Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience

For World War II history buffs, this book is an excellent view from the eyes of Japanese Americans. They were amazing people in how they dealt with the situation.
One section of the book gets a little bogged down covering the issue of "Question 28", and I passed over the poetry, but beyond that it is a great read.

I thought I knew a good bit about the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II before I read this book, but I was badly mistaken. This is a very good gathering of different sources: journal excerpts, recollections, legal documents, photos, poetry, ect., that give a complete and horrible picture of these events. The parallels to an unfortunate number of things happening currently in our government/society are a real demonstration of the adadge that if we don't learn from history we are condemned to repeat it.

Only what we could carry, edited by Lawson Fusao Inada, is a compilation of photography, drawings, poems, personal stories, legal documents, and memoirs of the Japanese Americans that were put into internment by the American government after the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. Not only did this book include the interneesEexperience and their feelings, the interneesEAmerican friends and the media who were on the government side were included.

Some of the interesting facts in this book were the propaganda images. One that really struck me as an interesting propaganda was titled, "How to spot a Jap.E In a cartoon style, it mentions the differences between a Chinese and a Japanese. The drawings are put there so that it'll be easy for the public to differentiate them. I'm Japanese and I found this propaganda amusing. By just looking or reading the propaganda, it gives the reader the history and portrays how so many Americans were narrow minded and easily persuaded.

This book has an impressive collection of accounts from various sources and manages to touch upon any significant Japanese American experience during World War II.
I purchased this book for its coverage of the Nisei 100th and 442nd batalions, and was impressed at the varied perspectives included. From an excerpt from Daniel Inouye's account to a reflection by a concentration camp survivor liberated by men of the 442nd, Only What We Could Carry certainly covers the map.
A good source for those studying any aspect of Japanese American life during the war, and an excellent one for those studying the subject in general.

Only What We Could Carry provides an important account of the Japanese American internment experience after the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. Personal documents, art and propaganda are presented in a title which captures the camp experience in a series of personal autobiographical revelations. Highly recommended.