Research Projects Contact Accomplishments
Japanese Americans at Midwestern Crossroads Asian/Pacific American Studies Program, University of Michigan, JACL Midwest District Council, Detroit JACL; Gail Nomura
Analysis of impact of incarceration on the formation and persistence of JA communities in Midwest. Survey sent to over 2400 JA in Midwest, responses submitted and results tabulated. Data analysis in progress.
Wartime Incarceration and the Life Course of Nisei Families Setsuko Matsunaga Nishi, Ph. D; Department of Sociology, Brooklyn College
Study on long term effects of incarceration on Nisei families through survey and follow-up interviews. Survey distributed. Training of interviewers, interviews, transcription of interviews, coding of interviews and questionnaires in progress.
Voices of Japanese American Redress Harry Kitano, Professor of Social Welfare; Mitchell Maki, Assistant Professor of Social Welfare; Megan Berthold, doctoral student in Social Welfare; UCLA

Three day conference gathered data from major players in the redress movement in the Fall of 1997 for over 300 participants. Proceedings videotaped and additional funding sought for transcripts of the proceedings. Findings to be published in future.
Okinawan, Nisei, Radical Mari Matsuda, School of Law, Georgetown University
Completed comparative analysis of literature on American radicals of first/second immigrant status during WW II and the Cold War in preparation of biography on Okinawan Don Matsuda.
Families Without Patriarchs: Oral Histories of Japanese American Families in WWII Hawaii Center for Oral History, Social Science Research Institute; University of Hawaii; Warren Nishimoto
Conducted oral histories documenting experience of JA families whose fathers in HI were interned by US government. Library and archival research completed; 28 persons interviewed on audio tape and 1300 pages of transcripts produced.
Original Legal Research Collaborative Project School of Law, DePaul University and Columbia Law School: Sumi Cho and Brian Rigby
1) Preliminary drafts of articles completed from all 7 members of collaborative; 2) plans to publish in law review article format and possible publication as book; 3) 3 workshop meetings held; 4) on-site symposium in 10/98 at APA Law Faculty meeting.
A Different Fate: Hawaii's Japanese Americans and the Mass Internment of WWII University of Hawaii, Noel Kent, Brian Niiya, Jonathon Okamura, and Karen Umemoto
Conducted research on why mass internment of Japanese Americans in HI did not occur. Papers prepared for AAAS Conference in HI for discussion/feedback. Final product to be book published in 2000.
Born & Raised in Seattle: Twenty Years of the Redress Movement in Washington State 1970-1990 Charles Kato, Cherry Kinoshita, and Robert Shimabukuro Completed manuscript recording and documenting the Seattle redress story. Supporting documentation includes 17 interviews and review of over 25,000 pages of files and documents.
Resisting and Correcting Constitutional Violations: A Project on the Wartime Exclusion and Internment of Japanese Americans and Peruvian Japanese California State University Long Beach Foundation; William Hohri and John Tsuchida
Completed two articles: 1) Hohri v. US class action lawsuit and the draft resisters challenge to the constitutionality of the exclusion; 2) experience of Japanese Latin Peruvians who were brought to US against their will to serve as prisoners of war.
American Concentration Camps Masumi Hayashi, Professor of Art, Cleveland State University 1) Construction of website; 2) exhibition of artwork (photo collages) in Las Vegas, SF; 3) publication in 2 books and 1 journal; 4) interviews and individual portraits of former internees; 5) lectures accompanying exhibitions. Book to follow.
The Nisei Wartime Internment Research Project Donna Nagata, Ph.D, Dept of Psychology,
Publication of article "Coping and Resilience Across Generations: Japanese Americans and the WWII Internment" in the Journal of Psychoanalytic Review. Two other articles pending in Asian American Women in Relationships and Outside Master Narratives.
Silence, No More: Japanese American Internment, Redress and Historical Memory Alice Yang Murray, Department of History, UC Santa Cruz
Completed drafts of two additional chapters of manuscript on evolution of memories and representations of internment and redress between 1942 and 1998.
Japanese American "Resettlement" in Denver, CO, 1942-1946 Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, Ethnic Studies, University of Colorado
Secured a book contract with the University of Colorado Press to publish work on Japanese American Resettlement in Denver and Colorado, 1946.

New book announcement!

THE POLITICS OF FIELDWORK: RESEARCH IN AN AMERICAN CONCENTRATION CAMP

Ethnic Identity and Festival in Southern CA Japanese America, 1934-1996 Lon Yuki Kurashige, Ph.D, Department of History, USC
Completed chapters of book on formation of JA ethnicity in LA and interprets its enactment through Little Tokyo's annual Nisei Week Festival.
The Struggle Continues: The NCRR and the Fight for Justice Glen Kitayama
Converting MA thesis into manuscript on redress (to be completed June 1999). Archival research and interviews completed. Transcripts of interviews in progress.
Newspaper Portrayal of JA Internment Kumiko Takahara, Dept of East Asian Languages and Literature, University of Colorado
Completed 6 chapters of manuscript on the Denver Post's linguistic strategy of fabricating negative images of internees during WWII.
Reinterpreting the Issei Experience Eiichiro Azuma, PhD candidate in History; UCLA
Published article on relationship between Issei and Japan before WW II. Received the W. Turrentine Jackson Prize for the best article by a graduate student in 1998. Additional articles pending.
Exploring Family Legacies Nobu Miyoshi, MSW
Transcribed 344 hours of audio taped sessions discussing effects of the incarceration on the family.
Immigrant Politics under Internment: The Japanese in Manzanar, Poston and Topaz Incarceration Camps, 1942-45 Brian Hayashi, American Studies and History, Yale University
Paper explores the political behavior in Manzanar, Poston, and Topaz and links how they behaved under internment to prewar past, wartime policies of WDC, WRA, War Dept, Office of Indian Affairs. Research phase still continuing. Papers to follow.
Incarceration, Redress and the Development of Political Consciousness: A Focus on Yuri Kochiyama Diane C. Fujino, Asian American Studies, UC Santa Barbara
1) Completed four chapters of book-length biography of Yuri Kochiyama which will be published in April 1999; 2) completion of lectures and presentations at conferences and seminars on Yuri Kochiyama.
A comparative sociological and historical study of interned Japanese, German, and Italian nationals and American citizens in the WWII Department of Justice camps Tetsuden Kashima, Department of American Ethnic Studies, University of Washington
Comparative study of Japanese, German, and Italians in terms of differential treatment at DOJ camp. Completed 1) a draft article to proposed book on JA Incarceration; 2) presentation at AAAS Conference; 3) paper for publication in journal(s).
Kooskia Internment Camp Priscilla Wegars, University of Idaho Completed publication 1) "A Real He-Man's Job: Japanese Internees and the Kooskia Internment Camp, Idaho 1943-1945", 2) presented a paper at AAAS Conference.
Dissident Joseph Kurihara Eileen H. Tamura, College of Education, University of Hawaii
Conducted archival research for book on Joseph Kurihara, a Nisei dissident at Manzanar, a WWI veteran who was outraged at being imprisoned solely because of his race.
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