American Indian and Japanese American Struggles with the Law

• In Event: 514 - Section on Sociology of Law Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Sociology of Law Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. The State and Social Control

Abstract

Abstract

In this paper, we confront the hegemonic façade of internment camps, some ostensible reasons for the forced relocation and imprisonment of Japanese-Americans in the midst of marginalized American Indians, and the critical issue of land. We examine why internment camps are typically and narrowly viewed as being established solely out of an irrational fear of an impending Japanese invasion of the U.S. mainland after Pearl Harbor. Our analysis questions why popular internment stories are dominated by the narrow view of 7 Dec 1941 and the Japanese ‘super-citizen.’ We explore why American Indians are usually marginalized in the crisis and the long-term effect of these predominant narratives. We suggest that under conditions of crisis, we can examine more of the important social processes such as the creation of deviants, norm formation, power realignment, economic consolidation and/or decentralization, and law creation, in terms of other abstract features, which can then be explored in a variety of specific social contexts varying in scale, complexity, degree of formalization, and historical and comparative settings.

Author

• Pat L. Lauderdale, Arizona State University