In Japanese, the word "gaman" means the display of calm forbearance and poise in the face of adverse circumstances beyond one's control. For all of us having had to deal with bureaucrats or large organizations, it is an unpleasantly familiar experience that often leads us to wonder why just a little applied common sense couldn't solve the need to gaman in the first place.
This new book describes how American residents of Japanese ancestry had to gaman through their incarceration following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Under suspicion of being security risks with questionable allegiance, some 90 percent of Japanese Americans -- including all those on the West Coast -- were moved to inland relocation centers at short notice, carrying little more than basic bedding and clothes. From there they were sent to special camps where most of them remained until the end of the war. Two-thirds of them were American-born and half of them were children under the age of 17.
As their bank accounts were frozen, and whatever wages could be earned while in the camps were barely enough to buy life's essentials, many were unable to keep up essential mortgage, tax and insurance payments and saw their assets forfeited. For such unfortunates, that meant a new struggle to rebuild their lives, and to gaman in the face of widespread lingering prejudice after they were released.