Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience - Paperback

by Lawson Fusao Inada (Editor), Patricia Wakida (Preface by), William Hohri (Afterword by)

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.

Author Biography

Lawson Fusao Inada is regarded by many as the poet laureate of Japanese America.He is co-editor of Aiiieeeee!(1983) and The Big Aiiieeeee! (1991) and author of Legends from Camp (1992) and Drawing the Line (1997). Inada is a multiple recipient of NEA Poetry Fellowships and has read his works at the White House. He has been Professor of English at Southern Oregon State College since 1966.

Patricia Wakida's published books, essays, stories, and poetry include: Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience, Generations Experience; A Japanese American Community Portrait, Letters of Intent, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Nikkei Heritage, Kyoto Journal, Santa Barbara Review, and the International Quarterly.

William Hohri is a Nisei born in San Francisco in 1927. He was interned at the Manzanar camp during his high school years and graduated from the University of Chicago after the war. He is the author of Repairing America: An Account of the Movement for Japanese-American Redress (1988) and was a columnist for the Rafu Shimpo newspaper.