Only what We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience

Lawson Fusao Inada

Heyday Books, Jan 1, 2000 - History - 439 pages

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.

What people are saying

User Review -

I used this book as a HUGE source when writing a few papers about the Japanese Internment. It's really good for sources. If you're just looking for an interesting read, this is really interesting but you have to patient. It's great for information and reliable sources. I also feel really passionate about this book because it's very relevant for learning about the internment because it's a huge topic. I love this book and it's author 

About the author

Inada is regarded by many as the poet laureate of Japanese America. He is a multiple recipient of NEA Poetry Fellowships and been Professor of English at Southern Oregon State College since 1966.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Only what We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience
• Editor: Lawson Fusao Inada
• Contributor: California Historical Society
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Heyday Books, 2000
• ISBN: 1890771309, 9781890771300
• Length: 439 pages
• Subjects: History / Military / World War II; History / United States / 20th Century; Literary Criticism / American / Asian American; Social Science / Minority Studies