Densho Digital Archive
Frank Abe Collection
Title: Clifford Uyeda Interview
Narrator: Clifford Uyeda
Interviewers: Frank Chin (primary); Frank Abe (secondary)
Location: San Francisco, California
Date: May 5, 1996
Densho ID: denshovh-uclifford-01-0019

<Begin Segment 19>

FC: Could you name a few, for those who know nothing about camp, nothing about Japanese, that period of Japanese American history, World War II, what books would you recommend, what authors?

[Interruption]

CU: Well, there are two books that I would feel are very important to read, and I have those, I have these books right here, so let me just reach for these. For a true history and feelings about the camp, I would highly recommend Years of Infamy by Michi Weglyn. It was published in 1976. I feel that this book is so important because it was written by a Japanese American, a person that had experienced the camp, and also has the insight into what the Japanese Americans were feeling at the time. And she also did such a thorough research in areas which most people have not researched into, that is, like the Peruvians who were brought here as a hostage exchange, people who were dissidents, these are the subjects that most of the other books do not cover.

And for the documentation, objective documentation, I would recommend the report written by the Commission, Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, which came out in 1983. I think these two books are the most valuable of all the books that I've read. I think I've read almost every book that came out on the camps.

FC: What's your opinion of the work of Roger Daniels?

CU: I know Roger Daniels in person as well. I think Roger Daniels is very good in that he has, although he takes it from the American point of view, he has some empathy toward the Japanese Americans, maybe because he also happens to be of Jewish ancestry, and he is able to therefore see things of what happened to the Japanese Americans deeper than the average Americans. And I think he's a good researcher, he has done, possibly he has written more on the, about the Japanese American camp experience than any other American writers. I've always felt that he was a very good researcher.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.