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Behind Barbed Wire: 2
Discusses the forced internment of Japanese Americans in camps following the attack on Pearl Harbor, their way of life there, and their eventual assimilation into society following the war.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published July 14, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 9, 2017
I read Behind Barbed Wire by Daniel S. Davis. This is a book for people in 9th to 12th grade. It was a story about they American imprisonment of Japanese people around the country. The people didn't trust them after the attack. After months of protest they gave in and sent all the Japanese to Observation Centers.
They tried to tell what really was happening in america at the time. They say that other people where being treated horribly but them the most. They most likely added this to give us a feel of how much they hated the people. They talk about a man who served in world war I that killed himself because he refused to be relocated. This shows how strict they where during the removal. And it talks about how after they got their rights back they got little to no money back for the damage caused to their house in their absence. This shows how unfair the justice system was to them.
I really liked the book because I like learning about wars and american history. This would be great for adventurous kids and young adults. The reading is quite easy but the concept can get hard at times for some people to grasp. The author writes it in almost a newspaper style like you are reading it for one. It was predictable for me because of the other books I have read but it did have quite a few twists and turns. It does however bounce around a lot form one thing to another which confused me at times.
They tried to tell what really was happening in america at the time. They say that other people where being treated horribly but them the most. They most likely added this to give us a feel of how much they hated the people. They talk about a man who served in world war I that killed himself because he refused to be relocated. This shows how strict they where during the removal. And it talks about how after they got their rights back they got little to no money back for the damage caused to their house in their absence. This shows how unfair the justice system was to them.
I really liked the book because I like learning about wars and american history. This would be great for adventurous kids and young adults. The reading is quite easy but the concept can get hard at times for some people to grasp. The author writes it in almost a newspaper style like you are reading it for one. It was predictable for me because of the other books I have read but it did have quite a few twists and turns. It does however bounce around a lot form one thing to another which confused me at times.
June 16, 2019
Behind Barbed Wire is takes an in-depth look at the lives of Japanese Americans living in the United States. Every page in the novel is used well and nothing is filler and Daniel S. Davis is able to give the reader a deep look at the lives of the Nisei and Issei.
October 2, 2018
This was a good novel with plenty of detail of what life was like for the Japanese Americans that were forced into a prison during WWII just because they were Japanese and the Americans were afraid of people from the Japanese spying and interfering with the war.
January 24, 2016
Daniel C. Davis, 1967
The book starts out with a description of the attack on Pearl Harbor, then follows with a brief description of the FBI raids, the fear of attacks by neighbors, the JACL and follows that up in the next chapter with a description of the initial immigration in the U.S. by Japanese.
This goes into the history of the immigration, anti-Japanese prejudice and government efforts to control and then stop immigration.
One chapter goes into the origin of some of the hysterical rumors of imminent Japanese attack on the West Coast, tracing those to radio operators who were rather incompetent, where they were picking up broadcasts from Japan but thought they were coming from very near to the U.S.
DeWitt and his program are discussed next, followed by the arrest of all Japanese on Terminal Island, a fisherman's place. It then covers the assembly centers and the movement of the internees to those places. A description is given of the assembly centers and the lives of the people there. Next is similar information about the internment camps themselves. This includes some of the violence in the camps.
The next chapter goes into the loyalty questionnaire, the confusion and the results, and the establishment of Tule Lake as a segregation center for "troublemakers." Then it follows with a description of the troubles at Tule Lake.
Next comes a description of those Nisei who volunteered for the U.S. military, then the next chapter deals with the court trials over the internment issue. The book then goes into the closing of the camps and the troubles at Tule Lake and the move by some of the internees to renounce their U.S. citizenship and return to Japan.
This is a fairly nice book giving a broad general outline of what happened in relation to this issue. It also has a good variety of photographs.
The book starts out with a description of the attack on Pearl Harbor, then follows with a brief description of the FBI raids, the fear of attacks by neighbors, the JACL and follows that up in the next chapter with a description of the initial immigration in the U.S. by Japanese.
This goes into the history of the immigration, anti-Japanese prejudice and government efforts to control and then stop immigration.
One chapter goes into the origin of some of the hysterical rumors of imminent Japanese attack on the West Coast, tracing those to radio operators who were rather incompetent, where they were picking up broadcasts from Japan but thought they were coming from very near to the U.S.
DeWitt and his program are discussed next, followed by the arrest of all Japanese on Terminal Island, a fisherman's place. It then covers the assembly centers and the movement of the internees to those places. A description is given of the assembly centers and the lives of the people there. Next is similar information about the internment camps themselves. This includes some of the violence in the camps.
The next chapter goes into the loyalty questionnaire, the confusion and the results, and the establishment of Tule Lake as a segregation center for "troublemakers." Then it follows with a description of the troubles at Tule Lake.
Next comes a description of those Nisei who volunteered for the U.S. military, then the next chapter deals with the court trials over the internment issue. The book then goes into the closing of the camps and the troubles at Tule Lake and the move by some of the internees to renounce their U.S. citizenship and return to Japan.
This is a fairly nice book giving a broad general outline of what happened in relation to this issue. It also has a good variety of photographs.
October 9, 2014
A lot of news has been made about the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War since this book's publication in 1982. However, Davis' book, while now somewhat dated, is a good introduction to and overview of what he and many others have justifiably referred to as a "shameful" period in American history. I learned a great deal from Davis' book and I plan to read much more about this subject. In his closing chapter, Davis directly confronts the possibility that such a thing could happen in the future and, given the right circumstances, I regrettably suspect that it could. It is books like Behind Barbed Wire that should serve as a reminder that doing right is not always popular.
May 11, 2016
I read this non-fiction book because I read the wonderful historical fiction book, Paper Wishes, by Lois Sepahban. It immediately perked my interest in what exactly happened to the Japanese-Americans during WWII. The first part made me mad--This was the United States--not some third world country. I couldn't believe such a thing could happen. I couldn't believe a country was making a group of people surrender their freedoms, especially since the US was fighting for freedom. The first section of the book was interesting and easy to read. The last of the book became boring and so uninteresting to read. I do not think this book will hold the interest of a child. I would imagine that is why I couldn't find the book at a library nearby. I found the book through Amazon's used book sellers for 1 cent.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews