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Masters of Modern Design: The Art of the Japanese American Experience (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Expression through art, Nature as beauty, Role of women
- Available
Masters of Modern Design profiles five Japanese American artists who made their mark on the postwar art world: Ruth Asawa , S. Neil Fujita , George Nakashima , Isamu Noguchi , and Gyo Obata. Using archival footage and stills along with interviews with the artists and their children, the film looks at their lives, the impact of their wartime incarceration, and their impact as artists in various media, focusing on the 1950s and 1960s. David Iwataki composed the period jazz soundtrack.
Mei Ling in China City (book)
- Books
- Widely available
Mei Ling In China City (2008) by Icy Smith tells the story of 12-year-old Chinese American Mei Ling Lee who lives in China City, an "old Chinatown" in Los Angeles which does not survive today. Mei Ling is lonely because her best friend Yayeko Akiyama was sent to Manzanar . The girls write to each other over the course of the war—the book includes handwritten correspondence between them—but they lose touch after the war is over. The main focus of the story is Mei Ling's determination to raise the most funds for the United China Relief campaign, which sought funds for food and medical supplies for war victims in mainland China. Her wish is to present the grand prize to Yayeko upon her return to China City. Based on a true story, the real Mei Ling still hopes to find her friend Yayeko again someday.
Memoirs of a Certain Nisei (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Empowerment, Patriotism – positive side or complications, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Available
Posthumously published memoir by Kibei war hero Thomas Taro Higa , translated from its original Japanese and published in 1988. The vast majority of the book covers events taking place during World War II.
Memories of Place: Clarksburg's Japanese Language School (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Importance of community, Working class struggles
- Widely available
Short documentary film on the Holland Union Gakuen ( Japanese language school ) in Clarksburg, California.
The Merced Assembly Center: Injustice Immortalized (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Power of the past, Injustice, Importance of community
- Widely available
Documentary film on Japanese Americans from Central California who were incarcerated at the Merced Assembly Center and the effort nearly sixty years later to build a memorial at the site. Produced by the Merced Assembly Center Commemorative Committee, the film was funded in large part by a grant from the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program.
Minidoka (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Dangers of ignorance, Injustice, Knowledge versus ignorance, Power of the past
- Widely available
Documentary film that follows Seattle-based activist Joseph Shoji Lachman to the 2017 Minidoka Pilgrimage, documenting discussions with his family about the trip, the bus ride and touring the site. Excerpts from the CWRIC testimony of Samuel T. Shoji, Lachman's great uncle, that illuminate aspects of his family history are also included. Lachman notes the parallels with Trump era policies and his anger at both the World War II incarceration and current events.
Minidoka: An American Concentration Camp (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Evils of racism, Importance of community, Power of the past
- Widely available
Documentary film on Minidoka that serves as the orientation film at the Minidoka National Historic Site. Narrated by George Takei and featuring interviews with Japanese Americans who were incarcerated at Minidoka, the film covers the prewar Japanese American community, the mass forced removal of Japanese Americans in 1942, life at Minidoka, the "loyalty questionnaire," the 442nd Regimental Combat Team , the closing of the camp in 1945 and the return home, the Redress movement , and the importance of remembering the incarceration story.
Minnesota's Remarkable Secret School for Language: Curriculum and Resource Guide (curricula)
- Curricula
- Grades 7-8
- Patriotism - positive side or complications, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
During World War II, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) trained 6,000 soldiers—mostly Japanese Americans (second generation – "Nisei")—in the Japanese language to support the war effort with translation, interpretation and interrogation. The MIS language school (MISLS) came to Camp Savage, Minnesota, in 1942 and then moved in 1944 to Fort Snelling, both in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. It was originally established in 1941 at the Presidio in San Francisco and moved back to the Presidio in 1946. The MIS played a critical role in the American victory over Japan in the Pacific and is credited with shortening the war by two years, saving many lives and great expense. This 72-page curriculum and resource guide is intended for Grade 6, however, the authors suggest it can be adapted for Minnesota History and/or WWII History.
Missing in Action (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8
- Historical fiction
- Coming of age, Companionship as salvation, Displacement, Forgiveness, Identity crisis
- Available
A part-Navajo teenager moves with his mother to her hometown of Delta, Utah, and his struggle to find his own identity is aided by his friendship with Ken, a Japanese American teenager, who refuses to allow his family's incarceration at nearby Topaz defeat his spirit.
