A girl and her family visit the grave of her grandfather at Manzanar where he died while incarcerated there during World War II.
Elementary (K-6)
Cooper, Michael C.
Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp
Clarion, 2002. 96 pp. ISBN 978-0618067787
An account of life in the Manzanar concentration camp based on the author's participation in the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage. Includes primary sources and moving photographs.
Elementary (K-6)
Lee-Tai, Amy
A Place Where Sunflowers Grow
Children's Book Press, 2006. 32 pp. ISBN 978-0892392155
A bilingual story about the author's grandmother who was sent to Topaz as a young girl.
Elementary (K-6)
Mochizuki, Ken
Baseball Saved Us
New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
The 1993 Parents' Choice Award book that is based on actual events. It is a touching story of a young boy living in an American concentration camp during World War II. When there was very little to be thankful for, baseball became a savior.
Elementary (K-6)
Mochizuki, Ken
Heroes
New York: Baker & Taylor, CATS 2009
Author of the 1993 Parents' Choice Award Winner for Baseball Saved Us. This picture book is a wonderful story, set in the 1960s, of overcoming racial stereotypes. Donnie wants to play football after school but his friends want to play war with Donnie as the bad guy. Donnie has to play the enemy, his friends insist, because as a Japanese American, he looks like "them."
Elementary (K-6)
Say, Allen
Music for Alice
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2004. 32 pp. ISBN 978-0618311187
A picture book based on the true story of Alice Sumida and her experiences working on a farm instead of going to concentration camp. She and her husband overcome challenges and eventually operate the largest gladiola bulb farm in the country.
Elementary (K-6)
Shigekawa, Marlene
Blue Jay in the Desert
1993, 32 pp.
While incarcerated at Poston Arizona a grandfather gives his grandson a very special Blue Jay that he skillfully carved from wood. The carving symbolizes the freedom the bird has to fly while the grandfather and grandson remain behind barbed wire.
Elementary (K-6)
Shigekawa, Marlene
Welcome Home Swallows
2001, 32 pp.
A poignant sequel to Blue Jay in the Desert tells how Junior adjusts to returning to California. It is filled with issues of friendship, racism, tragedy and family reunion.
Elementary (K-6)
Tunnell, Michael O, and George W. Chilcoat
The Children of Topaz: The Story of a Japanese American Internment Camp, 1996.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011. 82 pp. ISBN 978-1461199502
Based on a classroom diary, Lillian "Anne" Yamaguchi Hori taught a third grade class to keep a daily diary during her incarceration at Topaz, Utah. Includes commentary and archival photographs to place the diary in historical context.
Elementary (K-6)
Uchida, Yoshiko
The Best Bad Thing
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993, 120 pp. (grades 4-7)
The novel was an American Library Association (ALA) Notable Book, appeared on the Best Books of the Year Lists in School Library Journal and People Magazine, and was heralded by the Association of Children's Librarians, The Hawaii Herald, Booklist and Kirkus Review.
Elementary (K-6)
Uchida, Yoshiko
The Bracelet
New York: Penguin, 1993 (grades 1-4)
A Japanese American in the second grade is sent with her family to an "assembly center," but the loss of the bracelet her best friend has given her proves that she doesn't need a physical reminder of that friendship
Elementary (K-6)
Uchida, Yoshiko
Journey Home
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992, 131 pp.
As a sequel to Journey to Topaz, it depicts the hardships and joy Yuki and her family experience upon their return to California from a concentration camp. It is a warm, dignified and optimistic story
Elementary (K-6)
Uchida, Yoshiko
Journey to Topaz
New York: Heyday Books, 2005.
Story of an eleven-year-old and her family uprooted from their California home and sent to Topaz, a desert concentration camp. Sensitive and thought-provoking.
Elementary (K-6)
Chin, Steven A.
When Justice Failed: The Fred Korematsu Story
Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1993. 105 pp. ISBN 9780811480765
Through the eyes of Korematsu's daughter, this moving story unfolds as she learns of her father's stand against the mistreatment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Intermediate (6-8)
Cooper, Michael C.
Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp
Clarion, 2002. 96 pp. ISBN 978-0618067787
An account of life in the Manzanar concentration camp, based on the author's participation in the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage. Includes primary sources and moving photographs
Intermediate (6-8)
Houston, Jeanne and Houston, James
Farewell to Manzanar
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002 Re-issue
The personal story of a young girl and her family in Manzanar. Touches on some of the causes of the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast and depicts the unrest at the camp.
Intermediate (6-8)
Hirasuna, Delphine
The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946
Ten Speed, 2005. 128 pp. ISBN 978-1580086899
Photographic images of artworks created by Japanese American internees in World War II "assembly" centers and "internment" camps. Crafts initially were made out of necessity, but also expanded as a form of artistic expression.
Intermediate (6-8)
Kadohata, Cynthia
Kira-Kira
Athenum, 2004. 272 pp. ISBN 978-0689856396
Newberry Medal-winning novel about the Takashima family who moves to Georgia after World War II and works at a non-unionized poultry farm.
Intermediate (6-8)
Kadohata, Cynthia
Weedflower
Athenum, 2009. 272 pp. ISBN 978-1416975663
A twelve-year-old Japanese American girl from a flower farm in Southern California is sent to an "internment" camp in the Arizona desert. She befriends a boy from the Mohave reservation the camp is on, and learns that Japanese Americans and the Mohave tribe are similar in their plights.
Intermediate (6-8)
Obata, Chiura
Topaz Moon: Chiura Obata's Art of the Internment
Heyday, 2000. 147 pp. ISBN 978-1890771263
A collection of the Japanese-born painter and UC-Berkeley professor's art while incarcerated at Topaz, with excerpts from his letters and speeches.
