グレッグ・ロビンソン

ロサンゼルス出身の黒人弁護士であるヒュー・マクベス・シニア氏は、今日ではその存在はほとんど忘れられていますが、第二次世界大戦中の日系アメリカ人を擁護するという称賛されるべき功績を残しています。1884年サウスカロライナ州チャールストンに生まれたヒュー・エルウッド・マクベスは、フィスク大学を卒業後、ハーバード法科大学院に進学し、1908年に卒業しました。『ボルチモアタイムス』新聞の編集者としてボルチモアで数年を過ごし、1913年カリフォルニアへ移住しました。

数十年後、マクベス弁護士は、ロサンゼルスの法曹界や政界で重要な役割を担うようになります。アフリカ系アメリカ人の原告や刑事被告人の支援に力を注ぎ、ジャズ界の偉人、ジェリー・ロール・モートンなど、著名人の弁護にもあたりました。また、人種分離法や住居供給上の人種差別に挑むため ...

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 particular, there are numerous examples of African American writers and journalists who spoke out in support of the rights of Japanese Americans in the wake of Executive Order 9066. The celebrated poet Langston Hughes devoted several of his columns in the Chicago Defender to opposing the government’s policy as ...

The passing of Hugh Macbeth, Jr., who died in September 2019 at the age of 100, offers us an opportunity to reflect once more on the story of the remarkable Macbeth family and especially Hugh Macbeth, Sr and Jr, the father-son team of African American lawyers who provided outstanding support to Japanese Americans in the World War II era. One of the most gratifying and inspiring experiences of my life was uncovering their story and bringing it to public attention. In the process, I was privileged to get to know Hugh Macbeth Jr. and learn about his life.

I first ...

My recent article on the French-born mixed-race Japanese writer Kikou Yamata, whose works were published in translation in the United States and discussed in Nisei literary reviews, has inspired me to delve more into the fascinating and varied history of the connections that Japanese Americans forged with France during the period before and after World War II, and the nature of their cultural exchange.

This is an enormous subject, which encompasses such diverse elements as the experience of the Nisei visitors, students and creative artists who went to Paris and outside, including their interactions with Nikkei from around the world ...

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 collaborator on the new anthology John Okada, claims the prize for Okada’s novel, No-No Boy (1957). I have several favorite candidates, including Gene Oishi’s remarkable work, Fox Drum Bebop (2014). Others have lauded Japanese Canadian author Joy Kogawa’s haunting novel, Obasan (1976).

These debates tend to ...