A. Naomi Paik
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469626314
- eISBN:
- 9781469628097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469626314.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Based on research from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Japanese American National Museum, Chapter One analyzes the 1988 Civil Liberties Act, which granted monetary ...
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Based on research from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Japanese American National Museum, Chapter One analyzes the 1988 Civil Liberties Act, which granted monetary reparations to survivors of internment, and the testimonies given before the Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), a fact-finding government body that paved the way for the redress act. While the redress act marked a remarkable achievement for activists and internees, it ultimately marked a shift, not an ending, in the ways the U.S. state deploys racism. However, CWRIC witnesses articulated expansive notions of justice that exceed the limits of redress. Though the redress act ultimately disregarded their critiques, these testimonies nevertheless offer resources to imagine other possible ways to engage with internment’s remains.Less
Based on research from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Japanese American National Museum, Chapter One analyzes the 1988 Civil Liberties Act, which granted monetary reparations to survivors of internment, and the testimonies given before the Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), a fact-finding government body that paved the way for the redress act. While the redress act marked a remarkable achievement for activists and internees, it ultimately marked a shift, not an ending, in the ways the U.S. state deploys racism. However, CWRIC witnesses articulated expansive notions of justice that exceed the limits of redress. Though the redress act ultimately disregarded their critiques, these testimonies nevertheless offer resources to imagine other possible ways to engage with internment’s remains.
Lon Kurashige
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469629438
- eISBN:
- 9781469629452
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469629438.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter covers the period during and just after World War II, a time when anti-Asian racism peaked against Japanese Americans while softening significantly for other Asian groups and in some ...
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This chapter covers the period during and just after World War II, a time when anti-Asian racism peaked against Japanese Americans while softening significantly for other Asian groups and in some ways even for Japanese Americans themselves. The destruction of Pearl Harbor led to the evacuation and internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast based on deep suspicions about the group’s loyalty. Yet faced with necessities related to war propaganda, the federal government also celebrated Japanese Americans, including internees, as loyal Americans, which culminated in the praise for triumphant Nisei soldiers. Meanwhile, Congress repealed Chinese, Filipino, and Indian exclusion, and California repealed the alien land law due to exigencies stemming for U.S. military alliances and international relations during World War II and subsequent Cold War. By 1952, through the McCarran-Walter immigration legislation, Congress repealed Japanese exclusion and for the first time all Asian nations had immigration quotas and their peoples could become U.S. citizens. This was a “great transformation” in the annuals of Asian American history.Less
This chapter covers the period during and just after World War II, a time when anti-Asian racism peaked against Japanese Americans while softening significantly for other Asian groups and in some ways even for Japanese Americans themselves. The destruction of Pearl Harbor led to the evacuation and internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast based on deep suspicions about the group’s loyalty. Yet faced with necessities related to war propaganda, the federal government also celebrated Japanese Americans, including internees, as loyal Americans, which culminated in the praise for triumphant Nisei soldiers. Meanwhile, Congress repealed Chinese, Filipino, and Indian exclusion, and California repealed the alien land law due to exigencies stemming for U.S. military alliances and international relations during World War II and subsequent Cold War. By 1952, through the McCarran-Walter immigration legislation, Congress repealed Japanese exclusion and for the first time all Asian nations had immigration quotas and their peoples could become U.S. citizens. This was a “great transformation” in the annuals of Asian American history.
Stephanie C. Moore
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252042003
- eISBN:
- 9780252050749
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042003.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter highlights how many women historians, like the author, delve into the histories that have been marginalized by the dominant canon, finding palpable relevance to present-day social ...
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This chapter highlights how many women historians, like the author, delve into the histories that have been marginalized by the dominant canon, finding palpable relevance to present-day social justice issues. The chapter then turns to the little-known history of the internment of Japanese Latin Americans in the United States during World War II, a case of extraordinary rendition. Focusing on the internment of the Japanese Peruvians, this chapter argues that global “yellow peril” and eugenic ideologies played an essential role in U.S. and Peruvian policies during WWII. Further, it challenges readers to consider how purported policies of national security have been motivated by thinly veiled racism.Less
This chapter highlights how many women historians, like the author, delve into the histories that have been marginalized by the dominant canon, finding palpable relevance to present-day social justice issues. The chapter then turns to the little-known history of the internment of Japanese Latin Americans in the United States during World War II, a case of extraordinary rendition. Focusing on the internment of the Japanese Peruvians, this chapter argues that global “yellow peril” and eugenic ideologies played an essential role in U.S. and Peruvian policies during WWII. Further, it challenges readers to consider how purported policies of national security have been motivated by thinly veiled racism.
Monica Kim (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691166223
- eISBN:
- 9780691185040
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166223.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Military History
This chapter begins the story in the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, and follows how the Japanese American subject moved from being an “enemy alien” under surveillance to laboring ...
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This chapter begins the story in the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, and follows how the Japanese American subject moved from being an “enemy alien” under surveillance to laboring as an interrogator of Koreans during the Korean War. It reconstructs the types of interrogation rooms these Japanese American interrogators invented, what they resisted, and what they reinterpreted. In contrast with the interrogation rooms of the past that were cloaked in darkness, secrecy, and violence, the US military interrogation room was now supposedly an idealized site of regulated and willing exchange between the interrogator and the interrogated prisoner.Less
This chapter begins the story in the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, and follows how the Japanese American subject moved from being an “enemy alien” under surveillance to laboring as an interrogator of Koreans during the Korean War. It reconstructs the types of interrogation rooms these Japanese American interrogators invented, what they resisted, and what they reinterpreted. In contrast with the interrogation rooms of the past that were cloaked in darkness, secrecy, and violence, the US military interrogation room was now supposedly an idealized site of regulated and willing exchange between the interrogator and the interrogated prisoner.
Amanda L. Tyler
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199856664
- eISBN:
- 9780199366668
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199856664.003.0011
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, ushered the United States into World War II. Within hours, and suspension and martial law came to rule the Hawaiian Territory. On the mainland, the ...
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The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, ushered the United States into World War II. Within hours, and suspension and martial law came to rule the Hawaiian Territory. On the mainland, the military imposed curfews, designated huge portions of the western United States to be military areas of exclusion, and ultimately created “relocation centers” across the west to detain over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, including over 70,000 citizens. As this chapter explores, in the face of serious constitutional questions about the propriety of martial law, internment of citizens, and military trials of civilians, constitutional considerations generally gave way to war hysteria. But, as many key government actors recognized at the time, the detention of Japanese American citizens violated the Suspension Clause, standing as it did at odds with the entire history of the Clause. As challenges to the relevant military policies spilled over into the courts, the institution arguably best situated to identify and highlight their constitutional infirmities—the Supreme Court—never did so, leaving this episode standing as both a dangerous and deeply problematic precedent in American constitutional history.Less
The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, ushered the United States into World War II. Within hours, and suspension and martial law came to rule the Hawaiian Territory. On the mainland, the military imposed curfews, designated huge portions of the western United States to be military areas of exclusion, and ultimately created “relocation centers” across the west to detain over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, including over 70,000 citizens. As this chapter explores, in the face of serious constitutional questions about the propriety of martial law, internment of citizens, and military trials of civilians, constitutional considerations generally gave way to war hysteria. But, as many key government actors recognized at the time, the detention of Japanese American citizens violated the Suspension Clause, standing as it did at odds with the entire history of the Clause. As challenges to the relevant military policies spilled over into the courts, the institution arguably best situated to identify and highlight their constitutional infirmities—the Supreme Court—never did so, leaving this episode standing as both a dangerous and deeply problematic precedent in American constitutional history.
A. Naomi Paik
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469626314
- eISBN:
- 9781469628097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469626314.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines the lasting reverberations of internment that persist even after the camps have closed, rights are restored, and the suffering of victims is acknowledged through official ...
