Table Of ContentLegacy of Injustice
Exploring the
Cross-Generational Impact
of the ]apanese American
Internment
CRITICAL ISSUES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE
Published in association with the International Center for Social lustice
Research, Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis,
Missouri.
Series Melvin J. Lerner and RHH Vermunt
Editors: Washington University University of Leiden
St. Louis, Missouri Leiden, The Netherlands
Recent volumes in this series
JUSTICE
Views from the Social Sciences
Edited by Ronald L. Cohen
JUSTICE IN SOCIAL RELATIONS
Edited by Hans-Werner Bierhoff, Ronald L. Cohen, and
Jerald Greenberg
LEGACY OF INJUSTICE
Exploring the Cross-Generational Impact of the Japanese American
Internment
Donna K. Nagata
NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF JUSTICE, LAW, AND
SOCIAL CONTROL
Prepared by the School of Justice Studies
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
SCHOOL DESEGREGATION RESEARCH
New Directions in Situational Analysis
Edited by Jeffrey Prager, Douglas Longshore, and Melvin Seeman
SOCIAL JUSTICE IN HUMAN RELATIONS
Volume 1: Societal and Psychological Origins of Justice
Edited by Riel Vermunt and Herman Steensma
Volume 2: Society and Psychological Consequences
of Justice and Injustice
Edited by Herman Steensma and Riel Vermunt
THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF PROCEDURAL JUSTICE
E. Allan Lind and Tom R. Tyler
A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring
delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon
actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher.
Legacy of Injustice
Exploring the
Cross-Generational Impact
of the ]apanese American
Internment
Donna K. N agata
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Llbrary of Congress Cataloglng-In-Publlcatlon Data
Nagata, Donna K.
Legacy of lnjustlee : explorlng the eross-generatlonal l~paet of
the Japanese-Aoerlean lnternoent / Donna K. Nagata.
p. em. -- (Crltleal Issues In soelal justlee)
1neludes blbllographleal referenees and Index.
1. Japanese Amerleans--Evaeuatlon and reloeatlon, 1942-1945.
2. Clvl1 rlghts--Unlted States. 3. World War, 1939-1945--1nfluenee.
I. Tltle. 11. Serles.
D7S9.8.ASN33 1993
973'.0495S--dc20 93-3927
C1P
ISBN 978-1-4899-1120-9 ISBN 978-1-4899-1118-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-1118-6
© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1993.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1993
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording,
or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher.
Für my parents
Preface
At the age of 6, I discovered a jar of brightly colored shells under my
grandmother's kitchen sink. When I inquired where they had come from,
she did not answer. Instead, she told me in broken English, "Ask your
mother." My mother's response to the same question was, "Oh, I made
them in camp." "Was it fun?" I asked enthusiastically. "Not really," she
replied. Her answer puzzled me. The shells were beautiful, and camp, as
far as I knew, was a fun place where children roasted marshmallows and
sang songs around the fire. Yet my mother's reaction did not seem happy.
I was perplexed by this brief exchange, but I also sensed I should not ask
more questions.
As time went by, "camp" remained a vague, cryptic reference to
some time in the past, the past of my parents, their friends, my grand
parents, and my relatives. We never directly discussed it. It was not until
high school that I began to understand the significance of the word, that
camp referred to a World War II American concentration camp, not a
summer camp. Much later I learned that the silence surrounding discus
sions about this traumatic period of my parents' lives was a phenomenon
characteristic not only of my family but also of most other Japanese
American families after the war. "It's like a secret or maybe more like a
skeleton in the closet-like a relative in the family who's retarded or
alcoholic," said a woman whose mother was also in a camp. "Everyone
tiptoes around it, discussing it only when someone else brings it up, like
a family scandal. I'm aware of the shame of it, but it's really a paradox. It
wasn't anything she did to be ashamed of. There were things done to her,
like a rape victim!"
In fact, her mother and my parents-along with more than 110,000
Japanese Americans-were moved from their hornes to concentration
camps located in desolate areas of the United States. Forced to sell their
belongings and evacuate, they took only what they could carry and wore
vii
viii Preface
impersonal numbered tags for identification. Most ]apanese Americans
were forced to move twice-first to assembly centers at horsetracks and
fairgrounds, where many lived in animal stalls; and later to the barren,
hastily constructed camps themselves. Barbed wire and armed guard
towers surrounded the camps despite the fact that approximately two
thirds of those incarcerated were D.S. citizens. More than 90% of the
]apanese American population on the D.S. mainland lived in confine
ment, for up to 4 years, without the right to a trial or individual review.
Although the American government claimed that the action was neces
sary to prevent espionage by ]apanese Americans in this country, it
would eventually be revealed that there was no evidence to support the
military necessity for such drastic measures (Commission on Wartime
Relocation and Internment of Civilians [CWRIC] (1982).
Ironically, at the same time that ]apanese Americans were living in
concentration camps and considered hazardous to national security,
23,000 additional ]apanese Americans (including the relatives of those
in camps) served in the D.S. military during World War 11, protecting the
American ideals of equality, justice, and democracy (Daniels, 1988).
These were American-born second-generation Japanese American (Nisei)
men who enlisted directly from the camps and from Hawaii in an effort
to prove their loyalty to the Dnited States. The service record of the Nisei
was exemplary. The all-Japanese American 100th Battalion and the
442nd Regimental Combat Team were among the war's most decorated
units, and the work of Nisei in military intelligence contributed signifi
cantly to the American war effort.
In 1980, nearly 40 years after the war, the D.S. government seriously
reviewed the facts and circumstances surrounding the internment and
recommended redress for the injustices suffered by the Japanese Ameri
cans during the war. At that time, an act of Congress established the
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. The
commission conducted hearings in cities across the Dnited States,
receiving testimony from more than 750 witnesses including former
interne es , government officials, and historians. Based on these testi
manies and volurnes of government documents, it concluded that "there
was no justification in military necessity for the exclusion" and, ac cord
ingly, "there was no basis for the detention" (CWRIC, 1982, p. 10). The
commission summarized its findings as follows:
The broad historical causes which shaped these decisions were race preju
dice, hysteria and a failure of politicalleadership. Widespread ignorance of
Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed
in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan. A grave injustice was done to
American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry. (CWRIC, 1982, p. 18)
Preface ix
While historians are now able to develop a retrospective accounting
for the causes of the internment, it is more difficult to document the
long-term effects of that injustice. The writings that do exist describe the
social and psychological suffering created by the internment and forced
evacuation (e.g., Mass, 1986; Morishima, 1973). Although they had done
nothing wrong, many Nisei felt ashamed and humiliated by what hap
pened to them, and some even blamed themselves for not being Ameri
can enough.
Today the aftereffects from the internment elude casual inspection.
Educationally and economically, both those ]apanese Americans who
were interned and their offspring seem outwardly successful and un
affected by their experiences of racism; they have accomplished much.
Discussion of what happened has been conspicuously absent from
classroom history books, and the vast majority of Americans know little,
if anything, about the internment. Only through efforts leading to the
passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which apologized for wrongful
imprisonment and authorized the payment of $20,000 redress to each
surviving internee, has the silence begun to break.
Most adult children of the internees, third-generation ]apanese
Americans (Sansei), were born after the war and did not experience the
internment. Although they were born and raised in the United States
like their Nisei parents, these Sansei-who are now primarily in their
30s and 40s-have experienced significantly less overt racism than their
parents. Yet recognizing the great injustice that took place, they carry
with them the legacy of their parents' internment. Time has not severed
the psychological ties to events that preceded them, nor has the fact that
their parents will not openly discuss the internment. On the contrary,
the vast majority of Sansei feel that the incarceration has affected their
lives in significant ways, and the re cent ]apanese American redress
movement was "led largely by younger ]apanese Americans whose
parents and grandparents still bore the psychological scars of intern
ment" (Irons, 1983, p. 348).
What is the nature of this legacy? How is the impact of one genera
tion's historie injustice passed on to the next generation? And what long
term effects has the internment had for the offspring of those who were
incarcerated? These are the questions addressed in this book through
data collected for the Sansei Research Project.
The Sansei Research Project, conducted in 1987, represents the first
large-scale study to explore the impact of the internment on third
generation ]apanese Americans. The Project surveyed over 700 Sansei
from across the United States and included in-depth interviews with
over 40 Sansei. Responses from participants confirmed the salience of
x Preface
the internment for the Sansei generation. More than half who completed
the 20-page survey wrote additional comments to express their personal
views, attaching lengthy descriptions of their emotional reactions to the
topics raised in the survey. Others expressed surprise that there might be
other Sansei beside themselves whose families had been silent about the
camps. Several Sansei requested additional copies of the survey to pass
on to friends and relatives or requested permission to share it with
Sansei in their community to stimulate dialogue about the internment.
Many thanked me for giving them an opportunity to participate in the
research and express views that they had kept inside for years. Inter
viewees who stated that they had little to say other than the fact that their
parents never discussed the internment were surprised to discover many
feelings and observations related to their parents' camp experiences.
The Sansei Research Project employs a cross-generational frame
work to examine the transmission of trauma and injustice from the Nisei
to the Sansei generation. The impact of parents' traumatic experiences
on their children has been well documented by an extensive body of
research on the adult children of Holocaust survivors (e.g., Danieli, 1985;
Davidson, 1980; Epstein, 1979; Keinan, Mikulincer, & Rybnicki, 1988;
Rose & Garske, 1987; Sigal, 1971; Wanderman, 1976). This study explores
the presence of similar long-range effects of the internment on the adult
children of previously interned Japanese Americans. In contrast, justice
literature reveals relatively little work in the area of intergenerational
issues. Yet the question of how experiences of injustice from one genera
tion affect subsequent generations is a crucial one. Conceptualizations
of what is viewed as just or fair change historically and culturally over
time (Sampson, 1981). By comparing the Sansei and Nisei, we can begin
to explore how perceptions and responses to the internment differ
across the generational lines.
At the broadest level, the Project's cross-generational framework
allows us to study a specific historical event-the internment-and its
consequences over time. Because the large survey sampie included both
Sansei who had a parent interned and those who did not, it was possible
to statistically compare these groups on a range of demographic and
attitudinal variables and to describe the population characteristics that
distinguish the children of former internees. Differences on these vari
ables between Sansei who had parents interned and those who did not
were hypothesized to reflect the cross-generational effects of a parent's
incarceration. The Sansei Research Project also studied the cross
generational impact of the internment at the individual level through the
use of in-depth interviews. These interviews yielded rich narrative data
