Japanese Americans

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The Book Weighs 25 Pounds. Inside: 125K Names

First comprehensive list of Japanese internment camp victims moves museum visitors

(Newser) - It's a book so large it weighs 25 pounds. But it has to be big: it holds 125,284 names. For the first time, the names of every person of Japanese descent incarcerated in US internment camps during World War II, the majority of whom were American citizens, can...

A Notable Police Chief in City Where 18K Were Detained

Roy Nakamura is California city's first Asian American police chief

(Newser) - Seventy-eight years ago, the job of the police chief in Arcadia, Calif., would have included making sure no Japanese Americans had escaped from the converted racetrack where they were being held in converted horse stalls. Now, the city in Los Angeles County is about to get its first chief of...

Uproar in South Korea Over US Envoy's Mustache

Some say it's a symbol of colonial rule; Harry Harris says no

(Newser) - Harry Harris has some hair on his upper lip, a fact now at the center of what "might just be the most bizarre criticism of a US ambassador in recent memory," per CNN . The US envoy to South Korea, who grew a mustache as he transitioned from naval...

Japanese Americans: King's Muslim Hearings 'Sinister'

(Newser) - Congressman Peter King begins his controversial hearings Thursday into radical Islam, and one group in particular is taking exception, reports the Washington Post : Japanese Americans. They see a parallel between the way they were demonized during World War II and how American Muslims are being treated today. "I'll be...

WWII Internees Finally Get Degrees

Ceremony honors Japanese-American students forced into camps

(Newser) - UC Berkeley righted a wrong yesterday, issuing honorary degrees to Japanese-American students whose studies were cut short by confinement in World War II internment camps. Surviving students, now in their 80s or older, opted for celebration over recrimination. “There is a Japanese saying, 'shikata ga nai,' which means,...

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