James C. Curtis of Lewes publishes book on Japanese internment
James C. Curtis, Emeritus Professor of History at University of Delaware, recently signed copies of his latest book at a reception held at Flowers by Mayumi in Lewes. Titled "Discriminating Views, Documentary Photography and Japanese American Internment," Curtis's book includes dozens of documentary photographs from the archives of the federal government's War Relocation Authority. The WRA, an agency of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, voiced military concerns about possible sabotage and espionage as justification for its actions. It forced an evacuation and internment of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, pertaining almost exclusively to the West Coast of the United States.
Photographers discussed by Curtis, who were employed by the government to document the relocation and internment, include Clem Albers, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Fred Clark, Francis Stewart, Tom Parker, Ansel Adams, Hikaru Iwasaki and Charles Mace. Curtis's work often draws on written observations from the photographers in his presentation of the images and their intent.
The opening line of the author's conclusion sums up the perspective taken through the book's 235 pages: "In the foregoing chapters, I have argued that WRA photographs were not objective, value-free documents. They were instruments of propaganda designed to explain and justify the evacuation, internment and resettlement of Japanese Americans. These photographs were also grounded in the belief that Japanese Americans were inferior and that, because they all looked alike, the loyal could not be distinguished from the disloyal. Photographers were instructed to disregard the fact that two-thirds of the evacuees were American citizens and to refer to their subjects solely as 'persons of Japanese ancestry.'"
At the book signing, Curtis said despite the concerns expressed by the War Relocation Authority about possible interaction between the Japanese Americans and the Japanese enemy, "there was not a single act of sabotage in the whole war."
He said the kind of indiscriminate discrimination he discusses in his self-published book is still going on today. “You can certainly hear it in the talk of banning Muslims from the country."
As stated in his preface to "Discriminating Views,” Curtis’s previous book, "Mind's Eye, Mind's Truth, FSA Photography Reconsidered,” “… challenged the prevailing belief that photographs of the Farm Secutiry Administration were inherently realistic and that the FSA collection at the Library of Congress was a repository of revealed truth about America's Great Depression."
"Discriminating Views" is available for $29.95 from Biblion Books in Lewes and Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach.
