I had a good friend in college who was born in Topaz. And the house I've owned for 20+ years was owned by a Japenese family who were intered. (This was one of the few neighborhoods in which they could own property.

So I'm interested in the book. Tell me more. Author? Background?

I knew someone who's parents were there as well. And yes, I'm interested in more.

We had interrnment camps in Arizona as well. I remember being in college and finding out. I was shocked - in this country of all places. It still shocks and disgusts me, how we treated our own citizens (not that anyone should be treated such)

I also remember my shock at finding out about the camps. My ex MIL was living in San Diego at the time and felt they were totally justified. Many heated discussions about that!

Have you read Joyce Kagawa's Obasan & Itsuka? They are about what Canada did to their Japanese citizens. It was even worse than our treatment because it went on so much longer. A real eye opener for those of us who felt the shame of our war in Vietnam contrasted to their virtue.

I wrote a paper on Japanese-American internment for a history class in undergrad school in the 70s. My professor (a Ph.D in history!) had never heard about it. Now THAT'S scary!!

I remember discussing the issue in junior high (mid-sixties). I was rather surprized to learn from an interview of George Takei that Earl Warren had a hand in it as governor of California. Takei seemed to place sole blame on Warren, but, from my limited reading on the matter, I haven't found out if the Warren did anything more substantive than cheerleading. Takei, who was a small child at the time, said he thought the experience was great fun, but changed his mind in retrospect.

leel that is totally scary. How could that person have done ANY reading of U.S. history at graduate level and not known about the internment! Many of them were citizens. And none of them were ever convicted of any war crimes, Unlike my German-speaking relatives who were in the U.S. They experienced some prejudice, especially the older ones who still didn't speak English, but no one took their farms away and locked them up. And there were a number of convicted German spies in the U.S.No wonder no one cares about Guantanamo.

>My professor (a Ph.D in history!) had never heard about it. Now THAT'S scary!!

Its amazing what we don't know about our own country. Another one that many kids don't know about is the McCarthy Era. And they need to, if we are to avoid repeating it.

In the 6th grade reading anthology used in our school district a few years ago, there was a short story about the internment-well, actually the "schools" within the camps-and every year there were parents who protested that we were teaching the students to "be critical" of the government. THAT's the scariest thing of all! They never succeeded in getting the story banned, however. I actually thought it was a good treatment of the events, in that it didn't hit these 11-12 years old over the head with it, but they could begin to see that there are events in our history that we must not forget and must be sure to prevent from happening again.
Now-back to the thread-
can you tell us more about the author and her/his background?

An excellent novel that deals with the problem of WWII internment of Japanese Americans is Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson.
It is apparently being used as part of the UK English 'A level' exam syllabus so maybe, even if Americans don't know about this period of their history, the children over here may understand something of it.

cece you are right. We cannot black-out certain events in history because they seem unacceptable to our modern sensibilities.

Jazzie didn't get back to us about this book but here's a link to the Amazon page. It's going on my to read list. The family is even from Berkeley, probably my neighbothood. One reviewer likened it to ikebana, spare and beautiful.

Here is a link that might be useful: When the Emperor Was Divine

I am sooo sorry that I did not respond back. I got really busy with work, school, and being single mom... Ugh... I am now really interested in this subject.. I live in Utah, and maybe next spring (when not so busy) I would like to go see Topaz.. Snow Falling on Cedar will be on my list.. Thanks for the suggestion...

SFOC is good but to my mind not the definative book on the subject. I urge you to read Kagawa'sObasan. Although it takes place in British Columbia rather than the US I think it gives a much deeper picture of the passivity of the Japanese to the internment, as well as the incredible chages in their lives.