Silent Scars of Healing Hands: Oral Histories of Japanese American Doctors in World War II Detention Camps

Stories of Courage and Care in the Face of Injustice

Within the confines of detention centers in their own country, Japanese Americans who practiced medicine worked under the most dire conditions during World War II. Collected by a special team organized by the Japanese American Medical Association, these oral histories tell the stories of men and women who depended on ingenuity and compassion to care for their patients in remote makeshift hospitals. In this updated edition, the lives of incarcerated Japanese American medical professionals who endured the wound of a nation’s betrayal reveal the triumph of community and care amid hardship.

Naomi Hirahara is the author of more than twenty nonfiction history books and mystery novels. Terminal Island: Lost Communities on America’s Edge, which she co-wrote with Geraldine Knatz, won a California Book Award Gold Medal in 2025. Her genre fiction has been recognized with an Edgar Award and Mary Higgins Clark Award. A former editor of the Rafu Shimpo newspaper, she received her bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University.

Gwenn M. Jensen is an oral historian and anthropologist who has written and presented her research on health legacies engendered by historical events at a number of venues including the Oral History Association, the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the American Anthropological Association. She consults with organizations and individuals on their oral history projects. Dr. Jensen holds a master’s and doctorate in anthropology from the University of Colorado.