Civil Rights Books The Japanese American Cases Irons, Peter, Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases. University of California Press, 1983. [Peter Irons, a legal historian who comments on the Korematsu case in the film, Of Civil Wrongs and Rights, analyzes the three Japanese American cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the early 1940s. He provides a detailed account of the evolution of the cases, the legal strategies employed by the lawyers for the petitioners and the Government, the Court’s deliberation and decision, and the views of several key legal actors who testified years later before a congressional commission. The book’s research provided the basis for the legal representation of Fred Korematsu and the other two petitioners, Gordon Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui, by Peter Irons and a team of Japanese American lawyers in the 1980s, as they successfully sought to have the individual convictions overturned in federal district courts.] Japanese American Relocation and Internment Government Reports U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment, Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. University of Washington Press, 1997. Scholarship Daniels, Roger, et al., (eds), Japanese Americans: From Relocation to Redress. University of Washington Press, 1992 (rev ed.). Daniels, Roger, Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II. Hill and Wang, 1993. Davis, Kenneth S., FDR: The War President, 1940-43. Random House, 2000. [This highly acclaimed historical treatment of President Franklin Roosevelt during the war years includes a detailed discussion of FDR’s decision to issue an executive order in February of 1942 authorizing relocation. Davis explores the conflicts between the Justice Department and the War Department over the advisability and necessity of the order, as well as unsuccessful attempts to soften its implementation and impact on Japanese Americans. He also describes how the press, public opinion, and elected public officials on the west coast influenced FDR and his advisers. See pp. 418-429.] Inada, Lawson Fusau (ed.), Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience. Heyday Books, 2000. [This book assembles a series of personal stories about the internment experience that include personal recollections, documents, art and propaganda. It includes the voices of those subjected to internment, as well as those of friends and witnesses.] Maki, Mitchell T.et al., Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress. University of Illinois Press, 1999. Murray, Alice Yang (ed.), What Did the Internment of Japanese Americans Mean? Palgrave, 2000. Nagata, Donna K., Legacy of Injustice: Exploring the Cross-Generational Impact of the Japanese American Internment. Plenum, 1993. Smith, Page, Democracy on Trial: The Japanese American Evacuation and Relocation in World War II. Simon & Schuster, 1995. Tateishi, John (ed.), And Justice for All: An Oral History of the Japanese American Detention Camps. University of Washington Press, 1999. [Originally published in 1984, this book provides the opportunity for thirty Japanese Americans who were victims to speak about their experiences. The new 1999 edition includes an Afterword, which updates the lives of the people interviewed.] Weglyn, Michi Nishiura, Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps. University of Washington Press, 1996. Scholarship: Judicial Biographies Howard Ball, Hugo L. Black: Cold Steel Warrior. Oxford University Press, 1996. Howard Ball and Phillip J. Cooper, Of Power and Right: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, and America’s Constitutional Revolution. Replica Books, 2000. Roger K. Newman, Hugo Black: A Biography. Fordham University Press, 1997. Novels Guterson, David, Snow Falling on Cedars. Harcourt Brace, 1994. [Set in the rural Pacific Northwest, this award-winning novel of historical fiction uses a murder investigation and trial as a lens through which to explore Japanese Americans and their white neighbors, both during relocation and in the years following.] Mueller, Marnie, The Climate of the Country. Curbstone Press, 2000. [Born in a California relocation center to a camp administrator and teacher, Mueller draws upon her parents’ experiences in telling a story about a conscientious objector assigned to the camp and the consequences of his empathy for Japanese Americans.] Home | Perspective | Discussion Questions Web Resources | Books | Purchase the Film