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This chapter examines the lasting reverberations of internment that persist even after the camps have closed, rights are restored, and the suffering of victims is acknowledged through official redress. It examines three testimonial texts offered by descendants of internments—CWRIC testimonies, Janice Mirikitani’s “Breaking Silence” (1981), and Rea Tajiri’s History and Memory: For Akiko and Takeshige. It argues that rightlessness is not limited to the body’s confinement within a barbed-wire perimeter, but by a history that endures in the U.S. state’s continuing creation of rightless persons via camp imprisonment and in the lived histories that the rightless carry with them. It argues that, endowed with an ever-adaptable and expanding capacity, rightlessness can become an inherited condition, one that exceeds legal definitions or empirical ways of knowing. The testimonial and aesthetic works at the chapter’s center offer a useful resource in deciphering a dimension of rightlessness as nebulous and resistant to empirical interpretation as the afterlife.Less
This chapter examines the lasting reverberations of internment that persist even after the camps have closed, rights are restored, and the suffering of victims is acknowledged through official redress. It examines three testimonial texts offered by descendants of internments—CWRIC testimonies, Janice Mirikitani’s “Breaking Silence” (1981), and Rea Tajiri’s History and Memory: For Akiko and Takeshige. It argues that rightlessness is not limited to the body’s confinement within a barbed-wire perimeter, but by a history that endures in the U.S. state’s continuing creation of rightless persons via camp imprisonment and in the lived histories that the rightless carry with them. It argues that, endowed with an ever-adaptable and expanding capacity, rightlessness can become an inherited condition, one that exceeds legal definitions or empirical ways of knowing. The testimonial and aesthetic works at the chapter’s center offer a useful resource in deciphering a dimension of rightlessness as nebulous and resistant to empirical interpretation as the afterlife.
Brian Masaru Hayashi
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824855765
- eISBN:
- 9780824875596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824855765.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
To what extent did U.S. intelligence believe that Imperial Japanese forces would invade the West Coast, an idea that many believe was responsible for the alleged atmosphere of wartime hysteria that ...
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To what extent did U.S. intelligence believe that Imperial Japanese forces would invade the West Coast, an idea that many believe was responsible for the alleged atmosphere of wartime hysteria that led to mass confinement of West Coast Japanese Americans? Based on unused archival materials, this article shows that these agencies dismissed the idea of an impending Japanese invasion, shown by their negative reaction to Korean nationalist Kilsoo Haan’s “Yellow Peril” prediction of a Japanese invasion of California in 1943. It also demonstrates that assumptions about Yellow Peril ideas require more nuanced analysis, for they were not universally accepted or as widespread as often believed. The chapter concludes with observations on Kilsoo Haan, U.S. intelligence, and Japanese American internment.Less
To what extent did U.S. intelligence believe that Imperial Japanese forces would invade the West Coast, an idea that many believe was responsible for the alleged atmosphere of wartime hysteria that led to mass confinement of West Coast Japanese Americans? Based on unused archival materials, this article shows that these agencies dismissed the idea of an impending Japanese invasion, shown by their negative reaction to Korean nationalist Kilsoo Haan’s “Yellow Peril” prediction of a Japanese invasion of California in 1943. It also demonstrates that assumptions about Yellow Peril ideas require more nuanced analysis, for they were not universally accepted or as widespread as often believed. The chapter concludes with observations on Kilsoo Haan, U.S. intelligence, and Japanese American internment.
Bradley J. Birzer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166186
- eISBN:
- 9780813166643
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166186.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Chapter 2 considers Kirk’s five years (1942–1946) as a U.S. Army conscript serving in Utah and Florida and working with chemical weapons. During this time, Kirk discovered some form of the ...
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Chapter 2 considers Kirk’s five years (1942–1946) as a U.S. Army conscript serving in Utah and Florida and working with chemical weapons. During this time, Kirk discovered some form of the supernatural, but he also embraced Stoicism as well as the friendship of then-famous authors Isabel Paterson and Albert Jay Nock. Not surprisingly, the internment of Japanese Americans as well as the use of atomic weaponry on two Japanese cities had a dramatic and profound impact on Kirk’s mind and soul.Less
Chapter 2 considers Kirk’s five years (1942–1946) as a U.S. Army conscript serving in Utah and Florida and working with chemical weapons. During this time, Kirk discovered some form of the supernatural, but he also embraced Stoicism as well as the friendship of then-famous authors Isabel Paterson and Albert Jay Nock. Not surprisingly, the internment of Japanese Americans as well as the use of atomic weaponry on two Japanese cities had a dramatic and profound impact on Kirk’s mind and soul.
Rocío G. Davis
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824834586
- eISBN:
- 9780824870485
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824834586.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines the discursive possibilities of the filmed family memoir, called “family portrait documentary,” as a form of historical mediation. Three family portrait documentaries are ...
