Enemy Child: The Story of Norman Mineta, a Boy Imprisoned in a Japanese American Internment Camp During World War II by Andrea Warren

Abstract

Reviewed by: Enemy Child: The Story of Norman Mineta, a Boy Imprisoned in a Japanese American Internment Camp During World War II by Andrea Warren Elizabeth Bush Warren, Andrea Enemy Child: The Story of Norman Mineta, a Boy Imprisoned in a Japanese American Internment Camp During World War II. Ferguson/Holiday House, 2019 [224p] illus. with photographs Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-8234-4151-8 $22.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-8234-4197-6 $13.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 Norman Mineta, youngest child of a Japanese immigrant father who worked his way from agricultural laborer to independent businessman, was eleven when Pearl Harbor was bombed and residents of Japanese heritage were forced by executive order to leave their homes and report to camps. The Minetas were first transported to temporary housing at the Santa Anita racetrack, an assignment that had a touch of glamor for the boy who was excited by the novelty of the situation. Their final destination, at the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center in Wyoming, was the real awakening, as the cold assaulted the Californians, the war dragged on, and the uncertainty of ever leaving the barbed wire encampment settled in. Warren bases her narrative on interviews as well as other primary and secondary resources, and although readers who have read other work on the internment camps will find much that is familiar, the Mineta family story offers particulars that do not emerge with such clarity in other accounts. Norman’s older siblings and his father, for example, secure work in other parts of the country and are released from camp, leaving only Norman and his mother to remain through 1943. The Minetas’ eventual reunion and their relatively smooth transition back into their post-war community (neighbors and church members secured their home and personal property) are contextualized in contrast to experiences of less fortunate returnees. Norman Mineta later served as a U.S. Representative, and his effort to gain recognition of and restitution for injustice toward internees is an essential part of his personal and America’s larger story. Black and white photographs are included, as well as multimedia recommendations, bibliography, source notes, index, and historical notes. Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois