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Japanese American Relocation in World War II: A Reconsideration by Roger W. Lotchin
Journal of Southern History Pub Date : 2019-01-01 , DOI: 10.1353/soh.2019.0119
Krystyn R. Moon

Roger W. Lotchin’s Japanese American Relocation in World War II: A Reconsideration attempts to revise decades of research on the experiences of persons of Japanese ancestry in the United States during World War II. National security, he argues, was the driving force behind mass incarceration in internment camps and motivated the actions of American officials and the general public. Conversely, Lotchin states that racism, which the overwhelming majority of scholars believes was a major ideological force behind mass incarceration, did not factor into the decision-making processes. Lotchin’s work fails to deliver the revisions of the current historical literature that he believes his work engenders. Rather, in his dismissal of the role of racism during the war, he instead adopts the fig leaf of national security that was used to justify racist and nativist actions of the United States during World War II. The book is divided into three sections with a preface, an introduction, and an appendix written by the late Zane L.Miller. In the preface, Lotchin cites John W. Dower’s War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (New York, 1976) for his “metaphorical” definition of anti-Japanese racism and argues that national security was the real reason that Japanese Americans were targeted (p. xiii). In the appendix, Miller affirms Lotchin’s assessment of his work’s significance and adds that the monocausal argument that pervades “orthodox” interpretations needs to be challenged (p. 314). Unfortunately, rather than providing an alternate view, Lotchin works hard to absolve the United States from responsibility for its treatment of persons of Japanese ancestry during the war. Lotchin’s first section addresses the prewar years and the impact of racism on the Japanese American community. In this section, Lotchin spins many racialized incidents in such a way as to ignore the nature of American race relations at the time. For example, he notes that “[nisei] were winning the residential turf war” prior to World War II, with “at least 20 percent of the [Los Angeles] area housing stock . . . open to Japanese Americans,” ignoring the 80 percent of housing that was still segregated (p. 19). The second section explores the experiences in and terminology surrounding “concentration camps,” which other scholars have debated because of the term’s use to describe Nazi death camps (p. xi). Lotchin believes that the term is a misnomer for the American camps because they were “more humane” (p. 120). He also documents many organizations and individuals who questioned the morality and legality of internment. This section would have had the most potential to add to the historical literature, if Lotchin had chosen to look at the variety of responses to internment, similar to Lon Kurashige’s Two Faces of Exclusion: The Untold History of Anti-Asian Racism in the United States (Chapel Hill, 2016). The final section addresses the departures from camps and their eventual closing. Lotchin attempts to lessen the responsibility of the United States by noting how easily people could leave camp, as long as they did not return to the West Coast and pursued certain jobs (such as military service or farm labor) or attended college. 498 THE JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN HISTORY

中文翻译:

二战中的日裔美国人搬迁:罗杰·W·洛钦的重新思考

罗杰·W·洛钦 (Roger W. Lotchin) 的《二战中的日裔美国人搬迁:重新考虑》试图修订数十年来对二战期间美国日裔人士经历的研究。他认为,国家安全是集中营大规模监禁背后的驱动力,也是美国官员和公众采取行动的动力。相反,洛钦指出,绝大多数学者认为种族主义是大规模监禁背后的主要意识形态力量,但并未将其纳入决策过程。Lotchin 的工作未能提供他认为他的工作产生的当前历史文献的修订。相反,在他对种族主义在战争期间的作用不屑一顾时,相反,他采用了国家安全的遮羞布,这被用来为美国在二战期间的种族主义和本土主义行为辩护。本书分为三个部分,由已故的赞恩·米勒 (Zane L.Miller) 撰写的序言、导言和附录。在序言中,洛钦引用了约翰·W·道尔的《无怜悯之战:太平洋战争中的种族与权力》(纽约,1976 年)对反日种族主义的“隐喻”定义,并认为国家安全是日裔美国人的真正原因成为目标(第十三页)。在附录中,米勒肯定了洛钦对其工作重要性的评估,并补充说,需要对普遍存在于“正统”解释中的单一因果论点提出质疑(第 314 页)。不幸的是,与其提供另一种观点,洛钦努力免除美国在战争期间对待日本血统人士的责任。洛钦的第一部分论述了战前年代和种族主义对日裔美国人社区的影响。在这一部分,洛钦以一种无视当时美国种族关系本质的方式,编造了许多种族化事件。例如,他指出,“[nisei] 在第二次世界大战之前赢得了住宅地盘战争”,“至少有 20% 的 [洛杉矶] 地区住房存量。. . 向日裔美国人开放,”忽略了仍然隔离的 80% 的住房(第 19 页)。第二部分探讨了围绕“集中营”的经验和术语,其他学者因该术语用于描述纳粹死亡集中营而争论不休(第 11 页)。Lotchin 认为这个词对美国营地来说是用词不当,因为它们“更人道”(第 120 页)。他还记录了许多质疑拘留道德和合法性的组织和个人。如果 Lotchin 选择查看对拘留的各种反应,这部分将最有可能添加到历史文献中,类似于 Lon Kurashige 的排斥的两张面孔:美国反亚洲种族主义的不为人知的历史(教堂山,2016 年)。最后一部分讨论了营地的离开和最终的关闭。Lotchin 试图通过指出人们可以多么容易地离开营地来减轻美国的责任,只要他们不返回西海岸并从事某些工作(例如服兵役或农场劳动)或上大学。
更新日期:2019-01-01
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