Intermediate (6-8)
Okubo, Mine
Citizen 13660
Seattle: University of Washington, 1983. Reprint.
"Poignantly written and beautifully illustrated memoir of her life in two concentration camps."
Intermediate (6-8)
Sone, Monica
Nisei Daughter
University of Washington Press, 1979.
Story of a Japanese American girl, who grew up in Seattle's Pioneer Square, characterizing her growing racial awareness and depicting her incarceration.
Intermediate (6-8)
Patneaude, David
Thin Wood Walls
Sandpiper, 2008. 240 pp. ISBN 978-0618809158
A novel about a Japanese American boy who comes of age in a concentration camp amidst World War II and prejudice. Highlights the vast range of attitudes among Japanese Americans and whites, citizens and immigrants.
Intermediate (6-8)
Rathburn, Arthur C.
The American Japanese
Brite, 2004. 134 pp. ISBN 978-1932783186
A brief history of Akira Richard Toki, a member of the 100th Battalion, a segregated unit, describing his heroism and hardship during World War II.
Intermediate (6-8)
Salisbury, Graham
Eyes of the Emperor
Laurel Leaf, 2007. 256 pp. ISBN 978-0440229568
A work of historical fiction about a 16-year-old Japanese American boy who serves in the 100th Infantry Battalion and encounters racism and segregation. Based on the author's interviews with Japanese American veterans.
Intermediate (6-8)
Salisbury, Graham
Under the Blood-Red Sun
Yearling, 1995. 256 pp. ISBN 978-0440411390
A 13-year-old Japanese American boy living in Hawaii watches racial prejudices and tensions escalate following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Intermediate (6-8)
Feldman, Jay
Suitcase Sefton and the American Dream
Triumph, 2006. 229 pp. ISBN 978-1572438125
A novel about a New York Yankees scout who discovers a talented Japanese American pitcher who is detained in a concentration camp in 1942, explores themes of cultural conflict and civil liberties.
Secondary (7-12)
Gotanda, Philip Kan
Fish Head Soup and Other Plays
University of Washington, 2000. 288 pp. ISBN 978-0295974330
Four compelling plays that explore the relationships between different generations of Japanese Americans
Secondary (7-12)
Gruenewald, Mary Matsuda
Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps
NewSage, 2005. 240 pp. ISBN 978-0939165537
A memoir and coming-of-age story about life in concentration camps. Also includes photos and more recent historical information such as the dedication of the National Japanese American Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Secondary (7-12)
Hamamura, John
Color of the Sea
Anchor, 2007. 336 pp. ISBN 978-0307386076
A novel about a Japanese American man drafted into the U.S. Army and serves as a language instructor for the Military Intelligence Service, and a Japanese American woman who was deported just before World War II.
Secondary (7-12)
Hosokawa, Bill
Nisei: The Quiet Americans
New York: William Morrow and Co., 1969; Univ. Press of Colorado, 1992.
History of the Japanese Americans in the U.S. covering the period of immigration through the early 1960s. Deals with events that led to the incarceration of Japanese Americans. One of the first comprehensive histories written about Japanese Americans.
Secondary (7-12)
Hosokawa, Bill
Out of the Frying Pan: Reflections of a Japanese American
University Press of Colorado, 1998. 184 pp. ISBN 978-0870815133
A combined mini-autobiography and collection of the writer's columns for the Pacific Citizen newspaper since 1978. It provides glimpses into his life and experiences as a Japanese American.
Secondary (7-12)
Inada, Lawson Fusao
Legends from Camp
112 pp.
Poetry of one of the giants in the field of Asian American poetry. "A masterwork of American poetry." - Leslie M. Silko
Secondary (7-12)
Ishizuka, Karen L.
Lost and Found: Reclaiming the Japanese American Incarceration
University of Illinois, 2006. 248 pp. ISBN 978-0252073724
Focuses on the development of the Japanese American National Museum exhibit "Remembering the Japanese American Experience." Argues that the U.S. government ignored many Japanese Americans who voiced their disagreement and anger with Executive Order 9066, and includes primary sources.
Secondary (7-12)
Kageyama-Ramakrishnan, Claire
Shadow Mountain
Four Way, 2008. 80 pp. ISBN 978-1884800849
Narratives from Japanese Americans incarcerated at Manzanar and memories from the author's grandparents' experiences in concentration camps, "examining the fault-line between family life and communal experience."
Secondary (7-12)
Kessler, Lauren
Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family
2008, 320 pp.
Bright, ambitious, enterprising Masuo Yasui traveled to America in 1903 and like most immigrants coming to America, he was filled with hopes and dreams. A story of one family's struggle to conquer obstacles in pursuit of their dreams.
Secondary (7-12)
Knaeffle, Tomi Kaizawa
Our House Divided, Seven Japanese American Families in World War II
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991. 144 pp.
"Focuses on seven personal stories of Japanese American families as they struggled with the emotions and events brought on by World War II...the dilemma of first-generation Japanese Americans who were strongly attached both to the country of their birth and to the land where they had spent most of their lives; and...the dilemma of second generation Japanese Americans, whose loyalty to the U.S. was questioned even though they were American citizens."
Secondary (7-12)
Kogawa, Joy
Itsuka
New York: Anchor Books, 1993.
When would the incarceration of the Japanese Americans be recognized as wrong? How the Japanese Canadians fought for government compensation for their wartime losses.
Secondary (7-12)
Maki, Dr. Mitchell, Harry Kitano and Megan Berthold
Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress
An excellent case study of policymaking: the passage of the 1988 Civil Liberties Act that provided monetary redress for thousands of Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in American concentration camps. The authors provide the political, social and economic history that prevented the recognition of the injustice and an analysis of how recognition finally occurred.
