“To many Japanese Americans . . . the name Bendetsen casts a dark shadow, for it is this man who had so much to do with the incarceration during World War II.... de Nevers’ fact-filled book is a great read, one of value to anybody who is interested in the internment. Too bad Japanese Americans fell into the clutches of men like General John DeWitt and Karl Bendetsen.”
About
Klancy Clark de Nevers grew up in the West Coast lumber hub of Aberdeen, Washinton, 100 miles west of Seattle. She saw four beloved uncles go off to serve in the Armed Forces during World War II, and only two came home. She observed how closely her family followed the progress of the war.
The creation of The Colonel and the Pacifist was a natural result of her abiding interest in the events of World War II and its aftermath. The protagonists and their families were a known quantity to her: Bendetsen a family acquaintance, and Saito’s Import shop next door to her Nielsen grandfather’s drug store. Her retirement allowed her to probe Bendetsen’s papers at Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford, Internment files at the National Archives at College Park, MD, and Berkeley, CA and to interview family members of both Bendetsen and Perry Saito.
The result is a gripping account of the incarceration of 120,000 innocent people in the largest breach of civil liberties in the history of the country.
In addition to The Colonel and the Pacifist: Karl Bendetsen, Perry Saito, and the Incarceration of the Japanese Americans during World War II, she is co-editor of Cohassett Beach Chronicles: World War II in the Pacific Northwest by Kathy Hogan, and author of a memoir, Lessons in Printing.