More than Half: Multiracial Families in the World War II Japanese American Incarceration Camps

In this first-person commentary, the author, an art historian, recounts family explorations of multiraciality and discrimination through her family’s literal journey to 10 camps where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during a period of xenophobia following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942. In addition to Japanese immigrants (Issei) who were banned from becoming U.S. citizens and their American-born children (Nisei), multiracial spouses and children with partial Japanese ancestry were also imprisoned. The War Relocation Authority (WRA) created a series of rules that applied to interracial married couples and multiracial children. Children with Japanese fathers were considered “more than half” Japanese with the belief that the male head of the household would establish and observe the family’s cultural values and practices. Multiracial children with White fathers were treated more sympathetically stemming from a desire to protect them from absorbing Japanese customs and ideas. Within the camps, multiracial families were subject to ostracization by families of Japanese descent as well as military personnel. The author’s children, upon entering public school, endured inquiries, taunts, and microagressions from peers. As parents, the author and her spouse, a fine art photographer, visited the camp locations to understand this dark period of U.S. to explore and document the places, talk with their children about their multiracial identities, and enable growth through experience and knowledge. All of the camps are in desolate locations and most are in ruins, but lingering discrimination from this egregious historical period exist and they affected the author’s children.