Given that the Japanese American internment and its echoes is a far more complex topic than might be imagined, or that has been recounted in the many excellent memoirs that exist, no book could be described as "definitive." For one thing, there are numerous histories to account for, numerous ways to contextulaize this moment for Japanese AMericans and for all Americans, and numerous potential perspectives to adopt. But Alice Yang Murray's excellent examination comes close to definitive, in historical terms. She particularly charts how the internment has functioned as a constructed memory, and how the mix of stakeholders negotiated the issues attending evacuation, incarceration, and redress. For any student of the internment, and particularly for academic researchers on public memory, Murray's book is an indispensable treasure trove of enlightenment.