Early years Michiko Nishiura was born into a farming family in
Stockton, California, in 1926, the eldest of two daughters to Japanese immigrants Tomojiro and Misao Nishiura. The family worked as tenant farmers in
Brentwood, and Weglyn attended Liberty Union High School, receiving a citizenship award from the
American Legion in 1940. In May 1942, following the signing of
Executive Order 9066, she was interned with her family at the
Turlock Assembly Center, before being transferred to the
Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona three months later. While in Gila River, she attended the camp school, Butte High, and kept busy with various extracurricular activities, leading a
Girl Scouts troop, the Butte Forensics League, and a young women's association. She graduated in 1944 and, after receiving a full scholarship to
Mount Holyoke College, left camp for Massachusetts. Her mother and sister moved to New Jersey to work at
Seabrook Farms in January 1945, and Weglyn joined them after finishing her treatment. She later attended
Barnard College in 1947 and 1948. In 1949, she suffered another bout of tuberculosis and once again had to seek treatment at a sanatorium. Of him, Michi would later write, "Walter is my most exacting critic and mentor."
Researching for and publication of "Years of Infamy" During the late 1960s, Weglyn began work on the landmark
Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps. Published in 1976, it detailed U.S. governmental misconduct toward Japanese Americans following the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, and offered a staunch rebuttal of the military necessity argument for incarceration. The book
Years of Infamy would win one of the
Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards in 1977 and helped launch the movement that led to reparations for Japanese Americans interned during World War II.
Later years Following the book's publication, Weglyn became an advocate for Japanese Americans denied redress under the
Civil Liberties Act of 1988 and for
Japanese Peruvians who had been taken from their homes by the U.S. government and used in a hostage exchange program with Japan. For her work, Weglyn received honorary doctorates from
Hunter College, Mount Holyoke College, and
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Weglyn's husband Walter died in 1995. Weglyn died of cancer in 1999 in New York City at the age of 72. ==See also==