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This chapter examines the discursive possibilities of the filmed family memoir, called “family portrait documentary,” as a form of historical mediation. Three family portrait documentaries are discussed: Lise Yasui's The Family Gathering (1989), Ruth Ozeki Lounsbury's Halving the Bones (1995), and Ann Marie Fleming's The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (2003). The first two films use innovative techniques to reenact the family story of Japanese American internment. In the third, the author also deploys numerous audiovisual techniques to perform the life of her great-grandfather, a vaudeville star, and their transnational family. This chapter considers the ways in which family memoirs manipulate the possibilities that film offers in representing generations of Asian American families, particularly by asking crucial questions about private and public negotiations with history and family stories. It also explores how such documentaries mediate the history of Asian Americans and reconstruct a familial and historical past that acknowledges the elusive nature of personal memory.Less
This chapter examines the discursive possibilities of the filmed family memoir, called “family portrait documentary,” as a form of historical mediation. Three family portrait documentaries are discussed: Lise Yasui's The Family Gathering (1989), Ruth Ozeki Lounsbury's Halving the Bones (1995), and Ann Marie Fleming's The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (2003). The first two films use innovative techniques to reenact the family story of Japanese American internment. In the third, the author also deploys numerous audiovisual techniques to perform the life of her great-grandfather, a vaudeville star, and their transnational family. This chapter considers the ways in which family memoirs manipulate the possibilities that film offers in representing generations of Asian American families, particularly by asking crucial questions about private and public negotiations with history and family stories. It also explores how such documentaries mediate the history of Asian Americans and reconstruct a familial and historical past that acknowledges the elusive nature of personal memory.
Harold H. Bruff
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226211107
- eISBN:
- 9780226211244
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226211244.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
President Franklin Roosevelt produced another transformation of both the Constitution and the office of the presidency. The outpouring of legislation during the hundred days altered the presidential ...
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President Franklin Roosevelt produced another transformation of both the Constitution and the office of the presidency. The outpouring of legislation during the hundred days altered the presidential role within Congress and initiated new levels of federal involvement in the lives of citizens. A permanent expansion of the executive branch challenged the supervisory capacities of Roosevelt and later presidents. The second New Deal created today’s social safety net. Roosevelt established the modern institutional presidency. He battled the Supreme Court over constitutional interpretation and failed in his court-packing plan. He did not entrench his constitutional vision by seeking amendments. He did not adequately protect civil liberties, notably in the Japanese-American internment in World War II. In foreign policy, he guided the nation to abandon neutrality in favor of international involvement. As commander in chief, he set strategy in World War II. His third term broke the traditional two-term limit.Less
President Franklin Roosevelt produced another transformation of both the Constitution and the office of the presidency. The outpouring of legislation during the hundred days altered the presidential role within Congress and initiated new levels of federal involvement in the lives of citizens. A permanent expansion of the executive branch challenged the supervisory capacities of Roosevelt and later presidents. The second New Deal created today’s social safety net. Roosevelt established the modern institutional presidency. He battled the Supreme Court over constitutional interpretation and failed in his court-packing plan. He did not entrench his constitutional vision by seeking amendments. He did not adequately protect civil liberties, notably in the Japanese-American internment in World War II. In foreign policy, he guided the nation to abandon neutrality in favor of international involvement. As commander in chief, he set strategy in World War II. His third term broke the traditional two-term limit.
Anne M. Blankenship
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469629209
- eISBN:
- 9781469629223
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469629209.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Anne M. Blankenship's study of Christianity in the infamous camps where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II yields insights both far-reaching and timely. While most Japanese ...
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Anne M. Blankenship's study of Christianity in the infamous camps where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II yields insights both far-reaching and timely. While most Japanese Americans maintained their traditional identities as Buddhists, a sizeable minority identified as Christian, and a number of church leaders sought to minister to them in the camps. Blankenship shows how church leaders were forced to assess the ethics and pragmatism of fighting against or acquiescing to what they clearly perceived, even in the midst of a national crisis, as an unjust social system. These religious activists became acutely aware of the impact of government, as well as church, policies that targeted ordinary Americans of diverse ethnicities.
