Enmity and Empathy

Japanese Americans in Minnesota During World War II

Ka F. Wong

Minnesota Historical Society Press (May 2025)

Description

The experiences of Japanese Americans and their allies fighting discrimination in wartime Minnesota demonstrate how diverse groups stood together amidst the turmoil—a legacy relevant in today’s divisive world.

The forced eviction and confinement of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor in 1941 was one of the worst civil rights violations of the twentieth century, and the repercussions were numerous. The effect in Minnesota was dramatic: only fifty-one Japanese American people lived in the state in 1940, but by war’s end there were several thousand. 

Drawing on personal interviews, archival sources, and historical literature, scholar and professor Ka Wong explores the courageous struggles of trailblazers who left the incarceration camps and rebuilt their lives in the North Star State, overcoming hostility and hardship along the way. Despite the enmity ignited by war hysteria, bonds of empathy developed between the resettlers and allies who advocated for them personally and professionally. This volume illustrates the multiple ways in which Japanese American people transformed both wartime Minnesota and their own lives, including narratives of college students pursuing higher education, young men and women training at the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Camp Savage and then Fort Snelling, the US Cadet Nurse Corps serving in Rochester hospitals, and entrepreneurial families and individuals in the Twin Cities and beyond. Presenting the inspiring stories of Japanese Americans in Minnesota during World War II, Enmity and Empathy spotlights a hidden chapter in the state’s history.

Author Information

Ka F. Wong is professor of Asian Studies at St. Olaf College. He is producer, director, and writer of the film Beyond the Barbed Wire: Japanese Americans in Minnesota. Wong lives near Northfield, Minnesota.