
Purchase
The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II
University of North Carolina Press
October 2007
On Sale: October 15, 2007
216 pages ISBN: 0807831735 EAN: 9780807831731 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
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. In American Inquisition, Eric
Muller relates the untold story of exactly how military and
civilian bureaucrats judged these tens of thousands of
American citizens during wartime. Some
citizens were deemed loyal and were freed, but one in four
was declared disloyal to America and condemned to repressive
segregation in the camps or barred from war-related jobs.
Using cultural and religious affiliations as indicators of
Americans' loyalties, the far-reaching bureaucratic
decisions often reflected the agendas of the agencies that
performed them rather than the actual allegiances or threats
posed by the citizens being judged, Muller
explains. American Inquisition 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.
No awards found for this book.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|