Days of Infamy: How a Century of Bigotry Led to Japanese American Internment
by Lawrence Goldstone
Middle School, High School    Focus/Scholastic    288 pp.   g
6/22    978-1-338-72246-8    $19.99

Goldstone’s (Separate No More, rev. 3/21) Constitutional history of Asian i­mmigration to the U.S. provides extensive context for the shameful Japanese American incarceration during WWII. Beginning with the founding of the United States, Goldstone traces the complex relationship between the nascent nation and the laborers it both exploits and rejects, from the first ­Chinese immigrants during the Gold Rush to the Japanese immigrants who joined the American workforce as sugarcane harvesters in Hawai’i, beginning in 1868. However, while they are the focus of the book, Japanese Americans are very rarely quoted, as much attention is given to the mostly white lawmakers who drew and redrew the lines between who could be American and who could not. Still, this is a well-researched and timely account that will engage young historians if presented in tandem with accounts of WWII incarceration that center Asian American voices and perspectives, such as Takei’s They Called Us Enemy (rev. 9/19). ­Black-and-white photos appear throughout; back matter includes a bibliography and detailed source notes.

From the July/August 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.