{"id":6557965877337,"title":"Nature Behind Barbed Wire — Chiang","handle":"nature-behind-barbed-wire-chiang","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBy Connie Chiang, \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bowdoin.edu\/profiles\/faculty\/cchiang\/index.html\" title=\"Connie Chiang faculty profile\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/www.bowdoin.edu\/profiles\/faculty\/cchiang\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eDirector of Environmental Studies Program and Professor of History and Environmental Studies\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mass imprisonment of over 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II was one of the most egregious violations of civil liberties in United States history. Removed from their homes on the temperate Pacific Coast, Japanese Americans spent the war years in desolate camps in the nation's interior. Photographers including Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange visually captured these camps in images that depicted the environment as a source of both hope and hardship. And yet the literature on incarceration has most often focused on the legal and citizenship statuses of the incarcerees, their political struggles with the US government, and their oral testimony.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eNature Behind Barbed Wire\u003c\/em\u003e shifts the focus to the environment. It explores how the landscape shaped the experiences of both Japanese Americans and federal officials who worked for the War Relocation Authority (WRA), the civilian agency that administered the camps. The complexities of the natural world both enhanced and constrained the WRA's power and provided Japanese Americans with opportunities to redefine the terms and conditions of their confinement. Even as the environment compounded their feelings of despair and outrage, the incarcerees also found that their agency in transforming and adapting to the natural world could help them survive and contest their incarceration. Japanese Americans and WRA officials negotiated the terms of confinement with each other and with a dynamic natural world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUltimately, as Connie Chiang demonstrates, the Japanese American incarceration was fundamentally an environmental story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-From the publisher.\u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2021-04-09T15:16:14-04:00","created_at":"2021-04-09T15:16:13-04:00","vendor":"The Bowdoin Store","type":"Book","tags":["Bowdoin Faculty","History"],"price":3799,"price_min":3799,"price_max":3799,"available":true,"price_varies":false,"compare_at_price":3700,"compare_at_price_min":3700,"compare_at_price_max":3700,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":39300396089433,"title":"Default Title","option1":"Default Title","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"WBF360-Chiang","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":true,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"Nature Behind Barbed Wire — Chiang","public_title":null,"options":["Default Title"],"price":3799,"weight":0,"compare_at_price":3700,"inventory_quantity":1,"inventory_management":"shopify","inventory_policy":"deny","barcode":"9780190842062","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/store.bowdoin.edu\/cdn\/shop\/products\/wbf360-chiang-nature.jpg?v=1617995775"],"featured_image":"\/\/store.bowdoin.edu\/cdn\/shop\/products\/wbf360-chiang-nature.jpg?v=1617995775","options":["Title"],"media":[{"alt":"Nature Behind Barbed Wire by Connie Chiang","id":20333411336281,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":1.0,"height":550,"width":550,"src":"\/\/store.bowdoin.edu\/cdn\/shop\/products\/wbf360-chiang-nature.jpg?v=1617995775"},"aspect_ratio":1.0,"height":550,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/store.bowdoin.edu\/cdn\/shop\/products\/wbf360-chiang-nature.jpg?v=1617995775","width":550}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBy Connie Chiang, \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.bowdoin.edu\/profiles\/faculty\/cchiang\/index.html\" title=\"Connie Chiang faculty profile\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/www.bowdoin.edu\/profiles\/faculty\/cchiang\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eDirector of Environmental Studies Program and Professor of History and Environmental Studies\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mass imprisonment of over 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II was one of the most egregious violations of civil liberties in United States history. Removed from their homes on the temperate Pacific Coast, Japanese Americans spent the war years in desolate camps in the nation's interior. Photographers including Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange visually captured these camps in images that depicted the environment as a source of both hope and hardship. And yet the literature on incarceration has most often focused on the legal and citizenship statuses of the incarcerees, their political struggles with the US government, and their oral testimony.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eNature Behind Barbed Wire\u003c\/em\u003e shifts the focus to the environment. It explores how the landscape shaped the experiences of both Japanese Americans and federal officials who worked for the War Relocation Authority (WRA), the civilian agency that administered the camps. The complexities of the natural world both enhanced and constrained the WRA's power and provided Japanese Americans with opportunities to redefine the terms and conditions of their confinement. Even as the environment compounded their feelings of despair and outrage, the incarcerees also found that their agency in transforming and adapting to the natural world could help them survive and contest their incarceration. Japanese Americans and WRA officials negotiated the terms of confinement with each other and with a dynamic natural world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUltimately, as Connie Chiang demonstrates, the Japanese American incarceration was fundamentally an environmental story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-From the publisher.\u003c\/p\u003e"}