Facilitating injustice : the complicity of social workers in the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans, 1941-1946 / Yoosun Park.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Park, Yoosun, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Japanese Americans--Forced removal and internment, 1942-1945.

Japanese Americans.

Social service--Moral and ethical aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Social service.

Social work administration--Moral and ethical aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Social work administration.

Social work administration--Moral and ethical aspects.

History.

Social service--Moral and ethical aspects.

United States--Race relations--History--20th century.

United States.

Race relations.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxxi, 440 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]

Summary:

"Social work equivocated. While it did not fully endorse mass removal and incarceration, neither did it protest, oppose, or explicitly critique government actions. The past should not be judged by today's standards; the actions and motivations described here occurred in a period rife with fear and propaganda. Undergoing a major shift from its private charity roots into its public sector future, social work bounded with the rest of society into "a patriotic fervor" (Specht & Courtney, 1994, p.ix). The history presented here is all the more disturbing, however, because it is that of social workers doing what seemed to them to be more or less right and good. While policies of a government at war, intractable bureaucratic structures, tangled political alliances, and complex professional obligations, all may have mandated compliance, it is, nevertheless, difficult to deny that social work and social workers were also willing participants in the events, informed about and aware of the implications of that compliance. In social work's unwillingness to take a resolute stand against the removal and incarceration, the well-intentioned profession, doing its conscious best to do good, enforced the existing social order and did its level best to keep the Nikkei from disrupting it. What might social work in the camps have looked like, had it, instead of urging caution to deflect attention to its work, instead of denying that its work was coddling the Nikkei, have attempted, at the very least, to challenge the very logic that made--and continues to make-- assisting the needy and caring for the vulnerable, actions to be mistrusted, defended, and justified? What lessons can today's social work glean from this history?"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 Discursive Elusions p. 1

2 The Start of War p. 30

3 The Removal p. 64

4 Incarceration p. 119

5 Social Work in the Camps-Part I: Public Assistance p. 168

6 Social Work in the Camps-Part II: "Abnormal Communities" p. 202

7 The Emotional Crisis of Registration p. 249

8 Resettlement-Part I: The Scattering p. 276

9 Resettlement-Part II: The Work of the Welfare Sections p. 315

10 Conclusion: The "Value of a Social Work Staff in a Mass Evacuation Program" p. 363.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199765058

0199765057

OCLC:

1110438611