A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER - A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
EDITOR'S CHOICE - Bestselling author Richard Reeves provides an
authoritative account of the internment of more than 120,000
Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens during World War II
"Highly readable . . . [A] vivid and instructive reminder of what war
and fear can do to civilized people." --Evan Thomas, The New York Times
Book Review
After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed an executive
order that forced more than 120,000 Japanese Americans into primitive
camps for the rest of war. Their only crime: looking like the enemy.
In Infamy, acclaimed historian Richard Reeves delivers a sweeping
narrative of this atrocity. Men we usually consider heroes--FDR, Earl
Warren, Edward R. Murrow--were in this case villains. We also learn of
internees who joined the military to fight for the country that had
imprisoned their families, even as others fought for their rights all
the way to the Supreme Court. The heart of the book, however, tells the
poignant stories of those who endured years in "war relocation camps,"
many of whom suffered this injustice with remarkable grace.
Racism and war hysteria led to one of the darkest episodes in American
history. But by recovering the past, Infamy has given voice to those
who ultimately helped the nation better understand the true meaning of
patriotism.
