The definitive anthology of Japanese American internment.

"In these stories are lifted up our humanity, our indomitable spirit and dignity, an implacable quest for justice"—Janice Mirikitani

Shortly after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States government uprooted 120,000 people of Japanese descent from their homes and banished them to remote internment camps. This collection of reminiscences, stories, poems, photographs, and graphic art expresses the range of powerful and sometimes conflicting emotions that arose from the internment experience. Also included are propaganda, government documents, and stories of those outside the camps whose lives were interwoven with those of the internees.

Cultural Writing. Asian-American Studies. Shortly after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were uprooted from their homes and communitites and banished to remote internment camps. This collection of haunting reminiscences, letters, stories, poems, and graphic art gives voice to the range of powerful emotions with which these victims of wartime hysteria struggled. ONLY WHAT WE COULD CARRY gathers together the voices of internement -- private, personal stories that could have been lost, but will now be heard and felt. It's a if we have a seat at a family dinner, listening to stories passed down from one generation to another, feeling the pian and the spirit of hope -- David Mas Masumoto. Edited by Lawson Fusao Inada, with a preface by Patricia Wakida and an afterword by William Hohri.