Altered Lives, Enduring Community examines the long-term effects on Japanese Americans of their World War II experiences: forced removal from their Pacific Coast homes, incarceration in desolate government camps, and ultimate resettlement. As part of Seattle's Densho: Japanese American Legacy Project, the authors collected interviews and survey data from Japanese Americans now living in King County, Washington, who were imprisoned during World War II. Their clear-eyed, often poignant account presents the contemporary, post-redress perspectives of former incarcerees on their experiences and the consequences for their life course.

Using descriptive material that personalizes and contextualizes the data, the authors show how prewar socioeconomic networks and the specific characteristics of the incarceration experience affected Japanese American readjustment in the postwar era. Topics explored include the effects of incarceration and resettlement on social relationships and community structure, educational and occupational trajectories, marriage and childbearing, and military service and draft resistance. The consequences of initial resettlement location and religious orientation are also examined.

Stephen S. Fugita is distinguished professor of psychology and ethnic studies, Santa Clara University, and coauthor of Japanese American Ethnicity: The Persistence of Community. Marilyn Fernandez is associate professor and chair of sociology, Santa Clara University.

"Informative and poignant. . . . Highlights a tragic and often overlooked event in America history that should be taught to every citizen, to help us better understand history and the role of America on the world stage."

"The Japanese American internment during WWII has been subjected to much historical scrutiny, but little attention has been devoted to its socioeconomic consequences and psychological effects for the Nisei, second-generation Japanese Americans. Fugita and Fernandez used interviews and survey data . . . [to] examine the impact of the incarceration on the life course of 183 Nisei residing in Kings County, Seattle. . . . Thoughtful, important study about a key chapter in the Japanese American experience."

"This fascinating book is an interesting and informative comprehensive study of a Japanese-American community. . . . The book examines the effects of the community’s prewar social and economic structures on the community’s wartime experience and postwar readjustment. This book will be of interest not only to social scientists and historians but also to anyone interested in the effects of a life-changing experience on a community."

"This book comes as a welcome antidote to the tendency to view the internment in simple, black and white terms."