Description
Book SynopsisThough much has been said about Japanese-American incarceration camps, little attention is paid to the community newspapers closest to the camps and how they constructed the identities and lives of the occupants inside. Dependent on government and military officials for information, these journalists rarely wrote about the violation of the evacuees' civil rights. Instead, they concentrated on the economic impact the campsand the evacuees, who would replace workers off to enlist in the military and work for defense contractorswould have on the areas they covered. Newspapers like the Cody Enterprise and Powell Tribune in Wyoming, the Lamar Daily News, and the Casa Grande Dispatch regularly published overly optimistic updates on the progress of construction, the size of the contractor payrolls, and the amount of materials used to build the camps. Ronald Bishop and his coauthors reveal how journalists positioned the incarceration camps as a potential economic boon and how evacuees were fra
Trade ReviewRon Bishop offers an in-depth, well-researched look at the way community newspapers covered the construction of incarceration camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II. Very accessible and thought-provoking, this book broadens our understanding of journalism’s role in our communities. -- Elliot King, Loyola University Maryland
A devastating portrait of community newspaper editors, and public relations practitioners during World War II. -- Dane S. Claussen, Shanghai International Studies University
Table of Contents1.Manzanar: Tension Management 2.Manzanar: Picnics and Parties 3.Tule Lake: Unscheduled Enlargements 4.Tule Lake: Normal Human Beings 5.Gila River: A Typical Cross-Section of America 6.Minidoka: Well-Timed Publicity 7.Heart Mountain: Little More Than Minutes 8.Amache: Anything But a Normal Town 9.Topaz: A Very Tragic Thing 10.Rohwer and Jerome: A World Unto Itself
