Untold Stories of Japanese American Incarceration [A]

"Untold Stories of Japanese American Incarceration” is about the double-incarceration of loyal Japanese American citizens during World War II. In 1943, tens of thousands of those put into camps after Pearl Harbor filled out the US government’s “loyalty questionnaire” in complex ways, reflecting their concern for their non-citizen parents, resistance to their incarceration, and desire for their civil liberties to be respected. As a result of their answers, more than ten thousand were then labeled disloyal, sent to Tule Lake Segregation Center and Department of Justice prison camps for the duration of the war. Within the hothouse environment of the segregation camp, where there were widespread protests and violence, some 5,000 Japanese Americans renounced their US citizenship because they had come to think it was worthless, and moved to Japan after the war. Virtually all were later vindicated by the US Supreme Court, their citizenship was restored, and they were awarded reparations alongside other survivors. In this talk, Jolie Sheffer shares original research she has done, including the records of one family who lost everything but never gave up on the American Dream. 

Jolie A. Sheffer is an associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of English and American culture studies at Bowling Green State University. She is the author of The Romance of Race: Incest, Miscegenation, and Multiculturalism in the United States, 1880-1930 (Rutgers University Press, 2013) and Understanding Karen Tei Yamashita (University of South Carolina Press, 2020). She is currently writing a book about the legacy of Japanese American incarceration.