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In 1942, the US imprisoned more than 100,000 Japanese Americans in “relocation” centers. In 1943, 10,000 of these were labeled "disloyal” and sent to prison for the remaining duration of World War II.
Untold Stories of Japanese American Incarceration is about the double-incarceration of loyal Japanese American citizens during World War II.
In 1943, the US government required those forcibly relocated from the West Coast and put into camps to answer a “loyalty questionnaire” designed to, belatedly, distinguish “loyal” from “disloyal” Japanese American citizens so they could be released to resettle away from the West coast. Tens of thousands of Japanese Americans answered questions about their willingness to serve in the military and their loyalty to the US in complex ways, reflecting concerns for non-citizen parents, resistance to incarceration, and desire for their civil liberties to be respected. As a result of these answers, more than ten thousand were then labeled disloyal, sent to Tule Lake Segregation Center and Department of Justice prison camps for the duration of the war.
Within the hothouse environment of the segregation camp, where there were widespread protests and violence, some 5,000 Japanese Americans renounced their US citizenship because they had come to think it was worthless, moving to Japan after the war. Virtually all were later vindicated by the US Supreme Court, their citizenship was restored, and they were awarded reparations alongside other survivors. In this talk, Jolie Sheffer shares original research she has done, including the records of one family who lost everything but never gave up on the American Dream.
Jolie A. Sheffer is an associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of English and American culture studies at Bowling Green State University. She is the author of The Romance of Race: Incest, Miscegenation, and Multiculturalism in the United States, 1880-1930 (Rutgers University Press, 2013) and Understanding Karen Tei Yamashita (University of South Carolina Press, 2020).
