On Dec. 2, 1941, a publication date was set for Mori’s first book. Five days later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, upending the writer’s life and throwing the book’s publication into doubt.
Dust storm on July 3, 1942, at the Manzanar War Relocation Authority Center in California.
Dorothea Lange/Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration
When US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, he caved to war hysteria and paved the way for the incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Les Cayes in south-western Haiti was hardest hit by the August 2021 earthquake.
Orlando Barria/EPA
Plus, new research chronicling the experiences of Japanese Americans interned by the US government during the second world war. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.
On Sept. 17, 2001, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, left, met with President George W. Bush and others.
Greg Mathieson/Mai/Getty Images
Susan H. Kamei, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
In the wake of 9/11, some called for rounding up whole groups of people viewed as potential threats to the nation. But Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta knew the U.S. had done that before.
Soldiers of the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Bruyères, France.
U.S. Army Signal Corps via Wikimedia Commons
Susan H. Kamei, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Young Japanese American men who were incarcerated because they were presumed to be disloyal were considered loyal enough for compulsory military service.
Slavery is not so far removed. Anderson and Minerva Edwards met in the 1860s as enslaved laborers in Texas, had 16 children and lived into their 90s in a cabin a few miles from the plantations they once worked. They are photographed here in 1937.
U.S. Library of Congress
Patriotism means pride in country, but what are we proud of? A former national park ranger suggests that visiting historic sites can remind Americans of the heritage, good and bad, that they share.
Many groups have been labeled ‘enemy’ in the American past. A literary scholar looks at the role literature and philosophy have played in dispelling fears and shifting public attitudes.
Arriving in Lesbos, Greece from Syria.
Dimitris Michalakis/Reuters
Afghan, Syrian and Eritrean refugees keep arriving on Europe’s shores, reputedly at an increasing rate. They attempt to traverse the Mediterranean by land and sea, presumably hastened by Putin’s bombing…