholastic category from the Conference of California Historical Societies for "distinguished contributions to California history." While containing many original documents and photos, the book is also highly readable. Actually, it is hard to put down.
The Foreword is written by Prof. Kiyoaki Murata of Yachiyo International University in Tokyo and author of "An Enemy Among Friends." Murata previously served as Editor-in-Chief and Executive Director of the "Japan Times," the English newspaper with the largest circulation here in Tokyo. Murata supports Baker's work and notes that he himself was in the relocation camps as an "enemy alien" of university age until he decided to leave the camps in 1943 to attend university in Chicago, where he graduated and then returned to Japan after the war.
In the pages of Ms Baker's book you will see the details of the wartime groups, both anti-American and pro-American, and find exactly how their history has been hijacked by small-but-strident groups with an agenda - and the agenda is not concerned with getting the historical facts straight. You will see statements from many Japanese-Americans who resent the falsification of their history by "anti-racist activists" (a nisei who was in the Kootenay Valley camp in Canada calls them "reverse racist activists"). You will be shocked at the distortions, including falsified photos, that have been used to rewrite this history. The book details revisionism extending from the ACLU (whose wartime president supported relocation and denounced the anti-American "Fair Play Committee") to such revisionist docu-drama distortions as "The Color of Honor" and the booklet "They Work for Victory," which looks at a fine military unit (the 442nd Regimental Combat Team) and exaggerates its accomplishments almost beyond belief.
You'll also be surprised to learn how many in the camps were Japanese nationals choosing to reside in the camps while expressing loyalty to Japan, and how many of the others were dual nationals (mostly children of the Japanese nationals) who could not choose because of their age.
The reparations committee was a stacked deck, loaded with types similar to Congressman Norman Mineta, an outspoken proponent of reparations and apology. You'll find that Mineta has constantly lied about his "war-time experiences." You'll also find that Sen. Daniel K. Inouye covered up and withheld from the Presidential Commission, the Congress and the Courts information about MAGIC (see below) that proved the military necessity for E.O.9066 (the Executive Order by President Roosevelt establishing the exclusion zone on the West Coast).
On the other hand, you'll find that Sen. Hayakawa denounced the committee, calling it a "wolf-pack of young Japanese-Americans who weren't even born during WWII." Also, Dr. Ken Masugi, son of alien evacuees, stated that the committee's report "Personal Justice Denied" consists of (1) moral posturing, (2) intellectual dishonesty, and (3) political opportunism. Prof. Murata denounces the committee's report as a "falsification of history."
Naturally, Lillian Baker was a lightening rod for the anger and personal vituperation of the reverse racist activists, who would like nothing more than to suppress her documentation of that period. Unable to counter the evidence she has presented, they revert to the lowest form of attack, casting aspersions on her person and character. Their charges of her "anti-Japanese racism" are belied by the fact that she served as the South Bay chair for the successful campaign of Senator S.I. Hayakawa.
After reading this book, you will also want to have a look at "MAGIC: The untold story of US Intelligence and the evacuation of Japanese residents from the West Coast during WWII," by David D. Lowman, former Special Assistant to the Director of the NSA, and Prof. Murata's book "An Enemy Among Friends."

This is an unsupportable, one-sided view of Japanese-Americans as the enemy of the United States during WWII and even today. I had to read this for a term paper and it is really difficult to get through because it is so unfair and prejudiced against all Japanese-American people. Do not support this racist propaganda.