American Inquisition - (H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman) by Eric L Muller (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

When the U.S. government forced 70,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry into internment camps in 1942, it created administrative tribunals to pass judgment on who was loyal and who was disloyal. In American Inquisition, Eric Muller relates the untold story of exactly how military and civilian bureaucrats judged these tens of thousands of American citizens during wartime.

Some citizens were deemed loyal and were freed, but one in four was declared disloyal to America and condemned to repressive segregation in the camps or barred from war-related jobs. Using cultural and religious affiliations as indicators of Americans' loyalties, the far-reaching bureaucratic decisions often reflected the agendas of the agencies that performed them rather than the actual allegiances or threats posed by the citizens being judged, Muller explains.

American Inquisition is the only study of the Japanese American internment to examine the complex inner workings of the most draconian system of loyalty screening that the American government has ever deployed against its own citizens. At a time when our nation again finds itself beset by worries about an "enemy within" considered identifiable by race or religion, this volume offers crucial lessons from a recent and disastrous history.

Review Quotes

"[A] clearly written history. . . . A close and nuanced reading of the hunt for Japanese American disloyalty during World War II. . . . Points to new areas of profitable research for historians of Japanese America." -- Journal of American Ethnic History

"[A] good book on an unexplored dimension of a sorry chapter in American history." -- ##Journal of American History#

"An excellent study of the mid-level agencies' messy job at evaluating the loyalty of Japanese Americans, and concludes by contextualizing this case within past and present governmental evaluations of loyalty." -- Western Historical Quarterly

"Eric L. Muller's excellent new book, The American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese Disloyalty in World War II sheds new insights into another dark moment in American history. . . . Muller has written a valuable study with important contemporary ramifications." -- History News Network

"Excellent evidence-driven research. . . . [A] valuable contribution." -- American Studies

"Insightful." -- Arkansas Historical Quarterly

"Muller is one of the few scholars who has continued to dig in the archives and papers to find valuable information -- stuff that has relevance for the Japanese American community and for American life today. . . . All this is laid out in fascinating detail and makes for absorbing reading." -- Nichi Bei Times

"Muller once again does an exemplary job of unearthing new archival materials and shedding a substantial amount of light on a well-studied topic. . . . Fascinating." -- American Historical Review

"The author places this work within the broader context of history and ties into the development of subsequent loyalty programs to ferret out communists during the Cold War. . . . Recommended." -- CHOICE

"The scholar, history buff or anyone with a thirst for thoughtful and well articulated information and analysis will find value in Muller's examination of this lesser known and less patriotism-inspiring aspect of World War II. [American Inquisition] joins a conversation that has been going on for years and supplements that discussion with new information and unique perspectives." -- Asian American Press

About the Author

Eric L. Muller is Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor in Jurisprudence and Ethics at the University of North Carolina School of Law and director of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for Faculty Excellence. He is editor of Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II and author of Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II.