Book Review: The Governing of Men
| Author | Forrest E. LaViolette |
| Published date | 01 October 1946 |
| Date | 01 October 1946 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070204600100418 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
International
Journal
author's
allegory
and
imagery often
obscure
his
argument;
yet
this
emerges finally,
strong and
clear.
While
not
new,
his
argument
needs
restatement
now
that
nations
are
again
planning
to
export
or
die,
hoping-
simultaneously
to
devise
forms
of
international
economic
collaboration
which
will
remove
the
elements
of
warfare
from
international
trade.
Should
these
attempts
at
solution
fail, the
prospect
is
grim
in this
new
atomic
age.
Toronto,
May
1946.
Harold
I.
Nelson.
THE
GOVERNING
OF
MEN.
General
Principles
and
Recom-
mendations
Based
on
Experience
at
a
Japanese
Relocation
Camp.
By
Alexander
H.
Leighton.
1945.
(Princeton University
Press
in
co-
operation with
American Council,
I.P.R.
Toronto:
Reginald
Saunders.
404
pp.
$4.50)
An
economist
recently
referred
to
this
study
as
a
"fascinating
book."
It
deals
with
a
group
of
Japanese
evacuated from
the
American
Pacific
Coast
in
the
spring
of
1942,
and
is
a
major
contribution
to
our
general
understanding
of
the
displaced
Japanese.
But
its
fascination
does
not
lie
therein,
even
though
the
people
of
Japanese
ancestry
were
living
through
a
profound
and
extended group
crisis
involving
both
Japanese
and
non-
Japanese. Its
fascination
lies
in
the fact
that
it
attempts
to
probe
beneath
differences
separating
"Japanese"
from
"American,"
to
find
constants
of
human
nature,
and
thus
contribute
towards the
solution
of
theoretical
as
well
as
administrative
problems,
regardless
of
the group
involved.
After
a
statement
of
the strike
situation
in
the
Poston
Camp
in
November,
1942,
Dr.
Leighton
asks
his central
question,
" ...
what
in
all
this
is
recurrently
human."'
He
continues
with
questions
regarding
the
"laws
of
individual
behaviour"
and
the "perennial
social
forces
at
work"
in
the
relocation
centre,
for
the
breakdown
of
man's
organizations
of
himself
and
his fellows
are not
events
isolated
in
evacuation
camps
. . .
In-
cluded
are
such
things
as
the
rights
of
citizens,
the
treatment
of
minority
groups
in
the
heart
of
a
nation
and
the
capacity
of
a
democracy
for
efficient,
consistent government
and
just
international
relations
. . ."
Dr.
Leighton,
a
psychiatrist
with
experience
among
the
Eskimos
and
the
Navajo
Indians,
has
divided
the
results
of
his
investigation
into
two
major
sections,
the
first
consisting
of
'The
Story
of
Poston,"
and
the
second
of
"Principles
and Recommendations."
Full
appreciation
of
the
Work
requires
a
careful
reading
of
the
first
section. Those
familiar with
the
Poston
Centre
will discover
a
few
errors
in
fact
and
°some
objections
to
the
selection
of
materials,
but
neither
of
these
objections
are
particularly
important.
The
descriptions
in
this
section
of
the immigrants
(the
IsseO,
of
the
American-born and
educated
(the
Nises,
and
of
the American-born
but
Japan-educated
(the
Kibe,),
are
accurate
and
well-written.
The
description
and
analysis
of
the
strike
at
Poston,
prepared
by
Dr.
Spicer,
is
one
of
the best published
382
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