Om forfatteren
Eric L. Muller is a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law
Image credit: UNC School of Law
Værker af Eric L. Muller
Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II (Chicago Series in… (2001) 46 eksemplarer
Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II (2012) 42 eksemplarer
American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II (2007) 26 eksemplarer
Associated Works
Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest: Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians in the Twentieth Century (2005) — Bidragyder — 13 eksemplarer
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- 124
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I say life 'at' rather than life 'in' because the perspective is that of lawyers stationed there to serve both the US administrators as well as those imprisoned there. So while we see some of what life in the camps were like, that wasn't exactly the experience of these lawyers.
A lot of the issues presented in the running of these camps will be familiar to those who have studied them. What will be of interest is the new perspective, that of the people walking that tightrope that is reflected in the title of the book. Changing hats is a difficult thing to do in the best of situations, from my own experience I once held a position where I had to sometimes advocate for one group to another group, then on a different topic advocate the other way around. But that rarely presented situations where I was stuck with a conflict, I was wearing one hat or the other. These lawyers were forced, more often than not, to wear multiple hats at the same time. Coupled with the fact they generally didn't support a lot of what they were representing, they experienced burnout and serious mental and emotional fatigue.
While they didn't create or draft the policies they held positions that required them to do things they felt were unethical and just plain wrong. Carrying this idea to our current world, it is like someone who, because of holding a position in a bureaucracy that is oppressive, even if they don't intellectually support that oppression, are in fact perpetrating it by their participation in it. In fact, just being part of a society where one has unwarranted privilege makes one part of the system, even while one fights against it.
My interest in these camps began when I was young and parents of some of my friends had been in these camps. Though they rarely spoke of it, my friends would tell me what they knew and show me photographs. This book helps to create a more rounded picture. It is easy to paint those who created the program, from FDR on down, as having acted as evil agents, since little to no actual evidence supported this extreme measure. But just like living in the current white supremacist society, people who oppose it can still become agents in it through simply doing a job. It may not exonerate these men, but it does show that they did not act with malice or take great joy in what was happening. They did, however, seem oblivious at times to what those in the camps really felt.
Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in history, particularly this ugly chapter in US history.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (mere)