The battle for Los Angeles : racial ideology and World War II / Kevin Allen Leonard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leonard, Kevin Allen, 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans.

Social conditions.

Mexican Americans.

Japanese Americans.

Racism.

History.

Los Angeles (Calif.)--Race relations--History--20th century.

Los Angeles (Calif.).

Racism--California--Los Angeles--History--20th century.

World War, 1939-1945--California--Los Angeles.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Social aspects.

Social aspects.

Japanese Americans--California--Los Angeles--Social conditions--20th century.

Mexican Americans--California--Los Angeles--Social conditions--20th century.

African Americans--California--Los Angeles--Social conditions--20th century.

California--Los Angeles.

Physical Description:

xii, 360 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2006.

Summary:

World War II prompted many Americans to join an ongoing debate about the meaning of "race." Some argued that the United States was fighting against Hitler's racial ideology. Others insisted that a "white" America was fighting a "grasping, cruel and insanely ambitious race," as the Los Angeles Examiner referred to the Japanese. This debate was especially notable in Los Angeles, home to the nation's largest Japanese American and Mexican American communities and to a large and growing African American population.

Kevin Leonard follows this verbal "battle for Los Angeles" immediately before, during, and after the war. Until late 1942 few people challenged the idea that "race" determined how a person thought and behaved. After Pearl Harbor many of the city's leaders argued that all people of Japanese ancestry were racially Japanese and therefore loyal to Japan. This traditional racial ideology influenced the incarceration and removal of Japanese Americans from coastal areas.

The Zoot-Suit Riots of June 1943 forced many Los Angeles residents to question their beliefs about "race." Some community leaders argued that the belief that "race" made some people prone to criminal behavior had led to the rioting, in which "white" sailors, soldiers, and civilians attacked young Mexican American and African American men. Elected officials agreed that traditional racial ideology had hindered the U.S. war effort, and explicit statements of these beliefs about "race" virtually disappeared from Los Angeles newspapers. The disappearance of such statements, however, did not lead to the end of racial discrimination. As the war ended defenders of discrimination frequently claimed that their opponents were Communists.

Contents:

"This fair land where the East meets the West" : "race" in Los Angeles before Pearl Harbor

"While we are at war with their race" : Pearl Harbor, "race," and Japanese Americans

"Due to social factors rather than to biologically inherited traits" : "race," Mexican Americans, and juvenile delinquency

"Every person with Jap blood in his veins" : "race" and Japanese Americans from sleepy lagoon to the zoot-suit riots

"A criminal is not a criminal because of race" : "race" and the zoot-suit riots

"The long day of the Jap-baiter in California politics appears to have ended" : Japanese Americans and "race" in Los Angeles, 1943-1945

"A group of termites indoctrinated with an atheistic, totalitarian foreign ideology" : the Cold War and the transformation of the "battle for Los Angeles".

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-349) and index.

ISBN:

0826340474

OCLC:

65207027

Publisher Number:

9780826340474