Secondary (7-12)
Murayama, Milton
All I Asking for Is My Body
University of Hawaii, 1988. 120 pp. ISBN 978-0824811723
A novella capturing the experience of Nisei in Hawaii during the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the years prior. Murayama narrates in Hawaiian Pidgin, demonstrating realism and the growing differences between Japanese American generations.
Secondary (7-12)
Okada, John
No No Boy
New York: Tuttle, 1957. Reprinted by University of Washington Press. 260 pp.
A moving novel concerning the loyalty issue of Japanese Americans in World War II.
Secondary (7-12)
Otsuka, Julie
When the Emperor Was Divine
Anchor, 2003 (reprint). 160 pp. ISBN 978-0385721813
Powerful novel about the unraveling of a Japanese American family due to incarceration in camps and wartime injustice.
Secondary (7-12)
Sasaki, R.A.
The Loom and Other Stories
St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1991. 118 pp.
"This collection of stories propels its readers into the daily experiences of three generations of Japanese Americans."
Secondary (7-12)
Sato, Kiyo
Kiyo's Story: A Japanese American Family's Quest for the American Dream
Soho, 2009. 352 pp. ISBN 978-1569475690
A memoir about Sato's family and their determination and struggle to succeed in America amidst the Great Depression, incarceration during World War II, and subsequent hardships. Formerly titled "Dandelion Through the Crack."
Secondary (7-12)
Tateishi, John
And Justice for All: An Oral History of the Japanese American Detention Camps
University of Washington, 1999. 262 pp. ISBN 978-0295977850
An update of the 1984 edition, this oral history provides the perspective of thirty Japanese Americans who were forced into concentration camps.
Secondary (7-12)
Uchida, Yoshiko
Desert Exile, The Uprooting of a Japanese American Family
1984, 160 pp.
This is a personal account of a Berkeley, California family facing the World War II uprooting and incarceration. According to Senator Daniel K. Inouye, it is a moving account of a tragic period in American history.
Secondary (7-12)
Yamada, Mitsuye
Camp Notes and Other Writings
New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1998.
A poet's experience as a Japanese American woman and former internee
Secondary (7-12)
Yamamoto, Hisaye
Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories
New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2001 Revised
Finely crafted short stories of Japanese American life.
Secondary (7-12)
Edited by John Modell
The Kikuchi Diary: Chronicle from an American Concentration Camp
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1992. 272 pp.
Kikuchi was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley when the war broke out. He kept a diary of his thoughts and experiences from December 7, 1941 to September 1942. "A lively, intensely human and perceptive record of what it was like to be incarcerated by a country you had faith in but which did not have faith in you."
Secondary (7-12)
Duus, Masayo
Unlikely Liberators: The Men of the 100th and 442nd
University of Hawaii, 2007. 272 pp. ISBN 978-0824831400
High School (9-12)
Gordon, Linda & Okihiro, Gary Y., ed.
Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment
W. W. Norton & Company, 2008. 224 pp. ISBN 978-0393330908
A collection of 104 photographs by Dorothea Lange, whose photographic work of the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans was largely censored throughout World War II. The images are also set within technical, cultural, and historical contexts
High School (9-12)
Hill, Kimi Kodani
Topaz Moon - Chiura Obata's Art of the Internment
2000. 147 pp.
An inspiring collection of Obata's art through the traumatic period of incarceration during World War II from Tanforan "assembly center" near San Francisco to the desert of Topaz, Utah. This book contains 100 sketches, sumi paintings, and watercolors. A great tribute to the artistic genius and spirit, which was not defeated by adversity.
High School (9-12)
Howard, John
Concentration Camps on the Home Front: Japanese Americans in the House of Jim Crow
University of Chicago, 2008. 356 pp. ISBN 978-0226354767
Re-creation of life in the camps, highlighting the roles of women, first-generation immigrants, and political activists. Also examines American society and values from a critical perspective and focuses on the U.S. government's campaign to "Americanize the inmates."
High School (9-12)
Inada, Lawson Fusao
Only What We Could Carry
2000, 439 pp.
"Contained in these pages are what we have carried... our indomitable spirit and dignity, an implacable quest for justice to redeem the crimes committed against an entire race—indeed an entire nation." Janice Mirikitani
High School (9-12)
Masuda, Minoru (edited by Hana Masuda & Dianne Bridgman)
Letters from the 442nd: The World War II Correspondence of a Japanese American Medic
University of Washington, 2008. 290 pp. ISBN 978-0295987453
Masuda, a medic for the 442nd Combat Team, wrote letters to his wife about his experience in Italy and France during World War II. His wife, Hana, provides historical context and her own perspective.
High School (9-12)
McNaughton, James C.
Nisei Linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service During World War II
U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2007. 530 pp. ISBN 978-0160729577
Describes the story of those who served with Army and Marine units, translating, interrogating, radio monitoring and conducting psychological warfare for military government, war crimes trials, censorship and counterintelligence.
High School (9-12)
Muller, Eric L.
Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in WWII
2003, 250 pp.
The story of Japanese Americans who resisted the draft while incarcerated in concentration camps during World War II.
High School (9-12)
Murray, Alice
Historical Memories of the Japanese American Internment and the Struggle for Redress
Stanford University, 2007. 608 pp. ISBN 978-0804745345
An analysis of Japanese American incarceration and their efforts to seek redress. Examines the "politics of memory and history" and how they influenced impressions of their incarceration.
High School (9-12)
Robinson, Greg
A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America
Columbia University, 2009. 408 pp. ISBN 978-0231129220
A far-reaching analysis and historiography of Japanese in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Provides a multi-faceted perspective and archival materials.
High School (9-12)
Sterner, C. Douglas
Go For Broke: The Nisei Warriors of World War II Who Conquered Germany, Japan, and American Bigotry
American Legacy Historical Press, 2007. 216 pp. ISBN 978-0979689611
An inspiring story about Japanese Americans of the "Purple Heart Battalion" who fought bigotry for their right to serve in the U.S. military - and ultimately helped to liberate Europe and the Pacific, and became the most decorated fighting unit in U.S. military history. Includes official citations of all those who were decorated with the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross.
High School (9-12)
Stinnett, Robert B.
Day of Deceit - The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor
2001. 416 pp.
Pearl Harbor was not an accident, a mere failure of American intelligence, or a brilliant Japanese military coup. It was the result of a carefully orchestrated design, initiated at the highest levels of our government. According to a key memorandum, eight steps were taken to make sure we would enter the war by this means. Pearl Harbor was the only way, leading officials felt, to galvanize the reluctant American public into action.
High School (9-12)
Yenne, Bill
Rising Sons: The Japanese American GIs Who Fought for the United States in World War II
Thomas Dunne, 2007. 320 pp. ISBN 978-0312354640
Chronicles the experience of Japanese American servicemen and women in combat and on the home front.
High School (9-12)
Azuma, Eiichiro
Between Two Empires: Race, History, and Transnationalism in Japanese America
Oxford University, 2005. 320 pp. ISBN 978-0195159417
An in-depth examination of the nuances in transnational identity felt among Japanese immigrants during incarceration in U.S. camps
Refrence
Close, Frederick P.
Tokyo Rose / An American Patriot: A Dual Biography
Scarecrow, 2010. 544 pp. ISBN 978-0810867772
An analysis of American sensationalism during World War II; contrasts the fictitious Japanese radio propagandist "Tokyo Rose" with Japanese American citizen Iva Toguri, who was arrested and accused of being Tokyo Rose. Detailed, informative, and well-written.
Refrence
Daniels, Roger
Concentration Camps of North America, Japanese in the U.S. and Canada during World War II
Malabar, FL: R.E Krieger Pub. Co., 1993. 262 pp.
Second edition of the historical account of the Japanese American concentration camps includes a treatment of the Japanese Canadian experience during World War II when 21,000 Japanese Canadians living in British Columbia were subjected to wartime measures by the Canadian government.
Refrence
Drinnon, Richard
Keeper of Concentration Camps
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989
A new look at the respected director of the War Relocation Authority, Dillon S. Myer. The author is unequivocal in his depiction of Myer as a racist. He examines the injustice of government policy towards Japanese Americans during the war. Compare with Myer's Uprooted Americans.
Refrence
Fiset, Louis & Nomura, Gail M.
Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest: Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians in the Twentieth Century
University of Washington, 2000. 364 pp. ISBN 978-0295984612
Collection of essays about Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest and the need to challenge discrimination.
Refrence
Fugita, Stephen S. and O'Brien, David J.
Japanese American Ethnicity: The Persistence of Community
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994. 218 pp.
"This study employs both historical sources and contemporary survey data to explain the seeming paradox of why Japanese Americans have maintained high levels of community involvement while becoming structurally assimilated."
Refrence
Fujino, Diane C.
Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama
University of Minnesota, 2005. 432 pp. ISBN 978-0816645930
A biography and examination of the life of the Japanese American political activist who defied gender, racial, and cultural norms during the 1960s. Her social activism was significantly influenced by her time spent in World War II concentration camps
Refrence
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano
Issei, Nisei, War Bride, Three Generations of Japanese American Women in Domestic Service
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988. 312 pp.
A unique study of Japanese American women employed as domestic workers. "Three generations of women speak in their own words about coping with degraded employment and how this work related to family and community life."
Refrence
Higashide, Seiichi
Adios to Tears, The Memoirs of a Japanese Peruvian Interned in U.S. Concentration Camps
Honolulu: E&E Kudo, 1993. 256 pp.
The personal journey of a Japanese-Peruvian immigrant and his forced incarceration during World War II at Crystal City, Texas and his eventual settlement in Chicago.
Refrence
Irons, Peter
Justice at War, The Story of Japanese American Internment Cases
University of California Press, 1993. 415 pp.
In-depth study of the Japanese American legal cases brought before the Supreme Court.
Refrence
Kurashige, Lon
Japanese American Celebration and Conflict: A History of Ethnic Identity and Festival, 1934-1990
University of California, 2002. 296 pp. ISBN 978-0520227439
Addresses tensions among Japanese Americans along class, gender, and generational lines with regard to the largest annual Japanese celebration in the U.S. - Los Angeles' Nisei Week.
Refrence
Matsumoto, Valerie J.
Farming the Home Place: A Japanese American Community in California
Cornell University, 1994. 280 pp. ISBN 978-0801481154
A collection of over 80 oral histories from members of the Cortez colony and their descendants, outlining the colony's founding, concentration camp experience, and through the agriculture "upheaval" of the 70's and early 80's
Refrence
Edited by Brian Niiya Foreword by Senator Daniel K. Inouye
Japanese American History, An A to Z Reference from 1868 to the Present
2000, 446 pp. Revised
Referenced in an encyclopedia style structure, broken down into four sections: a chronology of major events in Japanese American history; more than 400 A to Z entries on significant individuals, organizations, events and movements; a thorough bibliography including all major works on Japanese Americans; and a historical overview by Professor Gary Okihiro.
Refrence
Odo, Franklin S.
No Sword to Bury: Japanese Americans in Hawai'i During World Ward II
Temple University, 2004. 336 pp. ISBN 978-1592132706
Discusses the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Varsity Victory Volunteers (a non-military group dedicated to public works) and the effects of their efforts upon the Hawaiian community and impressions of the "model minority." Reflects upon the Nisei generation in Hawaii.
Refrence
Ogawa, Dennis M.
Kodomo No Tame Ni - For the Sake of the Children: The Japanese American Experience in Hawaii
University of Hawaii, 1980. 644 pp. ISBN 978-0824807306
Describes the Japanese American community in Hawaii.
Refrence
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians
Personal Justice Denied Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians
Washington, D.C. Revised 1997, 493 pp.
Thorough examination of the wartime incarceration obtained from hearings the federal commission held between July 1981 and December 1982 and from archival research.
Refrence
Takaki, Ronald
Strangers from a Different Shore
Boston: Little Brown Inc., Revised 1998, 640 pp.
History of Asian Americans...Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans and Indians...from immigration to the present. Numerous anecdotes flesh out history
Refrence
Tamura, Eileen
Americanization, Acculturation, and Ethnic Identity: Nisei Generation in Hawaii
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1994.
Examines the wartime hysteria that swept through Hawaii during and after World War II. The Nisei were targets of racism and were forced by Hawaii's organized effort to be "Americanized."
Refrence
Wegars, Priscilla
Imprisoned in Paradise: Japanese Internee Road Workers at the World War II Kooskia Internment Camp
University of Idaho, 2010. 360 pp. ISBN 978-0893015503
The story of noncitizen U.S. residents of Japanese descent who volunteered to construct the Lewis-Clark Highway (now Highway 12) in exchange for wages. Empowered by the 1929 Geneva Convention, the detainees were inspired to successfully challenge their mistreatment.
Refrence
Weglyn, Michi
Years of Infamy
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000, 356 pp.
A compelling work, thoroughly researched, utilizing primary documents, points up the deceit of the government in the removal and imprisonment of Japanese Americans
Refrence
Wehrey, Jane
Voices From This Long Brown Land: Oral Recollections of Owens Valley Lives and Manzanar Pasts
Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. 256 pp. ISBN 978-0312295417
A collection of fourteen different narratives from Owens Valley, California and perspectives on a community during World War II.
Refrence
Yoo, David K.
Growing Up Nisei: Race, Generation, and Culture among Japanese Americans of California, 1924-49
University of Illinois, 1999. 264 pp. ISBN 978-0252068225
Examines how Nisei formed their identity and established a place within American society. Addresses the complexity of navigating multiple meanings of the war related to race, generations, and politics.
Refrence
Fitzmaurice, Kathryn
A Diamond in the Desert
Penguin, 2012. 272 PP. ISBN 9781101560211
Twelve-year-old Tetsu eats, sleeps and breathes baseball. It's all he ever thinks about. But after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tetsu and his family are forced from their home into an internment camp in the Arizona desert with other Japanese Americans, and baseball becomes the last thing on his mind. The camp isn't technically a prison, but it sure feels like one when there's nothing to do and no place to go. So when a man starts up a boys' baseball team, Tetsu is only too eager to play again. But with his sister suddenly falling ill, and his father taken away for questioning, Tetsu is forced to choose between his family and his love of the game.
Intermediate (6-8)
Yamasaki, Katie
Fish for Jimmy: Inspired by One Family's Experience in a Japanese American Internment Camp
Holiday House, 2020. 32 pp. ISBN 9780823427871
For two boys in a Japanese American family, everything changed when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States went to war.
Elementary (K-6)
Noguchi, Rick & Jenks, Deneen
Flowers from Mariko
Lee & Low Books, 2001. 32pp. ISBN 9781584300328
World War II is over and Mariko and her family are finally allowed to leave the camp. But the transition back into society isn't easy. Mariko's father longs to restart his gardening business, but his truck has been stolen. The family moves to a trailer park, where Mariko sees her parents are worried and their spirits are low. She has an idea to create happiness for her family by bringing gardening back into their lives.
Elementary (K-6)
Grady, Cynthia
"Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind
Charlesbridge Publishing, 2018. 32 pp. ISBN 9781632895837
When Executive Order 9066 is enacted after the attack at Pearl Harbor, children's librarian Clara Breed's young Japanese American patrons are to be sent to prison camp. Before they are moved, Breed asks the children to write her letters and gives them books to take with them. Through the three years of their internment, the children correspond with Miss Breed, sharing their stories, providing feedback on books, and creating a record of their experiences. Using excerpts from children's letters held at the Japanese American National Museum, author Cynthia Grady presents a difficult subject with honesty and hope.
Elementary (K-6)
Sepahban, Lois
Paper Wishes
"Macmillan, 2016. 181 pp. ISBN 9780374302160
Ten-year-old Manami did not realize how peaceful her family's life on Bainbridge Island was until the day it all changed. It's 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Manami and her family are Japanese American, which means that the government says they must leave their home by the sea and join other Japanese Americans at a prison camp in the desert. Manami is sad to go, but even worse is that they are going to have to give her and her grandfather's dog, Yujiin, to a neighbor to take care of. Manami decides to sneak Yujiin under her coat and gets as far as the mainland before she is caught and forced to abandon Yujiin. She and her grandfather are devastated, but Manami clings to the hope that somehow Yujiin will find his way to the camp and make her family whole again. It isn't until she finds a way to let go of her guilt that Manami can reclaim the piece of herself that she left behind and accept all that has happened to her family.
Elementary (K-6)
Conkling, Winifred
Sylvia & Aki
Tricycle Press, 2011. 151 pp. ISBN 9781582463377
Here is the remarkable story based on true events of Sylvia Mendez and Aki Munemitsu, two ordinary girls living in extraordinary times. When Sylvia and her brothers are not allowed to register at the same school Aki attended and are instead sent to a "Mexican" school, the stage is set for Sylvia's father to challenge in court the separation of races in California's schools. Ultimately, Mendez vs. Westminster School District led to the desegregation of California schools and helped build the case that would end school segregation nationally.
