America v. the Immigrant: The Japanese Immigrant Chapter

The Distance Between Our Names: The Untold History of America’s War on Japanese Immigrants, Paul Richter, Simon & Schuster, 2026 Journalist Paul Richter’s book The Distance Between Our Names tells the history of the Japanese American community before its World War II incarceration, centering on the story of the first-generation immigrants from Japan, or Issei. As Richter recognizes, the Issei story is important for many reasons. First, while the public may know something about the World War II Japanese American incarceration, it likely knows much less about the hate-filled and popular movement against the Japanese community before the war that led to that incarceration. Further, their story provides a powerful warning not to repeat history now when irrational fears are feeding calls to purge the country of new immigrants. The book begins with a helpful chronology and introduction that starts with the Issei emigration from Japan and moves through key moments in the fight against them.

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