Nature Behind Barbed Wire: An Environmental History of the Japanese American Incarceration by Connie Chiang

Abstract

Reviewed by: Nature Behind Barbed Wire: An Environmental History of the Japanese American Incarceration by Connie Chiang Jonathan van Harmelen (bio) Nature Behind Barbed Wire: An Environmental History of the Japanese American Incarceration, by Connie Chiang. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. 328 pp. $35.00 paper. ISBN: 9780190842062. Connie Chiang’s Nature Behind Barbed Wire offers a comprehensive environmental history of Japanese American incarceration during World War II. This book has been excitedly anticipated since the publication of Chiang’s 2010 article on the subject, “Imprisoned Nature: Towards an Environmental History of the World War II Japanese American Incarceration.”1 In her book, Chiang expands upon her initial argument that the incarceration “was an environmental process, deeply embedded in the lands and waters along the coast and the camps further inland” (5). During each step, the natural environment was a deciding factor in the creation and implementation of the camp process, and, with the trauma that it caused, one that still lingers with survivors today. Not only does Chiang bring a fresh take to a familiar topic in Asian American studies, but her pairing of survivor testimony alongside reports from the War Relocation Authority allows her to develop her argument and humanize the events of the incarceration. Chiang’s book is organized in chronological fashion, starting with prewar anti-Japanese sentiment, which fueled the movement to incarcerate Japanese Americans following Pearl Harbor, and ending with the later memorialization of the camps and the corresponding environmental justice movement beginning at the dawn of the 1970s. The book includes three parts: chapters 1 and 2 present the creation of the camps; chapters 3 to 6 examine how the confined population interacted with the environment; chapter 7 and the epilogue discuss the legacy of the camp in terms of environmentalism. While the first two chapters catalogue the forced removal of Japanese Americans from their homes and to the camps, their main focus is the administrators of the camps. The other chapters of the book focus on the experiences of the incarcerated. [End Page 304] To echo Hana Maruyama’s assessment in Edge Effects, Nature Behind Barbed Wire “connects the dots” of varied experiences that many historians—those of both Nikkei history and the incarceration overall—have discussed.2 The harshness of the environment, combined with the omnipresent importance of agriculture and the need to survive on the bare minimum of supplies, serve to connect the various episodes of the camp experience. Chiang’s book paints a vivid picture of the harshness of the perilous journey to camp and the toll it took on the confined. It was not only the cruelty of Arizona sandstorms, for example, or the bitter cold of Utah’s winters but also the government’s inability to bring out equipment and necessities to these camps that further accentuated the isolation and hardship of the incarcerated. Even human factors such as the hastily built barracks and the dripping of hot tar that scarred Takako Asano’s face as she slept can be traced in some part back to the environment (56). Not only does Chiang do an excellent job of bringing to life the experience of living in these prison “islands” in the deserts, but she also lays out clearly the intricate connections among these camps. One of the most important contributions Chiang makes to the historiography of Japanese American incarceration during World War II is her detailed explanation of how the camp locations were selected. While all the camps were located in desolate areas, her use of archival material in narrating the debates among various government agencies—the War Relocation Authority, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Bureau of Reclamation—demonstrates the intimate involvement of the federal government and various private citizens in undertaking this flawed project. Yet after providing an extended narrative of bureaucratic infighting involved in the construction of the camps, Chiang skillfully brings the reader back to the experiences of individuals with the environment. She further brings together different voices of indigenous communities, such as the Pima tribe, affected by the construction of the Gila River Camp on their lands. While some authors like Richard Drinnon have forwarded the comparison between the camps and Native American...