Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CLPEF Network. "Historical Overview of the Japanese American Internment." The Legacy
Continues. Accessed June 8, 2015. http://www.momomedia.com/CLPEF/history.html.
This website did a good job of taking a holistic approach to Japanese American
internment. It covered all events from Pearl Harbor to the redress movement. This
website, in particular, devoted an equal focus to each part of internment, making it easy
to use. We incorporated much of this information into the background information tab, as
it was appropriate. This site also had useful quotes, some of which we incorporated into
our site. The name of the website is the CLPEF Network, which is sponsored by the Civil
Liberties Public Education Fund. The website is dedicated to providing information and
resources to help educate the public on issues related to the wartime incarceration of
Americans of Japanese ancestry. As this website is devoted entirely to the topic of
Japanese Internment during World War II, we knew it was a reputable source for our
topic, and consequently incorporated a lot of information from it.
Daniels, Roger, and Eric Foner. Prisoners without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II.
New York: Hill and Wang, 1993.
Prisoners Without Trial is a nonfiction book that attempts to provide a full documentation
of the Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The book is divided into 6
sections, each focusing on one part of Japanese Relocation. It covers all aspects of
Japanese Internment from 1850-1990, including the causes and effects of relocation. The
book provides many primary sources that provide insight into the time period and the
attitudes displayed during this time. The book concludes with an "Epilogue: Could It
Happen Again?" and photographs to attach a visual image to the story of the Japanese
Americans. This source was particularly helpful in outlining the causes and effects of
Japanese relocation. It covered all aspects of the process and all the factors that
contributed to the decision and resulted from it. The inclusion of primary sources was
useful in receiving different viewpoints from people who experienced, witnessed, and
ordered relocation. The author provides, charts, graphs, facts, and figures to further aid in
the understanding of Japanese Relocation. This book is very well thought out and
chronicles almost every aspect of Japanese Relocation.
Davenport, John. The Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II: Detention of
American Citizens. New York: Chelsea House, 2010. Accessed May 26, 2015.
http://ebooks.infobaselearning.com/View.aspx?
ISBN=9781438131276&PGSelectedAbsolute=121&WithAllWord=japanese+interment&
SearchType=All.
The Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II provided a thorough
history Japanese-American imprisonment beginning with the Pearl Harbor attack and
going through details of specific relocation centers, such as Manzanar. A unique aspect of
this book was that it concluded with a chapter about the legacy of Japanese-American
internment. This was useful in demonstrating how President Franklin D. Roosevelt
mainly ignored the racism against Japanese-Americans, but how his predecessor, Harry
S. Truman, began to address this discrimination and attempt to compensate for the losses
detention caused. Additionally, this source included several primary documents, such as
President Gerald Fords proclamation made during the celebration of Americas 200th
birthday. Fords powerful speech, given thirty-four years after the beginning of
relocation, officially recognized that the evacuation of Japanese-American citizens was
wrong. In this address, the President also calls upon all Americans to learn from this
tragedy to ensure that a similar event never occurs.
Fred T. Korematsu Institute. "About Fred Korematsu." The Fred T. Korematsu Institute.
http://korematsuinstitute.org/institute/aboutfred/.
The mission of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute website is to educate the public on this
Japanese-American's incredible story from his early life to the legacy he has left behind.
This source provided an informative biography on Korematsu's life, detailing his attempt
to avoid internment, his arrest and Supreme Court Case, the re-opening of this case, and
the impact he left on the world. Fred Korematsu is a great example of how JapaneseAmericans were treated unjustly because he was born in America and had never betrayed
his country. However, Fred was discriminated against and punished because of his
ancestry, something he had no control over. The Korematsu Institute is qualified to write
about this man's story because his daughter Karen helped found this organization and
write the biography located on its website. Having known Korematsu personally, Karen
is a qualified author and is able to provide insight on her father's story in order to keep
passing on his legacy to future generations.
Japanese-American Internment. Evanston, Ill.: Nextext, 2001.
This book details the history of American-Japanese interment, beginning with Franklin D.
Roosevelts request for a declaration of war and ending with the Korematsu v. United
States court case. The information covered will be useful because it not only includes
what conditions were like in internment camps, but also what happened to cause the
creation of these relocation centers and what happened to citizens after they were freed.
Additionally, this source was unique because it included several primary sources such as
excerpts from U.S. government reports during World War II. These will be helpful in
determining why America chose to enforce an internment policy as well as how they
carried it out. Finally, this book includes several personal accounts of the JapaneseAmerican people placed in camps during this time. Stories such as Estelle Ishigos, who
was white but chose to be interned with her husband, will be powerful in describing the
impact of imprisonment.
Sandler, Martin W. Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans during World War II. New
York: Walker Books For Young Readers, an imprint of Bloomsbury, 2013.
Imprisoned focuses on the harsh treatment Japanese Americans faced during World
War II. The first two sections in this book, titled The Japanese Come to America and
Hysteria, are beneficial because the former provides details on why the Japanese
migrated and what they expected to find in the U.S., while the later reports how these
residents were actually treated following the attack on Pearl Harbor. This book also
describes the internment of Japanese-Americans to temporary assembly centers, followed
by their movement to more permanent relocation camps. Neither of these types of
facilities was fit to house the amount of people forced into them, and although peoples
stay in these camps was supposed to be relatively brief, they ended up imprisoned there
far longer than expected. Martin W. Sandler is a qualified writer because he taught
American studies and American history at the University of Massachusetts as well as
Smith College. The author has also written over sixty books on U.S. history and won five
Emmy Awards for his work as a television writer and producer.
Smith, Page. Democracy on Trial: The Japanese American Evacuation and Relocation in World
War II. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
In Democracy on Trial, Page Smith tells the story of the Japanese American men, women,
and children who were interned during this chapter in United States history. Smith is a
master of narrative history and in this book brilliantly narrates the struggles of the
Japanese Americans in their predicament, how they adjusted to their situation, the
divisions in their own ranks, their efforts at autonomy and finally their integration into
American life. Additionally, Democracy on Trial exposes the range of motives of many
public figures associated with Japanese Relocation. Page draws on interviews and
archival research to reach conclusions regarding the internment of Japanese Americans.
The book is divided into 4 sections, chronologically ordered, each devoted to one period
of Japanese internment (United States and Japanese Relations, the decision for relocation,
life in the relocation camps, and the end and redress of relocation) The narrative provides
a holistic view of Japanese relocation and focuses on the hardships Japanese Americans
endured in the camps.