Japanese American Resettlement and Alien Belonging, 1941-1952

FAIN: FT-278757-21

Meredith Oda
University of Nevada, Reno (Reno, NV 89557-0001)

Research leading to a book on the resettlement of Japanese Americans after internment during World War II.

This book project is a case study of aliens legally and categorically excluded from citizenship, yet privy to the extensive rights and responsibilities usually associated with citizenship. From 1941 to 1952, both citizen and alien Japanese Americans were deemed “enemy aliens,” incarcerated, and resettled in U.S. communities. This project explores the latter understudied resettlement period to understand the paradox of “alien belonging”: literally excluded Japanese Americans became the beneficiary of expansive state and private largesse, largesse not without constraints but inaccessible to most citizens. This aid helped Japanese migrants and their U.S.-born children to leave incarceration camps and craft forms of belonging in adopted communities that belied their alien status. Their story demonstrates a resonant alien inclusion, as Americans today struggle to understand our obligations towards detained migrants, asylum-seekers, religious minorities, and others seen as alien and excluded.