Elementary (K-6)
Dallas, Sandra
Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky
Sleeping Bear Press, 2014. 216 pp. ISBN 9781627537728
It's 1942: Tomi Itano, 12, is a second-generation Japanese American who lives in California with her family on their strawberry farm. Although her parents came from Japan and her grandparents still live there, Tomi considers herself an American. She doesn't speak Japanese and has never been to Japan. But after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, things change. No Japs Allowed signs hang in store windows and Tomi's family is ostracized. Things get much worse. Suspected as a spy, Tomi's father is taken away. The rest of the Itano family is sent to an internment camp in Colorado. Many other Japanese American families face a similar fate. Tomi becomes bitter, wondering how her country could treat her and her family like the enemy. What does she need to do to prove she is an honorable American? Sandra Dallas shines a light on a dark period of American history in this story of a young Japanese American girl caught up in the prejudices and World War II.
Elementary (K-6)
Nagai, Mariko
Dust of Eden
Albert Whitman & Company, 2014. 144 pp. ISBN 9780807517406
We lived under a sky so blue in Idaho right near the towns of Hunt and Eden but we were not welcomed there. In early 1942, thirteen-year-old Mina Masako Tagawa and her Japanese-American family are sent from their home in Seattle to an internment camp in Idaho. What do you do when your home country treats you like an enemy? This memorable and powerful novel in verse, written by award-winning author Mariko Nagai, explores the nature of fear, the value of acceptance, and the beauty of life. As thought-provoking as it is uplifting, Dust of Eden is told with an honesty that is both heart-wrenching and inspirational.
Elementary (K-6)
Wolff, Virginia Euwer
Bat 6
Scholastic Inc., 2015. 240 pp. ISBN 9780545881050
"Extraordinarily artful." - Booklist The sixth-grade girls of Barlow and Bear Creek Ridge have been waiting to play in the annual softball game -- the Bat 6 -- for as long as they can remember. But something is different this year. There's a new girl on both teams, each with a secret in her past that puts them on a collision course set to explode on game day. No one knows how to stop it. All they can do is watch...
Elementary (K-6)
Kadohata, Cynthia
A Place to Belong
Simon and Schuster, 2019. 416 pp. ISBN 9781481446648
A Japanese-American family, reeling from their ill treatment in the Japanese internment camps, gives up their American citizenship to move back to Hiroshima, unaware of the devastation wreaked by the atomic bomb in this piercing look at the aftermath of World War II by Newbery Medalist Cynthia Kadohata.
Intermediate (6-8)
Hughes, Kiku
Displacement
First Second, 2020. 288 pp. ISBN 9781250801623
A teenager is pulled back in time to witness her grandmother's experiences in World War II-era Japanese internment camps in Displacement, a historical graphic novel from Kiku Hughes.
Intermediate (6-8)
Hesse, Monica
The War Outside
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2018. 336pp. ISBN 9780316316705
Haruko and Margot meet at the high school in Crystal City, a "family internment camp" for those accused of colluding with the enemy. The teens discover that they are polar opposites in so many ways, except for one that seems to override all the others: the camp is changing them, day by day and piece by piece. Haruko finds herself consumed by fear for her soldier brother and distrust of her father, who she knows is keeping something from her. And Margot is doing everything she can to keep her family whole as her mother's health deteriorates and her rational, patriotic father becomes a man who distrusts America and fraternizes with Nazis.
Secondary (7-12)
Chee, Traci
We Are Not Free
HMH Books for Young Readers, 2020. 400 pp. ISBN 9780358131434
"From New York Times best-selling and acclaimed author Traci Chee comes We Are Not Free, the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II.
Secondary (7-12)
Uchida, Yoshiko
The Invisible Thread
HarperTrophy, 1995. 160 pp. ISBN 9780688137038
Growing up in California, Yoshi knew her family looked different from their neighbors. Still, she felt like an American. But everything changed when America went to war against Japan. Along with all the other Japanese-Americans on the West Coast, Yoshi's family were rounded up and imprisoned in a crowded. badly built camp in the desert because they "looked like the enemy." Yoshiko Uchida grew up to be an award-winning author. This memoir of her childhood gives a personal account of a shameful episode in American history.
Intermediate (6-8)
Levine, Ellen
A Fence Away From Freedom
G.P. Putnam's, 1995. 260 pp. ISBN 9780399226380
Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, nearly 120,000 Japanese-Americans, many of whom had been born in the U.S., were taken from their homes by order of the government and placed in internment camps. Their only crime was their Japanese ancestry. In a series of interviews, Japanese-Americans who were children and teenagers at that time describe life in the camp.
Secondary (7-12)
Oppenheim, Joanne
Dear Miss Breed
"Scholastic, 2006. 287 pp. ISBN 9780439569927
A chronicle of the incredible correspondence between California librarian Clara Breed and young Japanese American internees during World War II.
Secondary (7-12)
Mochizuki, Ken
Beacon Hill Boys
"Scholastic Press, 2002. 201 pp. ISBN 9780439267496
Like other Japanese American families in the Beacon Hill area of Seattle, 16-year-old Dan Inagaki's parents expect him to be an example of the "model minority." But unlike Dan's older brother, with his 4.0 GPA and Ivy League scholarship, Dan is tired of being called "Oriental" by his teachers, and sick of feeling invisible; Dan's growing self-hatred threatens his struggle to claim an identity. Sharing his anger and confusion are his best friends, Jerry Ito, Eddie Kanagae, and Frank Ishimoto, and together these Beacon Hill Boys fall into a spiral of rebellion that is all too all-American.
Secondary (7-12)
Sugiura, Misa
This Time Will be Different
HarperTeen, 2019. 416 pp. ISBN 9780062473462
Misa Sugiura's This Time Will Be Different (2019) is set in present day Silicon Valley and skillfully weaves the incarceration story into very contemporary dramas faced by a group of high school students. Protagonist CJ Katsuyama is a high school junior who becomes politicized when her mother's venture capitalist boss offers to buy the family business, a now struggling flower shop. That the boss's family had agitated for the mass removal of Japanese Americans during World War II and had profited from buying up properties owned by Japanese Americans lead CJ and her Aunt Hannah to oppose the sale, while her mother—who has been subsidizing the business for years—supports it. CJ applies the lessons learned from her mother to try to stop the sale, which morphs into a larger movement to redress the wrongs of history. She also navigates a complex web of high school friendships and desires that ebb and flow with her growing politicization.
Secondary (7-12)
Faulkner, Matt
Gaijin: American Prisoner of War
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2014. 144 pp. ISBN 9781484712139
With a white mother and a Japanese father, Koji Miyamoto quickly realizes that his home in San Francisco is no longer a welcoming one after Pearl Harbor is attacked. And once he's sent to an internment camp, he learns that being half white at the camp is just as difficult as being half Japanese on the streets of an American city during WWII. Koji's story, based on true events, is brought to life by Matt Faulkner's cinematic illustrations that reveal Koji struggling to find his place in a tumultuous world-one where he is a prisoner of war in his own country.
Elementary (K-6)
Larson, Kirby
Dash
Scholastic Inc., 2014. 256 pp. ISBN 9780545662826
New from Newbery Honor author Kirby Larson, the moving story of a Japanese-American girl who is separated from her dog upon being sent to an incarceration camp during WWII. Although Mitsi Kashino and her family are swept up in the wave of anti-Japanese sentiment following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mitsi never expects to lose her home -- or her beloved dog, Dash. But, as World War II rages and people of Japanese descent are forced into incarceration camps, Mitsi is separated from Dash, her classmates, and life as she knows it. The camp is a crowded and unfamiliar place, whose dusty floors, seemingly endless lines, and barbed wire fences begin to unravel the strong Kashino family ties. With the help of a friendly neighbor back home, Mitsi remains connected to Dash in spite of the hard times, holding on to the hope that the war will end soon and life will return to normal. Though they've lost their home, will the Kashino family also lose their sense of family? And will Mitsi and Dash ever be reunited?
Elementary (K-6)
Moss, Marissa
Barbed Wire Baseball
Harry N. Abrams, 2016. 48 pp. ISBN 9781419720581
A true story set in a Japanese-American internment camp in World War II. As a young boy, Kenichi Zenimura (Zeni) wanted to be a baseball player, even though everyone told him he was too small. He grew up to become a successful athlete, playing with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. But when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Zeni and his family were sent to one of several internment camps established in the U.S. for people of Japanese ancestry. Zeni brought the game of baseball to the camp, along with a sense of hope, and became known as the "Father of Japanese-American Baseball."
Elementary (K-6)
Sandler, Martin
Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During World War II
Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2013. 176 pp. ISBN 9780802722782
While Americans fought for freedom and democracy abroad, fear and suspicion towards Japanese Americans swept the country after Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Culling information from extensive, previously unpublished interviews and oral histories with Japanese American survivors of internment camps, Martin W. Sandler gives an in-depth account of their lives before, during their imprisonment, and after their release. Bringing readers inside life in the internment camps and explaining how a country that is built on the ideals of freedom for all could have such a dark mark on its history, this in-depth look at a troubling period of American history sheds light on the prejudices in today's world and provides the historical context we need to prevent similar abuses of power.
Elementary (K-6)
Takei, George
They Called Us Enemy
Top Shelf Productions, 2020. ISBN 9781684068821
THEY CALLED US ENEMY is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the terrors and small joys of childhood in the shadow of legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's tested faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future. What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? George Takei joins cowriters Justin Eisinger & Steven Scott and artist Harmony Becker for the journey of a lifetime.
Intermediate (6-8)
Ford, Jamie
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Ballantine Books, 2009. 290 pp. ISBN 9780345505330
In 1986, Henry Lee joins a crowd outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has discovered the belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. As the owner displays and unfurls a Japanese parasol, Henry, a Chinese American, remembers a young Japanese American girl from his childhood in the 1940s—Keiko Okabe, with whom he forged a bond of friendship and innocent love that transcended the prejudices of their Old World ancestors. After Keiko and her family were evacuated to the internment camps, she and Henry could only hope that their promise to each other would be kept. Now, forty years later, Henry explores the hotel's basement for the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot even begin to measure. His search will take him on a journey to revisit the sacrifices he has made for family, for love, for country.
Secondary (7-12)
Otsuka, Julie
The Buddha in the Attic
Knopf, 2011. 129 pp. ISBN 9780307700001
In eight incantatory sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces the picture brides' extraordinary lives, from their arduous journey by boat, where they exchange photographs of their husbands, imagining uncertain futures in an unknown land; to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives; to their backbreaking work picking fruit in the fields and scrubbing the floors of white women; to their struggles to master a new language and a new culture; to their experiences in childbirth, and then as mothers, raising children who will ultimately reject their heritage and their history; to the deracinating arrival of war. (less)
Secondary (7-12)
Grant, Kimi Cunningham
Silver Like Dust: One Family's Story of America's Japanese Internment
Pegasus Books, 2012. 288 pp. ISBN 9781605982724
But there was one part of Obaachan's life that fascinated and haunted Kimi―her gentle yet proud Obaachan was once a prisoner, along with 112,000 Japanese Americans, for more than five years of her life. Obaachan never spoke of those years, and Kimi's own mother only spoke of it in whispers. It was a source of haji, or shame. But what really happened to Obaachan, then a young woman, and the thousands of other men, women, and children like her?
