Beyond Words: Images from America's Concentration Camps

by Deborah Gesensway, Mindy Roseman, Matsusaburo Hibi (Illustrator)

A sampling of the art created by Japanese Americans incarcerated in relocation centers during World War II, along with verbal testimonies that share memories of the evacuation and tribulations of camp life

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1987

Reviews

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagination and creativity stayed alive in the ten internment camps where Japanese in America were banished during World War II. The authors of this book found residents of the internment camp who were artists and painted the scenes of their everyday camp lives. The oral histories from these interned artists are poignant stories of everyday camp life, how Japanese living ordinary American lives had to adapt to barren camps in remote areas, surrounded by barbed wire. Interestingly one of the worse experiences besides losing vital years of their lives, was boredom. How the internees kept themselves occupied was ingenious.
This book is relevant today, when politicians rile Americans to hate those who look different and who come from different cultures, but today they are calling for walls instead of barbed wire. After all was said and done, the Japanese returned to where they lived before, mostly to California, to try to resume their lives after tumultuous uprooting. They were so resilient.

[Kathy (McDowell) Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had heard about the relocation camps when I was living in California, but no one knew any details about the camps other than rumors. This book helped to quell those rumors. It bothers me that many people called them concentration camps because they bore little to no resemblance to Jewish concentration camps. Residents were fed regularly, allowed to shower whenever they wanted, allowed to keep clothing and other items brought into camp with them, and even paid a small wage (12-19 dollars a month) to work and teach within the camp. Many of the paintings and sketches in the book are beautiful works of art. And stories told by residents are not filled with horror, starvation and isolation. This book answered questions I had and I'm glad I read it.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 1987 book is quite different from other works dealing with the internment of Japanese Americans. This book is a collection of paintings and sketches done by some of the internees along with short sections of personal recollections, making this a very intimate examination of life in the camps.

There is also historical material in the book to put the recollections in context. It's quite a different type of approach and the book is quite good, especially the personal recollections of the inmates.

[Seth Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

An informative, emotional look at the stories of thousands of American Japanese during WWII anti-Asian hysteria.