This book is less a study of Japanese Americans per se than an analysis of the puzzle that they present to theorists of ethnic relations. What made them different? What gave them the strength to thrive on adversity? How must our theories of intergroup relations be amended to take account of this deviant case? After an introductory chapter, the exposition is in three parts--Oppression (Chapters 2-4), Success (Chapters 5 and 6), and Explanations (Chapters 7-10). It begins with the migrations to Hawaii and mainland United States and recounts the discriminations, sometimes basic or violent and sometimes petty, to which the immigrants were subjected. Rejected by their country of permanent residence and prevented from escaping altogether from their homeland's supervision most Issei nevertheless chose to ally themselves with America, which for their sons would be the land of promise it never was for them. How difficult this choice was no outsider can ever know, nor how empty the promise became in the spring of 1942. The following two chapters give evidence of various kinds demonstrating, respectively, the postwar progress of the Japanese and their low incidence of virtually every type of social pathology. In the concluding four chapters an effort is made to resolve the anomaly. (Author/JM)