Nagata, Samuel

The Japanese Evacuation and Minority Problem [cover title]

Billings, Mt. Billings Gazette, [ca. 1944]. 7pp. Original illustrated wrappers, stapled. Vertical crease from previous fold. Minor soiling and rubbing. Very good. Item #6295

A rare pamphlet that criticizes Japanese internment during World War II, authored by one of its prisoners and signed in type on the final page of text, "Samual Nagata, Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Heat Mountain Wyoming." Nagata was at Heart Mountain from 1942 to 1945, and textual clues point to this work being published in the later years of his incarceration. Throughout his essay, Nagata praises the spirit and principles of the United States, while outlining the experience, skills, and loyalty of the detainees and the shared values that should unite them. Nagata offers many critiques of the camp and often returns to what he call the "minority problem" of immigrant population across the world seeking "deliverance, security, and peace." A striking example of internment protest literature, notable for being written by a contemporaneous prisoner of Heart Mountain and published by a newspaper outside of the camp, in Billings, Montana. OCLC shows three copies, at Princeton, Yale, and Wyoming.

Price: $2,750.00