AACP is Proud to Introduce
POSTON CAMP II, BLOCK 211

By Jack Matsuoka Edited by Emi Young Published by AACP 2003, 158 pages, paperback. View Additional Information ORDER -- Price $16.95

Jack Matsuoka writes: "Back in the 60's and 70's, 'the internment camps' were sketchy images in the general public's mind, to say the least. Today, I can happily vision libraries in California and across the states, making this cartoon book on 'life in the internment camps' available to the general public. This is a giant step toward my dream." Thanks to legislation by the State of California in 1998, many grants became available for the education of the public on the Japanese American incarceration during World War II. In the spirit of reparation and redress, these grants made possible community outreach with education and awareness as the main goal. Jack Matsuoka's reintroduces a 1974 CAMP II, BLOCK 211 as POSTON CAMP II, BLOCK 211. The cartoons about daily life in an American concentration camp are still timeless and easy to understand. There are no big words. It is said that children understand some things more clearly than adults. This could be called a documentary of Jack's life in a detention camp. Cartooning becomes a journalistic medium in this personal story. The book is intended for children and families who want to add their own personal stories of internment years to the cartoons. As one excited first grader said, "This is history, mom! This really happened!"

Up Coming Events

In January 2003 the Nevada State Railroad Museum, 2180 S. Carson Street, Carson City, Nevada 89701, opened its exhibit "Tireless and Unremitting: The Chinese and Nevada's Railroads," in recognition of the Chinese contribution to the construction of the transcontinental railroad and other railroad lines in Nevada. Funded by the Nevada Humanities Committee and the Friends of the Nevada State Railroad, the exhibit will be on display for two years with some of the artifacts and photographs changing at various times. Featured is a reconstruction of a joss house with artifacts dating from 1879 and a re-creation of a Chinese railroad tent site. There is an educational program for children and a videotape explaining the history of the Chinese in Nevada. The exhibit also has Chinese paper lanterns from the 1950s. The exhibit is set near late 19th century trains, most notably from the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, a line constructed by Chinese workers, that connected the Central Pacific Railroad's Reno Station with Virginia City via Carson City. Admission is $2 for adults. Children are free. For more information, call 775/687-6953.

Editor's Message

Prof. Chung sent me another announcement that I was not able to get to in time. I have created a way to resolve your announcements in a more timely manner. Our website newsletter page (http://asianamericanbooks.com/newslet.htm) now has a special section called "Between the Newsletters" for announcements that require more immediate attention. Please check this page from time to time to catch items that we are not able to include in this monthly newsletter.

We apology to those of you that did not yet receive a printed version of our new catalog by mail. Our contact database is a little disorganized. If you would like to see the catalog right away, you can now download the electronic version from our website at http://asianamericanbooks.com/browse.htm or by clicking on the following link http://asianamericanbooks.com/cat03.pdf.

It's not too late to order a calendar. You can get one from the calendar resources page (http://asianamericanbooks.com/calendar.htm). The page is still under construction. We hope to add a lot more content to make this page interesting for our visitors.

Check out our Lunar New Year book sale. Hurry, sale ends Feb. 28, 2003. Happy Lunar New Year!

Leonard Chan
Editor

Give Us Your Feedback

You can contact us at -
aacpinc@asianamericanbooks.com

My work with AACP has made me acutely aware of many of the issues concerning the Japanese Internment during World War II. Part of AACP's original mission was to educate people about the experiences and injustices of the Internment. A phrase that I often hear in regards to the Internment is that "we must never let this happen again." After listening to the "Secret Government" episode of This American Life, I am left with the disturbing thought - Is it happening again?

I posed this question to some of my colleagues and friends and they had mixed opinions of the closeness of the two civil liberty issues. While the civil liberty issues of the US homeland security policy currently seems somewhat narrowly focused on catching terrorist, the Japanese American internment during World War II was applied to a much larger group. Also, as some have pointed out, the people being locked up today are usually individuals that have been accused of breaking the law or of bending the rules regarding their immigration status. So is this a comparison of apples and oranges?

Before you answer yes, here are some of the similarities -
Suspects are rounded up.
Both on the days following Dec. 7, 1941 and Sept. 11, 2001 hundreds to thousands of individuals are taken away by the FBI. No formal arrest warrants were used to apprehend and hold these individuals. The held individuals are kept in secrecy from everyone, including at times from their families and lawyers.

Laws protecting an individual's privacy are weakened.
Law enforcement is given extraordinary powers to conduct investigations on individuals with very little justification. Shortly before the Internment, being a Japanese American and owning a short-wave radio or just being a Japanese American fisherman could get you on the suspect list. Today the government has advance technology and powers to monitor all of our communiqués.

Selective enforcement
On Feb. 20, 1942 executive order 9066, the order that started the Internment, was implemented on the Japanese in America and not Italians and Germans living here (except for some individual cases). Today, certain migrant groups are being asked to register with the INS. Groups such as Saudis are not being handled immediately, which gives the impression of ethnic favoritism.

Families are uprooted and often given little time to prepare.
Japanese Americans were given less than a couple of weeks to pack up for their internment. Today, individuals caught in the early round up and INS registration processes that are deported often must take their families with them. As was then and is again now the innocent families are made to suffer.

Little legal recourse
As was in the past, today civil liberties are curtailed in the name of military necessity. Most disturbing today are the cases of US citizens being held as enemy combatants. Although there may be legitimate reasons for holding them, these individuals are given little chance of ever having their day in a court of law. We should all pray that such extraordinary powers never fall into the hands of government officials that may abuse them. At this time prayers are our only recourse.

No period in time can be a complete repeat of history. Every situation has their unique differences. However, with all these similarities, I think the comparison is much closer to grapefruits and oranges than to apples and oranges.

North Carolina Congressman Howard Coble's statement that basically stated that the Japanese American Internment during WWII was justified should be a red flag to all that some of those in power do not truly understand the injustice done in the past to the Japanese Americans. People that cannot understand this lesson may be more likely to repeat the mistakes of the past. Therefore it is more important than ever for all those that care about civil liberties to stand up and keep their eyes on our government and speak out when we believe they are doing wrong. If we fail to do this, then the phrase of "never again" will forever ring hollow.