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Zusatztext One of Zlata?s gifts lies in throwing a human light on intolerable events. ( San Francisco Chronicle ) Informationen zum Autor Edited by Zlata Filipovic and Melanie Challenger; Foreword by Former UN Under-Secretary-General Olara A. Otunnu Klappentext From the author of the international bestseller Zlata's Diary comes a haunting testament to how war's brutality affects the lives of young people Zlata Filipovic's diary of her harrowing war experiences in the Balkans, published in 1993, made her a globally recognized spokesperson for children affected by military conflict. In Stolen Voices, she and co-editor Melanie Challenger have gathered fifteen diaries of young people coping with war, from World War I to the struggle in Iraq that continues today. Profoundly affecting testimonies of shattered youth and the gritty particulars of war in the tradition of Anne Frank, this extraordinary collection- the first of its kind-is sure to leave a lasting impression on young and old readers alike. Stanley Hayami (Second World War, USA) ‘I shall remember that day I was evacuated for the rest of my life…’ One of the United States’ significant national defence actions during the Second World War was the mass evacuation of persons of Japanese ancestry from California, the western regions of Oregon and Washington, and southern Arizona. Persons of Japanese descent were also removed from Alaska, and plans were laid down for transfer of Japanese persons from Hawaii to the mainland. This policy was a reaction to the aggressive bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on 7th December, 1941. It was also in part a precaution taken by the government, who feared that the Japanese population living in America could prove a threat to national security as the U.S. Army planned its retaliation. In an official statement from the Department of Justice, Japanese immigrants were referred to as ‘dangerous persons’. In some cases, individuals were given just forty-eight hours to leave their homes. By 1943, all internees above the age of seventeen were required to sign a loyalty pact which stated the following: Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty wherever ordered? Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, to any other foreign government, power or organization? Born in 1925, Stanley Hayami, a Japanese-American teenager from California, was taken from his home and placed in Heart Mountain internment camp. Heart Mountain opened on August 12, 1942, and closed on November 10, 1945. At its height, the population was over ten thousand – it is estimated that up to 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned during the Second World War across the United States. Most of the prisoners in Heart Mountain came from the Los Angeles area and Central Washington. In July, 1944, 63 prisoners who had resisted the draft were convicted and sentenced to 3 years in prison. The camp was made up of 468 buildings, divided into twenty blocks. Each block had two laundry-toilet buildings. Each building had six rooms, which were small and sparsely furnished. Military police were stationed in nine guard towers, equipped with search lights, and surrounded by barbed wire fencing around the camp. It was not unheard of for individuals to die in the camps, especially those in the desert regions, due to inadequate medical attention. Many detention-center survivors admitted that their livelihoods had been destroyed to an extent that they could not fully recover after release. Despite the devastating atomic bomb attacks by U.S. forces on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japanese insurgence was relatively minimal. N...
