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Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II Audiobook
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A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR’S CHOICE
Bestselling author Richard Reeves provides an authoritative account of the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens during World War II
After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed an executive order that forced more than 120,000 Japanese Americans into primitive camps for the rest of war. Their only crime: looking like the enemy.
In Infamy, acclaimed historian Richard Reeves delivers a sweeping narrative of this atrocity. Men we usually consider heroes—FDR, Earl Warren, Edward R. Murrow—were in this case villains. We also learn of internees who joined the military to fight for the country that had imprisoned their families, even as others fought for their rights all the way to the Supreme Court. The heart of the book, however, tells the poignant stories of those who endured years in “war relocation camps,” many of whom suffered this injustice with remarkable grace.
Racism and war hysteria led to one of the darkest episodes in American history. But by recovering the past, Infamy has given voice to those who ultimately helped the nation better understand the true meaning of patriotism.
“Highly readable … [A] vivid and instructive reminder of what war and fear can do to civilized people.”—Evan Thomas, The New York Times Book Review
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“The US internment…is a painful and shameful chapter of our history, yet reader James Yaegashi performs this work primarily without rancor. A Japanese-American himself, Yaegashi succinctly tells the story of racial hatred, fear, and greed as American citizens were forced to leave their homes and herded into camps that ranged from primitive to putrid. There is a tinge of pride in his voice when he talks about the loyal Japanese-Americans who willingly submitted to the camps for the greater good of their adopted country. And there is perhaps a touch of anger when Yaegashi tells about the greedy people who preyed on the internees, offering to buy their homes and possessions for pennies.”
— AudioFile
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“[This] detailed account…combines Reeves’ journalist training with his historian’s eye to give us a page-turner on how hysteria at the highest levels can shatter our most fundamental rights.”
— Tom Brokaw, #1 New York Times bestselling author -
“Reeves evenhandedly examines this dangerous precedent-setting time when the Constitution was trampled by misinformation, prejudice, and fear. Today as Muslim and Hispanic immigrants are being blamed for America’s ills, Infamy is a timely and important read.”
— James Bradley, #1 New York Times bestselling author -
“Reeves’ excellent book gives us an opportunity to learn from past mistakes…Reeves is especially good at bringing to life the social experience of internment.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“Highly readable…The story of this national disgrace, long buried…still has the power to shock. [Infamy is a] vivid and instructive reminder of what war and fear can do to civilized people.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“A compulsively readable, emotionally rich, and passionately written account…Reeves’ excellent Infamy, the first popular, general history of the subject in more than twenty-five years, reminds us that not only can it happen here, it did…Every reader who has lived the post-9/11 era will immediately notice the parallels.”
— Los Angeles Times -
“Reeves, an award-winning journalist, recounts the unfolding of this outrage with a justifiable sense of moral indignation…This is a painful but necessary and timely reminder of how overblown fears about national security can have shameful consequences.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“Reeves mixes intimate narratives with historical documents to give an authoritative account of one of the darkest periods in American history.”
— Library Journal -
“An engaging and comprehensive depiction of an essential, but sometimes overlooked, era of US history.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Awards
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A New York Times Editor’s Choice
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About Richard Reeves
Richard Reeves is the bestselling author of presidential biographies, including President Nixon and President Kennedy, acclaimed as the best nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine. A syndicated columnist and winner of the American Political Science Association’s Carey McWilliams Award, he lives in New York and Los Angeles.
About James Yaegashi
James Yaegashi has appeared in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions, film, and television roles. He was also a popular radio disc jockey in Japan. He is a four-time winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award for audiobook narration, and his voice-over credits include a featured role in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.