Inclusion

Product Description
Following December 7, 1941, the United States government interned 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry evicted from scattered settlements throughout the West Coast states, yet why was a much larger number concentrated in the Hawaiian Islands war zone not similarly incarcerated? At the root of the story is an inclusive community that worked from the ground up to protect an embattled segment of its population. While the onset of World War II surprised the American public, war with Japan arrived in Hawai‘i in slow motion. Responding to numerous signs of impending conflict, the Council for Interracial Unity mapped two goals: minimize internment and maximize inclusion in the war effort. The council’s aspirational work was expressed in a widely repeated saying: “How we get along during the war will determine how we get along when the war is over.” The Army Command of Hawai‘i, reassured by firsthand acquaintances, came to believe that “trust breeds trust.” Where most histories have shielded President Franklin D. Roosevelt from direct responsibility for the U.S. mainland internment, his relentless demands for a mass removal from Hawai‘i―ultimately thwarted―reveal him as author and actor. In making sense of the disparity between Island and mainland, Inclusion unravels the deep history of the U.S. “sabotage psychosis,” dissecting why many continental Americans still believe Japan succeeded at Pearl Harbor because of the unseen hand of Japanese saboteurs. Contrary to the explanation of hysteria as the cause of the internment, Inclusion documents how a high-level plan of mass removal actually was pitched to Hawai‘i prior to December 7, only to be rejected.
Review
Inclusion is of singular worldwide public and academic importance. It lifts up Hawai‘i’s interethnic history to show how small groups with a common goal and working cooperatively can result in wondrous social change. -- Tetsuden Kashima, author of
Judgment without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment during World War II and
Buddhism in America: The Social Organization of an Ethnic Religious Institution\nTom Coffman has broken new ground on the tragic history of Japanese American internment. Now we know the Hawai‘i chapter is a crucial part of the story―and Coffman tells it with authority and verve. -- Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography, CUNY Graduate Center\nTom Coffman has produced a definitive account of Americans of Japanese ancestry in Hawai‘i during World War II. His book shows how local Japanese figures such as Shigeo Yoshida joined forces with a diverse group of allies, both inside and outside official circles, to mobilize Japanese communities in support of the war and the public in support of Japanese communities. They averted the tragedy of mass confinement, such as that on the US mainland, and their success made Hawai‘i a model for inclusion of ethnic Japanese in mainstream society. Packed with fascinating details, Tom Coffman’s work enlarges our understanding of this key era in American history. -- Greg Robinson, Université du Québec à Montréal\nBrilliant and meticulous, Tom Coffman reveals the people and forces that spared territorial Hawai‘i’s Japanese populace from mass removal after Pearl Harbor and enabled its sons to serve America gallantly in World War II. The heroes of this true story―Ching, Yoshida, Burns, Shivers, and many more―were inspired by an idealism and aloha that the world can learn from today. Based on groundbreaking research, Coffman’s compelling account gives them recognition that they richly deserve. -- Mark Matsunaga, Hawai‘i journalist and World War II historian\nInclusion will reframe our understanding of World War II in significant ways. It is unlikely that a work of this breadth and magnitude will come around again anytime soon, especially as many of the historical actors interviewed by the author have already passed away. I know of no other that