Stuff contributed by Greg
Seeking Will Thomas: An African American friend to the Nisei
Greg Robinson
Beginning in the last decades of the 20th century, the Asian American experience became a topic of interest in mainstream American society, and in the process was enshrined in the nation’s literary production. Books by authors of all backgrounds were published and authors such as Amy Tan, Jhumpa Lahiri, and …
Way Down in Egypt Land: Tamio Wakayama, Civil Rights Photographer - Part 2
Greg Robinson
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Way Down in Egypt Land: Tamio Wakayama, Civil Rights Photographer - Part 1
Greg Robinson
In the column I wrote some time ago on the Nisei photographer Yoichi Okamoto, who served as official photographer in the White House during the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, I spoke about how his photographs go beyond political propaganda and shine as both art and history. This is, if …
The Canadian Japanese Mennonite Scholarship: In support of Reconciliation
Greg Robinson, Zacharie Leclair
The wartime confinement of Japanese Canadians is a landmark in the history of civil rights and race relations nationwide. Like their counterparts south of the border, 22,000 Canadian residents of Japanese ancestry suffered official wartime removal and mass confinement. In addition, their land and personal property were confiscated by Canada’s …
Eugene Rostow’s Japanese American articles: A Reconsideration - Part 2
Greg Robinson, Jonathan van Harmelen
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Eugene Rostow’s Japanese American articles: A Reconsideration - Part 1
Greg Robinson, Jonathan van Harmelen
In the annals of civil rights, a special place should be reserved for Eugene Rostow. In 1945, even as Japanese Americans remained confined in camps by official order, Rostow, then a young law professor at Yale University, published a pair of articles that criticized their wartime treatment. In his first …
Kikou Yamata: Rediscovering the First Nisei Writer
Greg Robinson
Throughout the 20th century, Nikkei writers have dreamed of writing “the Great Nisei novel,” a work of literature that would express the Japanese/American experience and show off the writing talents of the second generation. Critics have meanwhile drawn attention to existing works as the “greatest”. Frank Abe, my friend and …
Erna P. Harris: An African-American Champion of Equality
Greg Robinson
One part of the history of Japanese Americans that has been curiously neglected is the disproportionate support offered them by Black Americans at the time of their mass wartime confinement. Victims of racial injustice themselves, African Americans demonstrated different forms of solidarity to their Nikkei counterparts during those years. In …