With the manuscript completed in the spring of 1944 and published in October, this is the first major indictment of a disgraceful chapter in US history. However, given the direct sources of information McWilliams utilizes, it puts paid to later comparisons with Nazi concentration camps about which little was known during the war. The material on the Tolan Committee and the positions taken by various groups is excellent and the political disabilities of people of Japanese descent well explained. This informative background doesn't acknowledge the dread of many people given the rape of Nanking, stringing Cordell Hull along until after the attack on Pearl Harbor began, the invasion of the Philippines, and the then continuing seige of Wake Island as Dewitt made his decision. The hopes of some in the US and British Columbia that relocation would foster assimilation are largely forgotten today. If this had been published a couple of years after the war, even more would have been made of how Japanese-American property was stolen when they were exiled from their homes, farms, and stores. McWilliams is correct in maintaining race hatred has to be purposefully organized in California and provides specific examples from 1942 and 1943, including the Dies Committee and the Little Dies Committee testimony. This book was published in the face of contrary public opinion while the war was on and thousands were in the camps.
With the manuscript completed in the spring of 1944 and published in October, this is the first major indictment of a disgraceful chapter in US history. However, given the direct sources of information McWilliams utilizes, it puts paid to later comparisons with Nazi concentration camps about which little was known during the war. The material on the Tolan Committee and the positions taken by various groups is excellent and the political disabilities of people of Japanese descent well explained. This informative background doesn't acknowledge the dread of many people given the rape of Nanking, stringing Cordell Hull along until after the attack on Pearl Harbor began, the invasion of the Philippines, and the then continuing seige of Wake Island as Dewitt made his decision. The hopes of some in the US and British Columbia that relocation would foster assimilation are largely forgotten today. If this had been published a couple of years after the war, even more would have been made of how Japanese-American property was stolen when they were exiled from their homes, farms, and stores. McWilliams is correct in maintaining race hatred has to be purposefully organized in California and provides specific examples from 1942 and 1943, including the Dies Committee and the Little Dies Committee testimony. This book was published in the face of contrary public opinion while the war was on and thousands were in the camps.
With the manuscript completed in the spring of 1944 and published in October, this is the first major indictment of a disgraceful chapter in US history. However, given the direct sources of information McWilliams utilizes, it puts paid to later comparisons with Nazi concentration camps about which little was known during the war. The material on the Tolan Committee and the positions taken by various groups is excellent and the political disabilities of people of Japanese descent well explained. This informative background doesn't acknowledge the dread of many people given the rape of Nanking, stringing Cordell Hull along until after the attack on Pearl Harbor began, the invasion of the Philippines, and the then continuing seige of Wake Island as Dewitt made his decision. The hopes of some in the US and British Columbia that relocation would foster assimilation are largely forgotten today. If this had been published a couple of years after the war, even more would have been made of how Japanese-American property was stolen when they were exiled from their homes, farms, and stores. McWilliams is correct in maintaining race hatred has to be purposefully organized in California and provides specific examples from 1942 and 1943, including the Dies Committee and the Little Dies Committee testimony. This book was published in the face of contrary public opinion while the war was on and thousands were in the camps.
