"Without trial and without due process, the United States government locked up nearly all of those citizens and long-time residents who were of Japanese descent during World War II. Ten concentration camps were set up across the country to confine over 120,000 inmates. Almost 20,000 of them were shipped to the only two camps in the segregated South - Jerome and Rohwer in Arkansas - locations that put them right in the heart of a much older, long-festering system of racist oppression. The first history of these Arkansas camps, Concentration Camps on the Home Front is an eye-opening account of the inmates' experiences and a searing examination of American imperialism and racist hysteria." "While the basic facts of Japanese American incarceration are well known, John Howard's extensive research gives voice to those whose stories have been forgotten or ignored. He highlights the roles of women, first-generation immigrants, and those who forcefully resisted their incarceration by speaking out against dangerous working conditions and white racism."--Jacket.

Introduction: Unnatural but not Un-American ; Not American, not again ; Human differences, human rights -- 1. Expansion and restriction: Christian Empire ; Self-sufficiency, Sandalwood, and sugar ; White citizenship, racial hierarchy -- 2. Subversion: Perverse sexuality ; House Un-American Activities ; Segregation versus extermination -- 3. Concentration and cooperation: Collective living ; Cooperative enterprises ; Competitive sports ; Participatory democracy -- 4. Camp life: Gendered spaces ; Caucasian environments ; Unusual places -- 5. Race, war, dances: Complicating the color line ; Courting within the color lines ; Authorizing gender roles -- 6. Americanization and Christianization: Schooling in the nation ; Drawing out the nation ; Safeguarding Buddhism ; Worshipping of the nation -- 7. Strikes and resistance ; Disputes over pay and conditions ; The woodcutters strike and the death of Seizo Imada ; The motor repair strike ; The general strike and the death of Haruji Ego -- 8. Segregation, expatriation, annihilation ; Neither a trial nor inquisition ; Tule Lake ; Hiroshima -- 9. Resettlement and dispersal ; Normal American communities ; The suicide of Julia Dakuzaku ; Plantation versus cooperative colony -- 10. Occupation and statehood: Adopting the American way ; Queering the Empire ; Rock 'n' roll and redemption -- Epilogue: Democracy is for the unafraid ; Cliches of American happiness.