 | A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America Subjects: Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and relocation 1942–1945; Japanese Americans -- Pacific States -- Social conditions -- 20th century; Japanese Americans -- Government policy -- History -- 20th century; Pacific States -- Race relations -- History -- 20th; The confinement of some 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, often called the Japanese American internment, has been described as the worst official civil rights violation of modern U. S. history. Drawing on newly discovered material, Greg Robinson reveals for the first time the extent of the American government's surveillance of Japanese communities in the years leading up to war and the construction of what officials termed "concentration camps" for enemy aliens. He also considers the aftermath of confinement, including the place of Japanese Americans in postwar civil rights and redress struggles. Most remarkably, A Tragedy of Democracy is the first book to analyze official policy toward West Coast Japanese Americans within a North American context. Robinson studies confinement on the mainland alongside martial law and the imposition of military tribunals in wartime Hawaii, as well as Canada's confinement of 22,000 ethnic Japanese from British Columbia. Approaching Japanese confinement as a transnational phenomenon, A Tragedy of Democracy offers a kaleidoscopic understanding of its genesis and outcomes. Greg Robinson, a native of New York City, is associate professor of history at l'Université du Québec à Montréal and author of By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans . Greg Robinson, a native of New York City, is associate professor of history at l'Université du Québec à Montréal and author of By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans . |
