The facts are well known. In the spring of 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, some 112,000 Japanese American citizens living on the Pacific Coast of the United States were rounded up, placed in holding centers, then interned in camps located in often geographically and climatically inhospitable parts of the interior. The majority would remain there under confinement for the duration of the war.
Although inmates were never subjected to physical brutalities, the incident is regarded by many today as one of the worst civil rights abuses of the last century. It was also, given that the country was ostensibly engaged in a war of liberation, a touch ironic.
The writer helpfully provides much needed historical detail on the Japanese diaspora, less well documented than the Chinese one, but considerable in scale. Robinson outlines its dimensions and reach, which, besides the emigrations to the West Coast of North America, saw settlements in Australia, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines and even New Caledonia.