Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps

by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald

Overview

The author at 16 years old was evacuated with her family to an internment camp for Japanese Americans, along with 110,000 other people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast. She faced an indefinite sentence behind barbed wire in crowded, primitive camps. She struggled for survival and dignity, and endured psychological scarring that has lasted a lifetime.

This memoir is told from the heart and mind of a woman now nearly 80 years old who experienced the challenges and wounds of her internment at a crucial point in her development as a young adult. She brings passion and spirit to her story. Like "The Diary of Anne Frank," this memoir superbly captures the emotional and psychological essence of what it was like to grow up in the midst of this profound dislocation and injustice in the U.S. Few other books on this subject come close to the emotional power and moral significance of this memoir.

In the end,the reader is buoyed by what Mary learns from her experiences and what she is able to do with her life. In 2005 she becomes one more Nissei who breaks her silence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780939165650
Publisher:	NewSage Press
Publication date:	04/16/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	461,666
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Mary Matsuda Gruenewald lives in Seattle, Washington. She will be 80 years old in 2005 when this book is published. This is her first book and of considerable significance for her generation and as a Nissei. She will be breaking the silence of telling her story, in-depth, about her years imprisoned for being Japanese in America.

After being released from her last Japanese-American internment camp, Gruenewald became a registered nurse, and worked as an R.N. for more than a quarter of a century. She established the Consulting Nurse Service within the Group Health Cooperative in 1971, which has become a national model for numerous health care providers. In 2002 she was a medical delegate representing seniors on behalf of Medicare Plus Choice. At that meeting she was selected along with ten other delegates to advise President George W. Bush on health care issues.

Her articles regarding her internment during WW II have appeared in newspapers and she has presented commentaries for NPR KPLU. She speaks to many schools and community groups about her internment. Gruenewald received an Asian American Living Pioneer Award in 2003 honoring her contributions.