Art, Literature, and the Japanese American Internment

Thomas Girst studied Humanities at Hamburg and New York University. He was founding editor of Die Aussenseite des Elementes (1991-2003), the NY-based cultural correspondent for the German daily Die Tageszeitung as well as research manager of the Art Science Research Laboratory. Since 2003, Girst has been Head of Cultural Engagement at the BMW Group. He lectures at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. His most recent publications include The Duchamp Dictionary (2014) and BMW Art Cars (2014).

Contents: Japanese American Internment and the Holocaust - Artistic Expression and Internment (Isamu Noguchi, Miné Okubo) - Publication History, Reception and Teaching of Okada's «No-No Boy» - Italo Calvino - John Okada, Writer and World War II Veteran - Reading «No-No Boy» as World Literature.

«Girst's work will appeal to scholars working in a variety of geographic and thematic categories, who will appreciate the value of his close reading and integration of previously unknown and unpublished sources, as well as his careful inclusion of illustrations, literary excerpts, exhaustive footnotes, and an extensive bibliography.»
(Elena M. Friot, Pacific Northwest Quarterly Vol. 107 2015/2016)

«[...] Art, Literature, and the Japanese American Internment provides a valuable teaching tool in a university course in Asian American studies. For the general reader, Girst has written a thoughtful and informative study which helps to illuminate the complexity of No-No Boy as a novel as well as the diversity of the Japanese American response to internment.»
(Hamish Ion, Pacific Affairs vol. 90, no. 2/2017)