Reviews

"When Can We Go Back to America? is a triumph. Heart Mountain and Poston descendant Susan Kamei shares this story from the perspective of those who lived it.

Personal stories, scholarship, and critical analysis coalesce into a global narrative on the intergenerational, multiethnic, and multireligious effects of wartime incarceration. It is a vital read for anyone interested in learning how the wartime incarceration relates to constitutional, political, and social issues of today."

—Ann Burroughs, President and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, CA

“Susan Kamei’s When Can We Go Back To America? is exactly the book I wish had existed when I was growing up, as an ill-informed but curious yonsei/grandchild of those who were among the Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans forcibly removed and incarcerated during WWII. This book achieves the miracle of being sweepingly panoramic while intricately detailed; through a seamless profusion of voices, it creates a profound intimacy, transforming history into a narrative being told as if in real time. Not only does it tell the story of what happened to Japanese Americans during WWII, but it teaches us how the United States works, and how it very often works against immigrant and other minoritized and marginalized communities. And that is an education that is, as it has always been, desperately needed.”

—Brandon Shimoda, author of The Grave on the Wall, Evening Oracle, and other works

“When Can We Go Back to America? provides readers with an immersive look at the experience of Japanese incarceration during World War II. Teeming with first-hand accounts of both the experience in the camps and the fight over what incarceration did and should mean to the American nation as a whole, Susan Kamei’s book is an invaluable resource for any related history course. In addition, thanks to the richness of the material captured in a single volume, the text is brimming with opportunities to teach critical thinking skills suitable for any History or English course.”

—Jason LaBau, Waterford School, Sandy, Utah

“As a US History teacher, I consider When Can We Go Back to America? to be a valuable teaching reference. Kamei’s strength as a legal scholar comes through in making the historical context and legal significance of key court cases accessible to high school students. The work motivates us to apply the lessons learned to current events and inspires us to consider ways we could act in allyship with other communities.”

—Russell Spinney, The Thacher School, Ojai, California

“The voices of the incarcerated Japanese Americans in When Can We Go Back to America? pack a gut-wrenching punch. Their raw emotions force the reader to step back and consider what it is like to be imprisoned by the US government for an indeterminate time without regard to one’s innocence. The power of their stories compel us to face up to our country’s past, a necessary step towards having a more just society today and in the future.”

– Ronald K. Ikejiri, attorney and former Washington, DC representative of the Japanese American Citizens League

“The incarceration of 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry is often characterized as a tragic “mistake” arising from wartime hysteria. Susan Kamei’s absorbing page-turner reveals that what happened was no mistake—the reasons asserted to justify forcing these Americans at gunpoint into concentration camps were entirely made up—and the government knew it at the time. She deftly synthesizes crisp historical narrative with powerful first-person accounts to illustrate the perils to democracy when “alternative facts” hold sway over the real ones. “

—Donald K. Tamaki, 2020 American Bar Association Spirit of Excellence Award winner and member of the team that overturned the wartime conviction of Fred Korematsu of the Korematsu Supreme Court case

“When Can We Go Back to America? is a remarkable blend of scholarly analysis and popular narrative. At a time when Asian Americans face new threats in their own homeland, When Can We Go Back to America? is a bracing reminder of the challenges facing minorities—and their hard-earned successes.

— Robert Asahina, author of Just Americans: How Japanese Americans Won a War at Home and Abroad

“A tour de force account of the Japanese American incarceration experience during WWII from the perspective of those who lived through forced removal, indefinite confinement, unjust deportation, and in some cases, family separation. With scholarly precision and a compelling narrative, When Can We Go Back to America? is a must read for anyone interested in America’s legacy of racial exclusion and the nation's struggle to perfect the union.”

—Duncan Ryūken Williams, author of American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War

“When Can We Go Back to America? is spell-binding tour de force that illuminates the heart-wrenching reality of lives forever changed by a national atrocity of inhumane proportions. In drawing upon first-hand accounts of those incarcerated, Kamei has created a moving record that shows the consequences of unchecked political power.”

—A. Kirsten Mullen and William A. Darity Jr., authors of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-first Century

"When Can We Go Back to America?. . . is an excellent, detailed, and comprehensive overview of the experiences of Japanese Americans before, during, and after WWII."

—Priscilla Wegars, Asian American Comparative Collection, University of Idaho