An Absent Presence: Japanese Americans in Postwar American Culture, 1945–1960

Product Description There have been many studies on the forced relocation and internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. But An Absent Presence is the first to focus on how popular representations of this unparalleled episode in U.S. history affected the formation of Cold War culture. Caroline Chung Simpson shows how the portrayal of this economic and social disenfranchisement haunted—and even shaped—the expression of American race relations and national identity throughout the middle of the twentieth century. Simpson argues that when popular journals or social theorists engaged the topic of Japanese American history or identity in the Cold War era they did so in a manner that tended to efface or diminish the complexity of their political and historical experience. As a result, the shadowy figuration of Japanese American identity often took on the semblance of an “absent presence.” Individual chapters feature such topics as the case of the alleged Tokyo Rose, the Hiroshima Maidens Project, and Japanese war brides. Drawing on issues of race, gender, and nation, Simpson connects the internment episode to broader themes of postwar American culture, including the atomic bomb, McCarthyism, the crises of racial integration, and the anxiety over middle-class gender roles. By recapturing and reexamining these vital flashpoints in the projection of Japanese American identity, Simpson fills a critical and historical void in a number of fields including Asian American studies, American studies, and Cold War history. From Library Journal While Harth's discussion of the postwar years deals mostly with the silence of those incarcerated, Simpson takes a somewhat different tack, arguing that the mass media's presentation of the internment, as published during the immediate postwar years, effaced the racial discrimination and displacement suffered by Japanese Americans. It also set the stage for the Cold War excesses of McCarthyism and for attempts, in the 1950s, to reinforce traditional middle-class gender roles and ameliorate other racial tensions. In five essays, Simpson backs up her arguments by examining specific situations, such as the Tokyo Rose treason case. In all cases, she shows how the internment experience is either ignored or given a positive spin by Caucasian writers, creating the "absent presence" of the internment. Simpson's thesis is unique, and she considers a time period that has not been widely discussed in books about the Japanese American experience. Unfortunately, the dry, academic writing won't appeal to most general readers. Also, because the book is based only on published accounts, it does not take into consideration the vast variety of experience among Japanese Americans. For larger academic and public libraries. Katharine L. Kan, Allen Cty. P.L., Fort Wayne, IN Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review “An Absent Presence is an ambitious, nuanced, and far-reaching analysis of a critical topic that adds much to our understanding of American history and in particular the central role Asian Americans have played in it.”—David Palumbo-Liu, author of Asian/American: Historical Crossings of a Racial Frontier“This impressive and well-written book presents important new historical and cultural material in an understudied period within Asian American studies.”—David Eng, author of Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America From the Publisher “This impressive and well-written book presents important new historical and cultural material in an understudied period within Asian American studies.”—David Eng, author of Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America “An Absent Presence is an ambitious, nuanced, and far-reaching analysis of a critical topic that adds much to our understanding of American history and in particular the central role Asian Americans have played in it.”—David Palumbo-Liu, author of Asian/American: Histori