Manzanar Mosaic: Essays and Oral Histories on America's First World War II Japanese American Concentration Camp

By Arthur A. Hansen. Foreword by Bruce Embrey

Providing  a new mosaic-style view of Manzanar’s complex history through unedited  interviews and published scholarship, Arthur A. Hansen presents a deep,  longitudinal portrait of the politics and social formation of the  Japanese American community before, during, and after World War II.

To  begin, Hansen presents two essays, the first centering on his work with  Ronald Larson in the mid-1970s on the history of Doho, a Japanese and  English dual-language newspaper, and the second an article with David  Hacker on revisionist ethnic perspectives of the Manzanar “riot.” A  second section is composed of five oral history interviews of selected  camp personalities—a female Nisei journalist, a male Nisei historical  documentarian, a male Kibei Communist block manager, the Caucasian wife  and comrade of the block manager, and the male Kibei who was the central  figure in the Manzanar Riot/Revolt—that offer powerful insight into the  controversial content of the two essays that precede them.

Manzanar  can be understood only by being considered within the much wider  context of Japanese American community formation and contestation  before, during, and after World War II. A varied collection of scholarly  articles and interviews, Manzanar Mosaic engages  diverse voices and considers multiple perspectives to illuminate  aspects of the Japanese American community, the ethnic press, the  Manzanar concentration camp, and the movement for redress and  reparations. 

Paper: 336 pp.

Also by Art A Hansen:

Barbed Voices--Oral History, Resistance, and the World War II Japanese American Social Disaster

Beyond the Betrayal