AMERICA'S CONCENTRATION CAMPS

by Allan R. Bosworth ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

It happened here. In winter, nearly a quarter of a century ago, several hundred thousand Americans were quietly taken from their West Coast homes, their land, their businesses and placed in concentration camps in remote sections of the West. The reason: ""National Security."" If it has taken this long for a popular book to appear about these Japanese Americans who were rounded up after Pearl Harbor and interned, some for nearly four years, for no cause but national origin, then we could expect a book whose rage is matched by its perspective, and the sense of reality as well as indignation which characterizes Mr. Bosworth's book. Even sympathy for the men who directed the operation is there. For the American citizens who participated in this outrage were not heinous: Franklin Roosevelt signed the order; Earl Warren, then California Attorney General, backed it up; mayors and aldermen cheered it and the American army carried it out. Occasionally Mr. Bosworth's emotions do overcome his generally equitable prose. During those moments, the citations from the diary of Mr. H., an elderly gentleman whose wife died of cancer during the internment, become the most moving part of the narrative, as he calmly assesses the civil atrocity which has encompassed him and maintains his faith in that country that is executing his persecution.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1966

Categories: NONFICTION