Days of Infamy: How a Century of Bigotry Led to Japanese ­American Internment

Gr 6 Up–Franklin D. Roosevelt pronounced December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, “a date which will live in infamy.” His Executive Order 9066 led to the imprisonment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans, the majority U.S. citizens, for the duration of WWII. Prolific scholar Goldstone meticulously documents the plural days of infamy that began with the U.S. Constitution’s recognition of free white men who since punished those deemed “not white enough,” which allowed for “one of the most shameful episodes in United States’ history.” Alas, racist infamy continues: “the feelings and reasonings that resulted in that injustice are all too present...today,” from immigration bans to increased anti-Asian violence. Japanese-fluent Davis reads crisply, although occasionally veers toward overemoting which can hamper Goldstone’s superbly methodical research.