Secondary (7-12)
Moore, Brenda
Serving Our Country: Japanese American Women in the Military during World War II
Rutgers University Press, 2003. 232 pp. ISBN 9780813532783
Through in-depth interviews with surviving Nisei women who served, Brenda L. Moore provides fascinating firsthand accounts of their experiences. Interested primarily in shedding light on the experiences of Nisei women during the war, the author argues for the relevance of these experiences to larger questions of American race relations and views on gender and their intersections, particularly in the country's highly charged wartime atmosphere. Uncovering a page in American history that has been obscured, Moore adds nuance to our understanding of the situation of Japanese Americans during the war.
Secondary (7-12)
Murata, Kioyaki
An Enemy Among Friends
Kodansha, 1991. 242 pp. ISBN 9784770016096
In the summer of 1941, a Japanese teenager arrived in San Francisco to pursue his dream of studying in America. But, on December 7th, his life changed drastically with the attack on Pearl Harbor. This marvelous memoir recalls a time of vanished innocence and endless possibilities, and provides a valuable corrective to a darker and more prevalent view of America at war.
Secondary (7-12)
Bannai, Lorraine
Enduring Conviction: Fred Korematsu and His Quest for Justice
University of Washington Press, 2015. 312 pp. ISBN 9780295995151
Fred Korematsu's decision to resist F.D.R.'s Executive Order 9066, which provided authority for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, was initially the case of a young man following his heart: he wanted to remain in California with his white fiancee. However, he quickly came to realize that it was more than just a personal choice; it was a matter of basic human rights.
Secondary (7-12)
Kitagaki Jr., Paul
Behind Barbed Wire: Searching for Japanese Americans Incarcerated During World War II
CityFiles Press, 2019. 152 pp. ISBN 9780991541812
Using black-and-white film and a large-format camera similar to the equipment of photographers in the 1940s, Kitagaki sought to mirror and complement photographs taken during World War II--while revealing the strength and perseverance of the subjects.
Secondary (7-12)
Shimoda, Brandon
The Grave on the Wall
City Lights Books, 2018. 208 pp. ISBN 9780872867932
Award-winning poet Brandon Shimoda has crafted a lyrical portrait of his paternal grandfather, Midori Shimoda, whose life—child migrant, talented photographer, suspected enemy alien and spy, desert wanderer, American citizen—mirrors the arc of Japanese America in the twentieth century. In a series of pilgrimages, Shimoda records the search to find his grandfather, and unfolds, in the process, a moving elegy on memory and forgetting.
High School (9-12)
Matsuda, Lawrence
A Cold Wind From Idaho: Poems
Black Lawrence Press, 2010. 117 pp. ISBN 9780982636404
Those Americans familiar with the Pacific Northwest Japanese American World War II experience will understand the imagery wrought by the title as being both evocative and apt. The metaphor of freezing winter winds chilling the body and then entering the soul of those affected conveys fittingly how the Japanese Issei and Japanese American Nisei encountered, braved, and then survived the cold iciness of Idaho's winters while they were huddled in a primitive American barbed wire concentration camp.
High School (9-12)
Dempster, Brian Komei
From Our Side of the Fence: Growing Up in America's Concentration Camps
Kearny Street Workshop, 2001. 132 pp. ISBN 9780970550408
From Our Side of the Fence contains the first-person accounts of eleven former internees who recall their memories of youth in America's concentration camps. This collection traces each author's personal journey through war, giving voice to a history that has been silenced. This book also offers lesson plans for use by educators and students and for internees who wish to tell their own stories.
Secondary (7-12)
Asahina, Robert
Just Americans: How Japanese Americans Won a War at Home and Abroad
Penguin Publishing Group, 2007. 339 pp. ISBN 9781592403004
This is the dramatic story of the segregated Japanese American 100th Battalion/442d Regimental Combat Team and what its soldiers did to affirm their full citizenship. During the fall of 1944, the combat team made headlines when it rescued the "lost battalion" of the 36th "Texas" Division. And while the soldiers of the 100th/442d were sacrificing their lives in Europe, the Roosevelt administration was debating whether to close the camps, and whether military necessity had truly justified the "relocation." Just Americans tells the story of soldiers in combat who were fighting a greater battle at home. As Gen. Jacob L. Devers put it, in World War II the soldiers of the 100th/442d had "more than earned the right to be called just Americans, not Japanese Americans."
High School (9-12)
Abe, Frank
WE HEREBY REFUSE: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration
Chin Music Press, 2021. ISBN 9781634050319
Three voices. Three acts of defiance. One mass injustice. The story of camp as you've never seen it before. Japanese Americans complied when evicted from their homes in World War II -- but many refused to submit to imprisonment in American concentration camps without a fight. In this groundbreaking graphic novel, meet JIM AKUTSU, the inspiration for John Okada's No-No Boy, who refuses to be drafted from the camp at Minidoka when classified as a non-citizen, an enemy alien; HIROSHI KASHIWAGI, who resists government pressure to sign a loyalty oath at Tule Lake, but yields to family pressure to renounce his U.S. citizenship; and MITSUYE ENDO, a reluctant recruit to a lawsuit contesting her imprisonment, who refuses a chance to leave the camp at Topaz so that her case could reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Based upon painstaking research, We Hereby Refuse presents an original vision of America's past with disturbing links to the American present.
High School (9-12)
Kamei, Susan
"When Can We Go Back to America?: Voices of Japanese American Incarceration during WWII
Simon and Schuster, 2021. 736 pp. ISBN 9781481401463
In this dramatic and page-turning narrative history of Japanese Americans before, during, and after their World War II incarceration, Susan H. Kamei weaves the voices of over 130 individuals who lived through this tragic episode, most of them as young adults.
