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Judgment without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment during World War II
2004 Washington State Book Award Finalist
Judgment without Trial reveals that long before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government began making plans for the eventual internment and later incarceration of the Japanese American population. Tetsuden Kashima uses newly obtained records to trace this process back to the 1920s, when a nascent imprisonment organization was developed to prepare for a possible war with Japan, and follows it in detail through the war years.
Along with coverage of the well-known incarceration camps, the author discusses the less familiar and very different experiences of people of Japanese descent in the Justice and War Departments’ internment camps that held internees from the continental U.S. and from Alaska, Hawaii, and Latin America. Utilizing extracts from diaries, contemporary sources, official communications, and interviews, Kashima brings an array of personalities to life on the pages of his book ― those whose unbiased assessments of America’s Japanese ancestry population were discounted or ignored, those whose works and actions were based on misinformed fears and racial animosities, those who tried to remedy the inequities of the system, and, by no means least, the prisoners themselves.
Kashima’s interest in this episode began with his own unanswered questions about his father’s wartime experiences. From this very personal motivation, he has produced a panoramic and detailed picture ― without rhetoric and emotionalism and supported at every step by documented fact ― of a government that failed to protect a group of people for whom it had forcibly assumed total responsibility.
Judgment without Trial reveals that long before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government began making plans for the eventual internment and later incarceration of the Japanese American population. Tetsuden Kashima uses newly obtained records to trace this process back to the 1920s, when a nascent imprisonment organization was developed to prepare for a possible war with Japan, and follows it in detail through the war years.
Along with coverage of the well-known incarceration camps, the author discusses the less familiar and very different experiences of people of Japanese descent in the Justice and War Departments’ internment camps that held internees from the continental U.S. and from Alaska, Hawaii, and Latin America. Utilizing extracts from diaries, contemporary sources, official communications, and interviews, Kashima brings an array of personalities to life on the pages of his book ― those whose unbiased assessments of America’s Japanese ancestry population were discounted or ignored, those whose works and actions were based on misinformed fears and racial animosities, those who tried to remedy the inequities of the system, and, by no means least, the prisoners themselves.
Kashima’s interest in this episode began with his own unanswered questions about his father’s wartime experiences. From this very personal motivation, he has produced a panoramic and detailed picture ― without rhetoric and emotionalism and supported at every step by documented fact ― of a government that failed to protect a group of people for whom it had forcibly assumed total responsibility.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 24, 2016
Tetsuden Kashima, 2003
The book starts out with some basic definition of terms which is a good idea and something I haven't seen any other books do. It then goes into the pre-WWII history of German, Italian and Japanese espionage, the Justice Department, the War Department and the various classifications of Japanese American groups.
The book also deals with other levels of government and even talks about the Magic Cables and notes that none of then indicated any sabotage being carried out or planned by Nisei or Issei in the U.S.
In the next chapter the book uses a flowchart to show what happened to various aliens of German, Italian and Japanese ancestry in relation to the various forms of internment camps. Public fears, types of arrests, paroles and early releases are all covered in this chapter.
Chapter 4 deals with Hawaii. It starts off by going into the military and political background of the Hawaiian Islands. It discusses those who were held in Hawaii, the camps, a flowchart showing what happened to the individuals involved, and a lot of other information.
Chapter 5 deals with Alaska and Latin America. Chapter 6 deals with something not talked about much in other books and that's Department of Justice and Army camps that were used to house Issei and Nisei. The book goes into Executive Order 9066 and the WRA camps, the way that the German and Italian prisoners were treated, how the centers differed in nature, and trouble at the camps.
Inmate resistance and the various isolation camps are also discussed.
By this time we are to chapter 8 which starts right off with the loyalty questionnaire. Worsening conditions, renunciation of citizenship and draft resistance are all covered. Chapter 9 deals with abuses in the camps, protests and the Geneva Convention. Conflicts at the isolation centers and imprisonment are next to be discussed. The book also contains around 80 pages of notes and bibliographical information.
This is an extremely detailed book and spends a lot of time going into areas that most other books ignore or cover only briefly, and that relates to the isolation camps and the actual prisons used. A very interesting book.
The book starts out with some basic definition of terms which is a good idea and something I haven't seen any other books do. It then goes into the pre-WWII history of German, Italian and Japanese espionage, the Justice Department, the War Department and the various classifications of Japanese American groups.
The book also deals with other levels of government and even talks about the Magic Cables and notes that none of then indicated any sabotage being carried out or planned by Nisei or Issei in the U.S.
In the next chapter the book uses a flowchart to show what happened to various aliens of German, Italian and Japanese ancestry in relation to the various forms of internment camps. Public fears, types of arrests, paroles and early releases are all covered in this chapter.
Chapter 4 deals with Hawaii. It starts off by going into the military and political background of the Hawaiian Islands. It discusses those who were held in Hawaii, the camps, a flowchart showing what happened to the individuals involved, and a lot of other information.
Chapter 5 deals with Alaska and Latin America. Chapter 6 deals with something not talked about much in other books and that's Department of Justice and Army camps that were used to house Issei and Nisei. The book goes into Executive Order 9066 and the WRA camps, the way that the German and Italian prisoners were treated, how the centers differed in nature, and trouble at the camps.
Inmate resistance and the various isolation camps are also discussed.
By this time we are to chapter 8 which starts right off with the loyalty questionnaire. Worsening conditions, renunciation of citizenship and draft resistance are all covered. Chapter 9 deals with abuses in the camps, protests and the Geneva Convention. Conflicts at the isolation centers and imprisonment are next to be discussed. The book also contains around 80 pages of notes and bibliographical information.
This is an extremely detailed book and spends a lot of time going into areas that most other books ignore or cover only briefly, and that relates to the isolation camps and the actual prisons used. A very interesting book.
August 31, 2022
This book is very interesting, describing the life of the Japanese Americans before and during the Second World War. The author, Tetsuden Kashima, describes the discrimination the Japanese went through during that time. Not just the Japanese. But also the Germans, and the Italians who lived in America during the War period. The book shows charts that describe how the Japanese were captured, incarcerated, and set in internment camps. Kashima also uses real testimonies from Japanese Americans that had been raided by the U.S Army and how they would be sent to the WRA (War Relocation Authority) to be moved to the internment camps in the west coast of the United States. The book also shows readers that the U.S government had planned to develop internment camps to place Japanese citizens in if need be. These plans were made 20 years before the events of World War 2. Overall, a good read to any historian who wants to learn more of life of the Japanese during the War period.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews