After Camp. Greg Robinson

       University of California Press

      BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON

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      University of California Press

      Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

      University of California Press, Ltd.

      London, England

      © 2012 by The Regents of the University of California

      Portions of Chapter 1 first appeared in Greg Robinson, “Le Projet M de Franklin Roosevelt: Construire un monde meilleur grâce à la science…des races,” Critique Internationale No. 27 (May 2005), pp. 65–82. Portions of Chapters 3 and 10 first appeared as Greg Robinson, “Nisei in Gotham: Japanese Americans in Wartime New York,” Prospects: An Annual of American Cultural Studies, Vol. 30 (2005), pp. 581–595. Chapter 4 originally appeared in somewhat different form as Greg Robinson, “Birth of a Citizen: Miné Okubo and the Politics of Symbolism,” in Greg Robinson and Elena Tajima Creef, eds., Miné Okubo: Following Her Own Road (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008), pp. 149–166. Portions of Chapter 6 first appeared as Toni Robinson and Greg Robinson, “Mendez v. Westminster: Asian-Latino Coalition Triumphant?” Asian Law Journal, Vol. 10, 2 (May 2003), pp. 161–183, and in revised form as Greg Robinson and Toni Robinson, “The Limits of Interracial Coalition: Méndez v. Westminster Reconsidered,” in Nicholas De Genova, ed., Racial (Trans)formations: Latinos and Asians Remaking the United States (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006), pp. 93-119. Chapter 11 first appeared as Greg Robinson and Toni Robinson, “Korematsu and Beyond: Japanese Americans and the Origins of Strict Scrutiny,” Law & Contemporary Problems, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Spring 2005), pp. 29–55. Portions of Chapter 12 first appeared in Greg Robinson, “Une alliance malaisée: Nisei et Africains-Américains,” Matériaux No. 87 (Autumn 2007), pp. 49–66.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Robinson, Greg, 1966–

      After camp : portraits in midcentury Japanese American life and politics / Greg Robinson.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 978-0-520-27158-6 (cloth : alk. paper)

      ISBN 978-0-520-27159-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)

      1. Japanese Americans—Social conditions—20th century. 2. Japanese Americans—Politics and government—20th century. 3. Japanese Americans—Civil rights—History—20th century. 4. Japanese Americans—Evacuation and relocation, 1942–1945. 5. Cold War—Social aspects—United States. 6. Community life—United States—History—20th century. 7. United States—Social conditions—1945– 8. United States—Ethnic relations—20th century. I. Title.

      E184.J3R63 2012

      973'.04956—dc23

      2011030474

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on 50-pound Enterprise, a 30% postconsumer-waste, recycled, deinked fiber that is processed chlorine-free. It is acid-free and meets all ANSI/NISO (z 39.48) requirements.

       To Heng Wee Tan

       and in loving memory of Toni Robinson (1942-2002)

      Contents

       Photographs follow

       Introduction

       PART I. RESETTLEMENT AND NEW LIVES

       1. Political Science? FDR, Japanese Americans, and the Postwar Dispersion of Minorities

       2. Forrest LaViolette: Race, Internationalism, and Assimilation

       3. Japantown Born and Reborn: Comparing the Resettlement Experience of Issei and Nisei in Detroit, New York, and Los Angeles

       PART II. THE VARIETIES OF ASSIMILATION

       4. Birth of a Citizen: Miné Okubo and the Politics of Symbolism

       5. The “New Nisei” and Identity Politics

       PART III. INTERETHNIC POLITICS

       6. Japanese Americans and Mexican Americans: The Limits of Interracial Collaboration

       7. From Kuichi to Comrades: Japanese American Views 139 of Jews in the 1930s and 1940s

       PART IV. AFRICAN AMERICAN SUPPORTERS OF JAPANESE AMERICANS, AND THE SHIFT IN NISEI VIEWS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS