“Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience During World War II”
by Albert Marrin.
Alfred A. Knopp, New York, 2016, 246 pages, Grades 8 and higher.
In times of war, nations can act with fear and suspicion. The forces creating war are terrifying and often scapegoats are sought.
Usually these scapegoats are members of a group that can be reviled with few consequences for the perpetrators. After the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, one of the most sorrowful, painful examples of these actions happened in the United States. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942. This hateful, racist act would force all Japanese Americans to register for deportation to “relocation camps” hundreds of miles from their homes.
In all, 110,000 loyal American citizens were betrayed by their own government in violation of the United State Constitution. Renowned historian, Dr. Albert Marrin recounts this terrible tragedy in a remarkable book, “Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience During World War II.”
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that racism comes from the earlier word racialism which is “the belief in the superiority of a particular race leading to prejudice and antagonism towards people of other races” (OED 2nd Edition, v. 13, p.74).
Marrin begins his book by examining the racist attitudes of both Japan and the United States. As it turns out, nobody is innocent, as both Japan and the United States have passed racist laws. Both countries practice racism. These laws then harden into attitudes that affect the beliefs of their citizens. When times are good in both countries, these racist attitudes tend to lie dormant. But after the Pearl Harbor attack, they burst out in all their ugliness in the United States.
The Roosevelt Administration is convinced that the Japanese-Americans are in collusion with the Japanese Empire to overthrow the United States. Ten weeks after the beginning of the war, Executive Order 9066 is signed by President Roosevelt, authorizing a four-year period of misery on the Japanese Americans, by deporting them hundreds of miles inland for “relocation.” This will supposedly protect the United States.
The Issei are the original immigrants from Japan and they tend to live on the West Coast, especially in California. Industrious and frugal, the Issei run small businesses and farms contributing to the economy. Their children are called Nisei and are all native-born Americans. The Nisei are equally hard-working and very successful academically.
The Japanese American world is destroyed by Roosevelt’s order. The Japanese Americans are quickly stripped of their businesses and property, and sent hundreds of miles inland to what President Harry Truman later calls “concentration camps” (p.194).
Since the internees do not fear execution, receive basic supplies and have schools, the camps are very different from German concentration camps. But they have lost their freedom and are still trapped inside.
Yet despite what has happened to them, Nisei men join the United States Army and become a highly decorated battalion during the Italian Campaign. General Charles Willoughby, intelligence chief for General Douglas MacArthur, states that the work of Japanese American linguists “shortened the war in the Pacific by two years and saved hundreds of thousands of American casualties” (p.185).
The most famous Nisei soldier is the future senator of Hawaii and Medal of Honor recipient, Daniel Inouye.
Marrin describes the closing of the camps and the sometimes painful reintegration into American society. The belated apologies and financial compensation given to the Japanese Americans by the American government is fully described. The writer concludes with a comparison of American reactions to Muslims since 9/11. Marrin also points out that while President Roosevelt violated the rights of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor, President George W. Bush protected the rights of Muslim Americans after the World Trade Center attacks.
This book is very well written and needs to be read in high school history classes. Regrettably, on p.198, the author uses a quote in which the Lord’s name is taken in vain. Why, in one instance in a 246-page book he would choose such a quote is somewhat befuddling. But having said that, Marrin tells the tragic story of the Japanese American deportation with clarity and insight. This book is available at the Lincoln Public Libraries.
