日美二戰書信中的生命形式

This research project studies the literature and historiography associated with the history of Japanese American imprisonment during World War II. Four epistolary texts are chosen as the primary texts: Imprisoned Apart: The World War II Correspondence of an Issei Couple (1997), Letters from the 442nd: The World War II Correspondence of a Japanese American Medic (2008), Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference (2006), and Dear Miye: Letters Home from Japan (1995). My analysis focuses on the issues of life politics and investigate in particular the shifting subject positions of Japanese Americans during the war in light of Giogio Agamben's idea of "the camp as biopolitical paradigm of the modern," Gilles Deleuze's concept of "immanence of life" and Hannah Arendt's discussions on totalitarianism and human life conditions. My goal is to achieve deeper understanding of the forms of life, racial identity, and the human rights condition of Japanese Americans during WWII.