“Life in Manzanar Where There Is a Spring Breeze”: Graffiti at a World War II Japanese American Internment Camp

Author(s):  
Jeffery F. Burton ◽  
Mary M. Farrell
Author(s):  
Amanda L. Tyler

The experience of World War II and the precedent of the Japanese American internment dramatically altered the political and legal landscape surrounding habeas corpus and suspension. This chapter discusses Congress’s enactment of the Emergency Detention Act of 1950 along with its repeal in 1971. It further explores how in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, questions over the scope of executive authority to detain prisoners in wartime arose anew. Specifically, this chapter explores the Supreme Court’s sanctioning of the concept of the “citizen-enemy combatant” in its 2004 decision in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and evaluates Hamdi against historical precedents. Finally, the chapter explores how Hamdi established the basis for an expansion of the reach of the Suspension Clause in other respects—specifically, to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.


Author(s):  
Eric K. Yamamoto

This chapter unravels the World War II majority and dissenting opinions in Korematsu v. United States, describing the recited factual foundations of the Court’s ruling (along with the dissenters’ sharp counterpoints) and detailing the Court’s announced strict scrutiny standard alongside its actual extremely deferential judicial review. In closely examining the Japanese American internment (exclusion and incarceration) case, it concisely examines the documents and written and oral arguments about military necessity advanced by the government (and accepted by the Court majority), along with Justice Murphy’s factual rejoinders and condemnation of the majority’s complicity in the government’s descent into “the ugly abyss of racism.” It closes by examining Justice Jackson’s Korematsu “loaded weapon” warning, along with contemporary views of the warning’s relevance.


2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Roxworthy

In a dark footnote to a dark chapter in US history, Japanese Americans interned by their own government during World War II performed in blackface behind barbed wire. Exploring blackface performance in the camps raises questions regarding the potential resistance of racial impersonation and blackface's potential for triangulating race.


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