UC Riverside

This dissertation study used an intersectionality framework to examine the experience of Japanese American women in their educational and vocational trajectories before, during, and after internment. The study explores how the vocational education program and employment opportunities in internment camps changed the educational and vocational trajectories of Japanese American women. Prior to the war, Japanese American women had limited educational and vocational options due to the Jap Crow infrastructure on the West Coast. During internment, Japanese American women accessed vocational education and employment experience in the camps. A move away from the Jap Crow and a wartime labor shortage enabled them to access employment that had been unavailable to them, including professional and semiprofessional jobs. After internment, as Japanese Americans moved back to the West Coast and into professional and semiprofessional employment, there were indications of the breakdown of Jap Crow.