Going through the doors of the camp churches and delving deeply into the religious experiences of the incarcerated and the faithful who aided them, Blankenship argues that the incarceration period introduced new social and legal approaches for Christians of all stripes to challenge the constitutionality of government policies on race and civil rights. She also shows how the camp experience nourished the roots of an Asian American liberation theology that sprouted in the sixties and seventies.Less
Anne M. Blankenship's study of Christianity in the infamous camps where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II yields insights both far-reaching and timely. While most Japanese Americans maintained their traditional identities as Buddhists, a sizeable minority identified as Christian, and a number of church leaders sought to minister to them in the camps. Blankenship shows how church leaders were forced to assess the ethics and pragmatism of fighting against or acquiescing to what they clearly perceived, even in the midst of a national crisis, as an unjust social system. These religious activists became acutely aware of the impact of government, as well as church, policies that targeted ordinary Americans of diverse ethnicities.
Going through the doors of the camp churches and delving deeply into the religious experiences of the incarcerated and the faithful who aided them, Blankenship argues that the incarceration period introduced new social and legal approaches for Christians of all stripes to challenge the constitutionality of government policies on race and civil rights. She also shows how the camp experience nourished the roots of an Asian American liberation theology that sprouted in the sixties and seventies.
Etsuko Takushi Crissey
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824856489
- eISBN:
- 9780824875619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824856489.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Witnesses at the 2012 trial in Ohio of a former airman convicted of beating his Okinawan wife to death testified that he had often battered her. The case exemplified the isolation of wives who arrive ...
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Witnesses at the 2012 trial in Ohio of a former airman convicted of beating his Okinawan wife to death testified that he had often battered her. The case exemplified the isolation of wives who arrive with no acquaintances in the U.S. besides their husbands, and cannot overcome the language barrier to make other contacts.
Isolation also results from the individualistic nature of American society. Interviewees accustomed to close relationships with relatives and neighbours typical in Okinawa were surprised that in the U.S. “neighbours don’t even speak to each other.” Many suffered from homesickness. However, one expressed her gratitude for the close friendship and support of an American woman next door who guided her to the supermarket and post office, teaching her the essentials for daily life.
Several encountered racial discrimination in employment, marriage (before 1967), and the bullying of their children in school. Some women had been apprehensive about coming to the U.S. where Japanese Americans were interned during World War II and anti-Japanese hostility persisted afterwards.
Those whose husbands were still in the military had free family health care and discount shopping, but had to endure their husbands’ long absences, and deployments to areas of conflict.Less
Witnesses at the 2012 trial in Ohio of a former airman convicted of beating his Okinawan wife to death testified that he had often battered her. The case exemplified the isolation of wives who arrive with no acquaintances in the U.S. besides their husbands, and cannot overcome the language barrier to make other contacts.
Isolation also results from the individualistic nature of American society. Interviewees accustomed to close relationships with relatives and neighbours typical in Okinawa were surprised that in the U.S. “neighbours don’t even speak to each other.” Many suffered from homesickness. However, one expressed her gratitude for the close friendship and support of an American woman next door who guided her to the supermarket and post office, teaching her the essentials for daily life.
Several encountered racial discrimination in employment, marriage (before 1967), and the bullying of their children in school. Some women had been apprehensive about coming to the U.S. where Japanese Americans were interned during World War II and anti-Japanese hostility persisted afterwards.
Those whose husbands were still in the military had free family health care and discount shopping, but had to endure their husbands’ long absences, and deployments to areas of conflict.
A. Naomi Paik
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469626314
- eISBN:
- 9781469628097
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469626314.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book grapples with the history of U.S. prison camps that have confined people outside the boundaries of legal and civil rights. Removed from the social and political communities that would ...
