Detained, Interned, Incarcerated U.S. Noncombatant Internee Mail in World War II

Description

Detained, Interned, Incarcerated U.S. Noncombatant Internee Mail in World War II by Louis Fiset, 2010, 234 + 13 pages with CD, cloth bound with dust jacket, LC No. 2010-937676, ISBN 987-0-9827357-1-8

Background explaining why, how, when, and where U.S. citizens, resident enemy aliens, diplomats, deportees from Latin America, and Axis merchant seamen were interned. More than 250 illustrations showing covers, censorship, and postal markings from camps operated by the Army, Immigration and Naturalization Service, State Department, and War Relocation Authority. The first compilation of mail of noncombatant civilians, diplomats, and Axis merchant seamen held by the U.S. government during World War II. To understand why political groups were incarcerated as well as their postal history, background on historical events of the war relating to the groups incarcerated is necessary. Specific historical facts are present to aid philatelists in finding relevant postal history.

Chapters include the postal history of the two diplomatic exchanges with Japan carried out by the mercy ship, M.S. Gripsholm, and of Japanese American soldiers, many of whom entered military service after their incarceration in relocation centers. Twenty four 24 tables provide data on camp locations and populations, postal rates, and other details of importance to collectors, including a table on these covers’ scarcity. A CD contains three of the author’s gold medal exhibits offering additional illustrations of internment camp mail.