Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1890771309 ISBN 13: 9781890771300

Publisher: Heyday, 2014

Synopsis

In the wake of wartime panic that followed the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor, more than 100,000 Japanese Americans residing along the West Coast of the United States were uprooted from their homes and their communities and banished to internment camps throughout the country. Through personal documents, art, and propaganda, Only What We Could Carry expresses through words, art, and haunting recollections, the fear, confusion and anger of the camp experience. The only anthology of its kind, Only What We Could Carry is an emotional and intellectual testament to the dignity, spirit and strength of the Japanese American internees.

About this title

About the Author:

Lawson Fusao Inada is regarded by many as the poet laureate of Japanese America. He is co-editor of Aiiieeeee! (1983) and The Big Aiiieeeee! (1991) and author of Legends from Camp (1992) and Drawing the Line (1997). Inada is a multiple recipient of NEA Poetry Fellowships and has read his works at the White House. He has been Professor of English at Southern Oregon State College since 1966.

Review:

''The presence of such a volume inspires historical and moral reflection on both the delicate construction of individual liberty and the ambiguities of national identity.''--Doubletake

''It conveys the deep anguish felt by Japanese who defined themselves as citizens of the United States and yet lost their rights as citizens during a time of national fear.''--School Library Journal

''Contained in these pages are what we have carried...in these stories are lifted up our humanity, our indomitable spirit and dignity, an implacable quest for justice to redeem the crimes committed against an entire race-indeed an entire nation.''--Janice Mirikitani, Poet Laureate of San Francisco, 2000, author of We the Dangerous and Shedding Silence

''Only What We Could Carry gathers together the voices of interment--private, personal stories that could have been lost, but will now be heard and felt. It's as if we have a seat at a family dinner, listening to stories passed down from one generation to another, feeling the pain and the spirit of hope.''--David Mas Masumoto, author of Harvest Son: Planting Roots in American Soil

''Only What We Could Carry gives us yet another way of looking at an American tragedy....Above all, it is a collection of documents which, together, are a testament to the human spirit.'' --Roger Daniels, Charles Phelps Taft Professor of History, University of Cincinnati

About this edition

• Publisher: Heyday
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1890771309
• ISBN 13: 9781890771300
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464
• Editor: Inada Lawson Fusao