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This book grapples with the history of U.S. prison camps that have confined people outside the boundaries of legal and civil rights. Removed from the social and political communities that would guarantee fundamental legal protections, these detainees are effectively rightless, stripped of the right even to have rights. Rightless people thus expose an essential paradox: while the United States purports to champion inalienable rights at home and internationally, it has built its global power in part by creating a regime of imprisonment that places certain populations perceived as threats beyond rights. The United States' status as the guardian of rights coincides with, indeed depends on, its creation of rightlessness. Yet rightless people are not silent. Drawing from an expansive testimonial archive of legal proceedings, truth commission records, poetry, and experimental video, this book shows how rightless people use their imprisonment to protest U.S. state violence. It examines demands for redress by Japanese Americans interned during World War II, testimonies of HIV-positive Haitian refugees detained at Guantánamo in the early 1990s, and appeals by Guantánamo's enemy combatants from the War on Terror. In doing so, Rightlessness reveals a powerful ongoing contest over the nature and meaning of the law, over civil liberties and global human rights, and over the power of the state in people's lives.Less
This book grapples with the history of U.S. prison camps that have confined people outside the boundaries of legal and civil rights. Removed from the social and political communities that would guarantee fundamental legal protections, these detainees are effectively rightless, stripped of the right even to have rights. Rightless people thus expose an essential paradox: while the United States purports to champion inalienable rights at home and internationally, it has built its global power in part by creating a regime of imprisonment that places certain populations perceived as threats beyond rights. The United States' status as the guardian of rights coincides with, indeed depends on, its creation of rightlessness. Yet rightless people are not silent. Drawing from an expansive testimonial archive of legal proceedings, truth commission records, poetry, and experimental video, this book shows how rightless people use their imprisonment to protest U.S. state violence. It examines demands for redress by Japanese Americans interned during World War II, testimonies of HIV-positive Haitian refugees detained at Guantánamo in the early 1990s, and appeals by Guantánamo's enemy combatants from the War on Terror. In doing so, Rightlessness reveals a powerful ongoing contest over the nature and meaning of the law, over civil liberties and global human rights, and over the power of the state in people's lives.
Andrew Urban
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780814785843
- eISBN:
- 9780814764749
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814785843.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The epilogue touches on how the United States’ internment of Japanese Americans and their supervised parole during World War II provided displaced persons for hire as servants. It also briefly ...
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The epilogue touches on how the United States’ internment of Japanese Americans and their supervised parole during World War II provided displaced persons for hire as servants. It also briefly explores the 1948 Displaced Persons Act, whose sponsorship requirements meant that European refugees could agree to work as live-in servants in exchange for asylum. More attention is devoted to the labor exceptions built into the 1965 Immigration Act, which provided Jamaican and other Caribbean women with a short-lived opportunity to enter the United States after taking advantage of immigration quota rankings that privileged domestic servants. Policies that continue to authorize migrant servants’ temporary admission into the United States, contingent on their performance of domestic service to the employers they entered with, also garner focus here. Finally, the epilogue concludes by discussing how household consumers have exploited domestic and care workers classified as undocumented—and how the absence of state action has enabled this social relation of production.
Less
The epilogue touches on how the United States’ internment of Japanese Americans and their supervised parole during World War II provided displaced persons for hire as servants. It also briefly explores the 1948 Displaced Persons Act, whose sponsorship requirements meant that European refugees could agree to work as live-in servants in exchange for asylum. More attention is devoted to the labor exceptions built into the 1965 Immigration Act, which provided Jamaican and other Caribbean women with a short-lived opportunity to enter the United States after taking advantage of immigration quota rankings that privileged domestic servants. Policies that continue to authorize migrant servants’ temporary admission into the United States, contingent on their performance of domestic service to the employers they entered with, also garner focus here. Finally, the epilogue concludes by discussing how household consumers have exploited domestic and care workers classified as undocumented—and how the absence of state action has enabled this social relation of production.
Eric K. Yamamoto
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190878955
- eISBN:
- 9780190878986
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190878955.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This Prologue describes three stories concerning Korematsu. The first is told in late 2015 by U.S. judges. It reaches back to the Supreme Court’s 1944 ruling in Korematsu validating the World War II ...
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This Prologue describes three stories concerning Korematsu. The first is told in late 2015 by U.S. judges. It reaches back to the Supreme Court’s 1944 ruling in Korematsu validating the World War II Japanese American removal and incarceration. And it discerns insights, maybe lessons, for America about fundamental freedoms sacrificed in the name of perceived exigency. The second story starts with Justice Jackson’s loaded weapon warning about expanding Korematsu’s principle to new purposes. In 2014, then-Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia responded to a question about a possible U.S. mass exclusion or roundup of Muslims with a disturbing prophesy. The third story concerns Scalia’s it-could-happen-again prophesy and how the laws fall silent. That story is an amalgam of calls for mass Muslim exclusion and detention by government officials and Republican presidential candidates after the 2015 Paris and San Bernardino attacks—calls that partially coalesced in President Trump’s controversial 2017 exclusion-and-detention executive orders.Less
This Prologue describes three stories concerning Korematsu. The first is told in late 2015 by U.S. judges. It reaches back to the Supreme Court’s 1944 ruling in Korematsu validating the World War II Japanese American removal and incarceration. And it discerns insights, maybe lessons, for America about fundamental freedoms sacrificed in the name of perceived exigency. The second story starts with Justice Jackson’s loaded weapon warning about expanding Korematsu’s principle to new purposes. In 2014, then-Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia responded to a question about a possible U.S. mass exclusion or roundup of Muslims with a disturbing prophesy. The third story concerns Scalia’s it-could-happen-again prophesy and how the laws fall silent. That story is an amalgam of calls for mass Muslim exclusion and detention by government officials and Republican presidential candidates after the 2015 Paris and San Bernardino attacks—calls that partially coalesced in President Trump’s controversial 2017 exclusion-and-detention executive orders.
Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469636405
- eISBN:
- 9781469636429
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469636405.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter focuses on Collier and the US Indian Service (IS). Collier brought applied anthology into the Indian Service so as to develop culturally appropriate policies—an innovation he claimed was ...
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This chapter focuses on Collier and the US Indian Service (IS). Collier brought applied anthology into the Indian Service so as to develop culturally appropriate policies—an innovation he claimed was inspired by what he saw in Mexico. Collier drew on examples of indirect colonial rule, including Spanish colonialism in New Spain, to further a scientific democratic governance of cultural and racial differences. Collier and others sought to promote and use democratic forms of Native leadership. During and after the Second World War, Collier, along with Laura Thompson and other academics, extended what they had learned regarding the management of ethnic difference to the Japanese-American internment camp at Poston, Arizona, which was run by the Indian Service, and, later, to U.S. “dependencies” abroad and “minorities” at home. This chapter charts the shift toward a more universalizing view of modernization and its application to diverse groups.Less
This chapter focuses on Collier and the US Indian Service (IS). Collier brought applied anthology into the Indian Service so as to develop culturally appropriate policies—an innovation he claimed was inspired by what he saw in Mexico. Collier drew on examples of indirect colonial rule, including Spanish colonialism in New Spain, to further a scientific democratic governance of cultural and racial differences. Collier and others sought to promote and use democratic forms of Native leadership. During and after the Second World War, Collier, along with Laura Thompson and other academics, extended what they had learned regarding the management of ethnic difference to the Japanese-American internment camp at Poston, Arizona, which was run by the Indian Service, and, later, to U.S. “dependencies” abroad and “minorities” at home. This chapter charts the shift toward a more universalizing view of modernization and its application to diverse groups.
Eric K. Yamamoto
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190878955
- eISBN:
- 9780190878986
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190878955.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
The national security and civil liberties tensions of the World War II mass Japanese American internment (incarceration) link 9/11 and the 2015 Paris-San Bernardino attacks to the era in America ...
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The national security and civil liberties tensions of the World War II mass Japanese American internment (incarceration) link 9/11 and the 2015 Paris-San Bernardino attacks to the era in America darkened by accelerating discrimination against and intimidation of those asserting rights of freedom of religion, association, and speech, and one marked by increasingly volatile protests against racial and religious discrimination. This book discusses the broad civil liberties challenges posed by these past-into-the-future linkages, highlighting pressing questions about the significance of judicial independence for a constitutional democracy committed both to security and to the rule of law. First, the book portrays the present-day significance of the Supreme Court’s discredited yet never overruled 1944 Korematsu decision—a decision later found in the coram nobis cases to be driven by the government’s presentation of “intentional falsehoods” and “willful historical inaccuracies” to the Court. Second, the book implicates prospects for judicial independence in adjudging harassment, exclusion, and incarceration disputes in contemporary America and beyond. Third, and even more broadly for security and liberty controversies, the book engages the American populace in shaping law and policy at the ground level by placing the courts’ legitimacy on center stage. It addresses how critical legal advocacy and organized public pressure targeting judges and policymakers—realpolitik advocacy—at times can foster judicial fealty to constitutional principles while promoting accountability of the elective branches. Finally it addresses who we are as Americans and whether we are genuinely committed to a checks-and-balances democracy governed by the Constitution.Less
The national security and civil liberties tensions of the World War II mass Japanese American internment (incarceration) link 9/11 and the 2015 Paris-San Bernardino attacks to the era in America darkened by accelerating discrimination against and intimidation of those asserting rights of freedom of religion, association, and speech, and one marked by increasingly volatile protests against racial and religious discrimination. This book discusses the broad civil liberties challenges posed by these past-into-the-future linkages, highlighting pressing questions about the significance of judicial independence for a constitutional democracy committed both to security and to the rule of law. First, the book portrays the present-day significance of the Supreme Court’s discredited yet never overruled 1944 Korematsu decision—a decision later found in the coram nobis cases to be driven by the government’s presentation of “intentional falsehoods” and “willful historical inaccuracies” to the Court. Second, the book implicates prospects for judicial independence in adjudging harassment, exclusion, and incarceration disputes in contemporary America and beyond. Third, and even more broadly for security and liberty controversies, the book engages the American populace in shaping law and policy at the ground level by placing the courts’ legitimacy on center stage. It addresses how critical legal advocacy and organized public pressure targeting judges and policymakers—realpolitik advocacy—at times can foster judicial fealty to constitutional principles while promoting accountability of the elective branches. Finally it addresses who we are as Americans and whether we are genuinely committed to a checks-and-balances democracy governed by the Constitution.
Amanda L. Tyler
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199856664
- eISBN:
- 9780199366668
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199856664.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
The Introduction begins by exploring modern examples sanctioning the concept of the citizen enemy combatant, such as the War on Terror cases of José Padilla and Yaser Hamdi. It then suggests that the ...
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The Introduction begins by exploring modern examples sanctioning the concept of the citizen enemy combatant, such as the War on Terror cases of José Padilla and Yaser Hamdi. It then suggests that the roots of this concept may be found in the World War II detention of Japanese Americans, including over 70,000 U.S. citizens. The Introduction continues by arguing that this modern conception of the citizen enemy combatant is impossible to reconcile with the historic understanding of the Suspension Clause and the habeas privilege that trace their origins to English legal tradition, an understanding that remained consistent well through Reconstruction. The Introduction concludes with an overview of the book.Less
The Introduction begins by exploring modern examples sanctioning the concept of the citizen enemy combatant, such as the War on Terror cases of José Padilla and Yaser Hamdi. It then suggests that the roots of this concept may be found in the World War II detention of Japanese Americans, including over 70,000 U.S. citizens. The Introduction continues by arguing that this modern conception of the citizen enemy combatant is impossible to reconcile with the historic understanding of the Suspension Clause and the habeas privilege that trace their origins to English legal tradition, an understanding that remained consistent well through Reconstruction. The Introduction concludes with an overview of the book.
Amanda L. Tyler
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199856664
- eISBN:
- 9780199366668
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199856664.003.0013
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
The book concludes by arguing that the current state of American habeas jurisprudence should trouble anyone who cares about the Constitution. As the chapters of the book reveal, the War on Terror ...
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The book concludes by arguing that the current state of American habeas jurisprudence should trouble anyone who cares about the Constitution. As the chapters of the book reveal, the War on Terror Supreme Court decision in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and the World War II internment of Japanese Americans stand entirely at odds with everything the Founding generation sought to achieve with the Suspension Clause. Specifically, the origins and long-standing interpretation of the Suspension Clause understood it to prohibit the government, in the absence of a valid suspension, from detaining persons who can claim the protection of domestic law outside the criminal process, even in wartime.Less
The book concludes by arguing that the current state of American habeas jurisprudence should trouble anyone who cares about the Constitution. As the chapters of the book reveal, the War on Terror Supreme Court decision in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and the World War II internment of Japanese Americans stand entirely at odds with everything the Founding generation sought to achieve with the Suspension Clause. Specifically, the origins and long-standing interpretation of the Suspension Clause understood it to prohibit the government, in the absence of a valid suspension, from detaining persons who can claim the protection of domestic law outside the criminal process, even in wartime.