Eric L. Muller

Lawyer, Jailer, Ally, Foe by Eric L Muller is a deeply researched and narratively presented glimpse at life at the concentration camps the US government created for Japanese-Americans during World War II.

I say life 'at' rather than life 'in' because the perspective is that of lawyers stationed there to serve both the US administrators as well as those imprisoned there. So while we see some of what life in the camps were like, that wasn't exactly the experience of these lawyers.

A lot of the issues presented in the running of these camps will be familiar to those who have studied them. What will be of interest is the new perspective, that of the people walking that tightrope that is reflected in the title of the book. Changing hats is a difficult thing to do in the best of situations, from my own experience I once held a position where I had to sometimes advocate for one group to another group, then on a different topic advocate the other way around. But that rarely presented situations where I was stuck with a conflict, I was wearing one hat or the other. These lawyers were forced, more often than not, to wear multiple hats at the same time. Coupled with the fact they generally didn't support a lot of what they were representing, they experienced burnout and serious mental and emotional fatigue.

While they didn't create or draft the policies they held positions that required them to do things they felt were unethical and just plain wrong. Carrying this idea to our current world, it is like someone who, because of holding a position in a bureaucracy that is oppressive, even if they don't intellectually support that oppression, are in fact perpetrating it by their participation in it. In fact, just being part of a society where one has unwarranted privilege makes one part of the system, even while one fights against it.

My interest in these camps began when I was young and parents of some of my friends had been in these camps. Though they rarely spoke of it, my friends would tell me what they knew and show me photographs. This book helps to create a more rounded picture. It is easy to paint those who created the program, from FDR on down, as having acted as evil agents, since little to no actual evidence supported this extreme measure. But just like living in the current white supremacist society, people who oppose it can still become agents in it through simply doing a job. It may not exonerate these men, but it does show that they did not act with malice or take great joy in what was happening. They did, however, seem oblivious at times to what those in the camps really felt.

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in history, particularly this ugly chapter in US history.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (más)

A boy scout with a flag at the head of a parade is a pretty stock image of the good ol' U.S.A. But it becomes troubling when that scout has been forced from his home on the west coast, shipped to a remote and barren section of mountains in northern Wyoming, and kept under guard behind barbed wire along with his family and neighbors and other Japanese Americans out of a paranoid fear that he is an agent of espionage hiding behind badges, patches, and a blue kerchief.

This book presents a treasure trove of color photographs you could find in any family photograph: landscapes, posed family shots, and candid moments from daily life and special events and celebrations. But in the background of many are the guard towers, fences, and tarpaper barracks of the Heart Mountain World War II internment camp -- a looming presence that belies the smiles and frolics.

These photos are set toward the end of the interment because cameras were considered contraband for the prisoners at the start. A special decree had to be made to allow families to capture basic memories we all take for granted today.

The photographer has passed away, so the book is filled out with dry academic essays by various scholars and a short memoir by a man who stayed at the same camp as a child at the same time. One essay is an unpersuasive attempt to say that the interment wasn't so bad especially compared to what happened in other countries and that it was run by administrators whose racism was a bit offset because they generally had a progressive agenda in other areas. This comes after commentary about the civil disobedience stances taken by many of the internees and their subsequent punishment. Sorry, but I see people making the best of a bad situation, not thriving as they were before being torn from their homes, possessions, and careers.

Definitely still worth looking through the photos though.… (más)

This is a really wonderful book. It contains a number of wonderful color photos taken by Bill Manbo, an internee at the Heart Mountain, WY "relocation center." In addition to these photos are several longform essays, three by noted historians and professors, and one by another former internee at Heart Mountain.

This is a great book to pick up for people who are unfamiliar with the Japanese internment camps set up during WWII. I thought that the histories were fair and balanced, and did a good job of describing the actual life in the camps. And of course the color photographs set this book apart from other histories of the camps.

Highly recommended.… (más)