Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II (Critical Issue) [Paperback]

Roger Daniels (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0809078961 | ISBN-13: 978-0809078967 | Edition: Revised

Part of Hill and Wang's Critical Issues Series and well established on college reading lists, PRISONERS WITHOUT TRIAL presents a concise introduction to a shameful chapter in American history: the incarceration of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. With a revised final chapter and expanded recommended readings, Roger Daniels's updated edition examines a tragic event in our nation's past and thoughtfully asks if it could happen again.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Historian Daniels (co-author of Japanese-Americans: From Relocation to Redress ) provides a concise, deft introduction to a shameful chapter in American history: the incarceration of nearly 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II. He begins by showing the pattern of historical prejudice against Asian immigrants. After the Pearl Harbor bombing, jingoism permeated America. Conservative Republicans in the War Department, aided by pundits like Walter Lippman, pushed President Roosevelt in 1942 to order the round-up of Japanese-Americans on the West Coast. The spuriousness of suspicions that the Japanese constituted a danger, Daniels notes, is shown by the lack of action against Japanese-Americans in Hawaii, where their labor was crucial. Daniels describes the Supreme Court's upholding of the evacuation, life in the drab, desolate relocation centers and the complex process of resettling the uprooted. Daniels explores the political battles that led to a 1989 law providing for redress payments of $20,000 to each person incarcerated. He warns, however, that jingoism remains as anti-Arab feelings and acts during the Gulf War showed.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-A dramatic account of the relocation of Japanese-Americans into prison camps during World War II. Daniels has written more than seven detailed chronicles on the status of Asian Americans in our society. This short narrative capsulizes information in previous volumes and cautions that, if the U.S. is not watchful, that shameful situation could happen again. This well-written title will be a good resource for students doing research papers on various social issues of World War II as well as for informative recreational reading.
Pat Royal, Crossland High School, Camp Springs, MD
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang; Revised edition (September 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809078961
• ISBN-13: 978-0809078967
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb and Succinct, April 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II (Critical Issue Series) (Paperback)

With "Prisoners Without Trial", Roger Daniels provides an excellent starting point for anyone interested in the internment of Japanese American's during World War II. This well regarged historian has crafted a splendid little book that is a compilation of years of work, yet extremely clear and concise. The chapters are chronologically ordered to make this book easy to read for those who are not thoroughly versed in historical texts. There is an abundance of cleanly presented primary evidence along with interesting analytical viewpoints. This book was a quick, informative and interesting read, and I would highly recommend it.

-Molly

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Short Book on America's Biggest Black Mark, January 12, 2002

By 

Daitokuji31 (Black Glass) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II (Critical Issue Series) (Paperback)

In 114 pages on actual text and several pages of pictures Dr. Roger Daniels shows the reader the plight of Japanese Americans through the war years and after. Dr. Daniels, who has written several books on the Japanese Concentration camps, shows us how discrimination against the Chinese led to later discrimination against the Japanese. He shows us how America reacated to Japanse-Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He shows us How the American Government can imprison its own citizends because of their racial heritage. This is a really good little book that will give the reader a good outline of how racial tensions with Japanese immigrants began, dealings with Japanese-Americans after the bombings, life in the Concentration Camps, and the redress movement. A book to be read by those who want to know the underbelly of American History

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A book for every American who enjoys their liberty, April 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II (Critical Issue Series) (Paperback)

Roger Daniels presents us with a book that speaks not only to those of Japanese American ancestry, but to all Americans. It brings into question our civil liberties and freeedoms. The Japanese American relocation during WWI serves as the first time that the American government has violated the rights of an ethnic group (the 2nd and 3rd generation Japanese Americans) to which its Constitution had given citizenship. The Japanese American incarceration was an example of the Anglo American propensity to react against non-whites. Not only did it violate the spirit of the Constitution, but it ironically took place within a nation which was simultaneously fighting for the release of another ethnic minority, the Jews from concentration camps across Europe.