AUTHOR JOHN CHRISTGAU TO DISCUSS TREATMENT OF 'ENEMY ALIENS' DURING WW II

Examination of the United States Government’s Enemy Alien Internment Program, which operated from 1941 to 1946, is the subject of a public program featuring author John Christgau on Saturday, August 28, beginning at 2 p.m., at the Japanese American National Museum.

Christgau is the author of the book, Enemies: World War II Alien Internment, as well as a collaborator on the photo exhibit, "The Alien Enemy Files: Hidden Stories of WW II". He did extensive research at the National Archives, including FBI documents, and did oral history interviews with some of the surviving individuals of German, Italian and Japanese ancestry who were among the over 31,000 people incarcerated by the U.S. government.

For his book, Christgau narrowed his focus on Fort Lincoln, in Bismarck, North Dakota, and eight of the prisoners confined at that military installation’s internment camp. The prisoners held there were of Japanese and German ancestry. His book documents the desperation of the prisoners, guilty of being the wrong nationality and nothing more, and how some attempted to escape or even commit suicide. Hironori Tanaka is among those profiled in the book.

The government’s Enemy Alien Internment Program differed from forced removal and mass incarceration of over 110,000 persons of Japanese ancestry in domestic concentration camps during World War II. The camps were run by the War Relocation Authority and two-thirds of those imprisoned were American-born citizens.

Christgau is the author of several fictional and non-fiction books, including Kokomo Joe: The True Story of the First Japanese American Jockey in the United States. Christgau is a frequent guest lecturer to professional and educational groups. He is a native of Minnesota and a member of the Society of Midland Authors. He presently spends his time between Belmont, California, and southern Minnesota.

This program is free to National Museum members or with admission.