"Izumi presents a compelling argument, claiming that US lawmakers, gripped by the fear of a communist (rather than Japanese) incursion, relied on the legal precedents created by the internment to institute America’s only preventive detention law-one aimed at potentially subversive individuals or groups.... The frequent inclusion of excerpts and illustrations from contemporary sources will help make the text more accessible for some readers.... [T]his is a welcome addition to both American and legal history. Summing Up: Highly recommended."- Choice "This is policy history at its best, showing the complex interactions between policy makers and their larger society. It is built on a sturdy foundation of an explanation of why and how the United States interned hundreds of thousands of people during World War II but is also informed by the cultural turn in historical analysis.... What Izumi reveals about those times speaks to our current time, as racialized imagery and hysterical fears about national security have moved the nation to create concentration camps for a different racial group of aliens."-Pacific Historical Review "For a detailed analysis of the genesis of the Emergency Detention Act, its impact on ideas of citizenship, rights, the interpretation of the US constitution and the role of race in the legal culture of the country, this represents an informative and readable account. Stronger on narrative than it is on analysis in some cases, the book reveals a little-discussed episode in US legal history, one thankfully never invoked in practice, that sheds light on a period of contested civil liberties....The dangers and prejudices so well documented here have not gone away, and certainly in that sense there is a great deal to learn from history." -Ethnic and Racial Studies