A must read, especially in these times when people are talking about maybe putting Muslims in internment camps. God forbid we ever attempt something like that again! ( )

A powerful read! ( )

I requested this book through Early Reviewers, then misplaced it, now found it again. I am descended from Scottish and Norwegian families who immigrated to the US in the 18th and 19th centuries, and I heard lots of family stories about those forebears without any sense that I was anything but American. When WWII broke out, my father tried to enlist but was rejected for medical reasons, so he spent the war years working in the Kaiser Shipyards in Portland, Oregon. When I entered first grade after the war, one of my classmates was Japanese-American boy who had spent the war, with his parents, in an internment camp, and many of our classmates abused him as if he were the enemy. Fortunately for me, my parents rejected those assaults, made friends with his parents, and always welcomed him at our house. So I grew up knowing the basic story of the internments, including its injustice. I was glad to receive this book and read it, for it gives the larger picture, gives it accurately, and explores its origins in basic human insecurities and flaws. I think, in these Trumpish days, everyone should be aware of how easily such events could recur. Read it. ( )

This book was sent to me by LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for an honest review

...Infamy is written in a matter of fact style, purely written, I believe, as a reminder to us all of what we are capable of when we feel threatened. Those who are interested in History, as well as History experts will find this book fascinating; by connecting the victims with their names, professions, backgrounds and most of all, their rights as American citizens, I believe that Mr. Reeves has added a level of humanity that enables us all to put ourselves in the place of the victims. That said, there is no guarantee that this couldn’t happen again in our lifetime. Highly recommended

Read entire review on The Thugbrarian Review @ http://wp.me/p4pAFB-u9 ( )

Richard Reeve’s Infamy is a useful contribution to the study of one of the darkest periods for civil liberties in US history, namely the treatment of West Coast Japanese and Japanese Americans during the Second World War. The myriad stories of families ripped apart, dreams destroyed, confidence dashed and even lives lost makes for difficult reading at times. Over and over again each individual anecdote causes one to pause, shakes one’s head and continue reading in a desire to become a witness to this hitherto hidden and painful history.

While Jan Jarboe Russell’s recent book focuses specifically on the Crystal City, Texas federal detention center in her excellent book, The Train to Crystal City, Reeves’s book covers not only the detention centers but also the assembly centers in various states across the Western US. These were places where internees were originally sent before more ‘permanent’ accommodation could be made available. It is astonishing to realize just how many centers there were and how little of their history is yet to be fully explored. Yet what little Reeves has uncovered is enough to get a glimpse of the deprivation; places full of dust, dried animal excrement and despair greeted those rounded up with no charge. The conditions within, Reeves notes, were well below the acceptable standard for even the most violent of criminals housed in federal penitentiaries of the time.

Whereas Crystal City is more measured in its look at the actions of members of the administration, Infamy does not hold back, printing damning racist quotes from President FDR and similar statements from various people in charge like the infamous General “A Jap is a Jap” DeWitt. Reeves even goes so far as to imply that civil libertarian Roger Baldwin, President of the ACLU at the time, was too busy pandering to FDR to take up Japanese internment cases, which is based more on opinion than fact. Undoubtedly his sources for a specific quote here and there are impeccable, but Reeves misses an opportunity to give these characters the depth they deserve and delve deeper into the very real fear that was felt by the vast majority of Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor to discover motives which extended well beyond simple racism.

Having said that, one character of the book who does come out very well is attorney Wayne Collins who represented the nearly 2,000 US citizens, many children, who were deported to Japan in the aftermath of internment in a gross violation of their constitutional rights. The determination of Collins to see justice done is incredibly moving. He seems to have had no other motive than seeing that the rights of these citizens were adhered to and he wins citizenship back for many.

Finally, Reeves enlightens readers about the sacrifices made by the young men who volunteered straight out of the camps, while in many cases their families remained interned, to fight in the famed all Japanese American 442nd in Europe, the most decorated regiment per capita of any in the history of US warfare. Those who survived went on to be US representatives, actors and artists. Those that didn’t clearly changed the tide of US opinion of Japanese Americans through their ultimate sacrifice, becoming posthumous heroes in cities and small towns across a forever changed United States. ( )