Susan H. Kamei
The granddaughter and daughter of incarcerees, Susan H. Kamei volunteered in the redress campaign that resulted in the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. She teaches a course at the University of Southern California on the legal ramifications of the Japanese American wartime incarceration and the relevance of those constitutional issues today. Her book When Can We Go Back to America: Voices of Japanese American Incarceration during World War II published by Simon & Schuster weaves together incarcerees’ personal stories with the historical narrative of the causes, the experience, and the aftermath of the incarceration.
Updated June 2021
Stories from This Author
Japanese American Soldiers in World War II Fought the Axis Abroad and Racial Prejudice at Home
June 18, 2021 • Susan H. Kamei
Imagine being forced from your home by the government, being imprisoned in a detention camp under armed guards and behind barbed wire – and then being required to join the military to fight for the nation that had locked up you and your family. That’s what happened in a little-known chapter of U.S. history, in which many of those men went on to become American military heroes, some making the ultimate sacrifice. These soldiers, along with all other Japanese Americans …