The Moved-Outers (book)
- Books
- Widely available
Landmark novel for teenagers by Florence Crannell Means about a Japanese American family's forced removal and incarceration that was published in 1945 by Houghton Mifflin. One of the most popular and acclaimed writers of children's books at that time, Means' book was a runner up for the John Newbery Medal in 1946, the most prestigious award for children's literature.
Mr. Tanimoto's Journey (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Individual versus society, Injustice, Power of the past
- Widely available
Documentary film about Gridley, California, farmer and former Tule Lake inmate Jim Tanimoto that focuses on his wartime incarceration and on the postwar memory of that time. The film is built around interviews with Tanimoto and footage of him at his farm and at a Tule Lake Pilgrimage, along with interviews with his daughter and granddaughter. Tanimoto and his family went to Tule Lake directly in July 1942 and were placed in Block 42. He was among the many inmates in that block who resisted filling out the loyalty questionnaire and were subsequently imprisoned and held for a time at Camp Tulelake , a former CCC camp. He was eventually allowed to return to Tule Lake and then returned to Gridley in 1945, where he nonetheless faced a great deal of discrimination from locals. Tanimoto and his family also talk about the postwar silence about the incarceration, redress , and …
Ruth Asawa: A Community Artist (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Expression through art, Power of the past
- Widely available
Short documentary film on artist Ruth Asawa by Dianne Fukami. Produced as part of a follow-up project to the creation of the "Garden of Remembrance" at San Francisco State University, the documentary highlights Asawa's role in the garden and documents some of her other public art in San Francisco.
Nihonjin Face (play)
- Plays
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Circle of life, Evils of racism, Progress – real or illusion, Wisdom of experience
- Widely available
Short play for school audiences by Janet Hayakawa and Tere Martínez that juxtaposes the Japanese American incarceration with the Civil Rights Movement and anti-immigrant sentiment in the present.
Nisei Odyssey: The Camp Years (book)
- Books
- Memoir
- Displacement, Facing reality, Injustice, Patriotism - positive side or complications, Rights - individual or societal, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Limited availability
Nisei's recollections of his experiences incarcerated in an assembly center and concentration camp during World War II as well as a recounting of various stories he remembers hearing from others both before and during the war.
Nakamura Comes Home (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Evils of racism, Injustice, Totalitarianism
- Widely available
Short story about the return of a Nisei veteran to his California hometown by Henry H. Hayden. Kido Nakamura, with his chest full of medals and a limp due to a war wound, returns to Bonneville, where he had grown up as an orphan, and been on his own since age fourteen, until his forced removal to Tanforan . From camp, he joined the 442nd and served in Europe. He stops first at the hotel where he used to live and work, but a former co-worker tells him that the new owners are unwelcoming. He walks through he town, seeing racist signs, tangible evidence of anti-Japanese sentiment. Walking out to a farm he thinks he can get a job at, he is harassed by drunks and ponders his future in the town.
"Forty Years from Sand Island" (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Action, Crime
- Greed as downfall, Power and corruption, Power of the past
- Available
Episode of the Magnum P.I. television series that centers on a murder in the Sand Island Internment Camp in 1942. The episode from the popular series' third season first aired in 1983.
My Life with a Thousand Characters (book)
- Books
- Memoir
- Coming of age, Expression through art, Overcoming - fear, weakness, vice
- Available
The creator of numerous Hanna-Barbera characters including those from Scooby Doo tells his life story, including his childhood as a Nisei in Los Angeles and his experience incarcerated at Manzanar concentration camp.
My Name Is Yoshiko (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Names – power and significance, Optimism – power or folly, Role of women, Working class struggles
- Available
Memoir of an ordinary Nisei woman that includes her wartime incarceration in American concentration camps. Yoshiko Kawaguchi (born in 1921) was the eldest daughter in a farm family in Downey, California. After attending sewing school, World War II hits and the family ends up in the horse stalls of Santa Anita , then in the Rohwer , Arkansas, concentration camp. Resettling in Michigan, she eventually gets a job at a fancy restaurant. She meets and marries a Nisei from Kaua'i and settles in Chicago, where her sisters and parents also eventually settle. Her husband becomes a mail carrier, and they adopt a girl. Later, they move to back to Downey and retire in Kaua'i.
My Friend Suki (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Disillusionment and dreams, Displacement, Facing darkness
- Widely available
Short story by Vera Arvey about a Nisei woman whose wartime incarceration along with a run of familial tragedies lead to a breakdown and residence in a mental hospital. The narrator of the story begins by sending a Christmas present to Suki, but doesn't hear back for several weeks, when she gets a notice that Suki has been sent to a mental hospital. Through correspondence with various friends and her own recollections, she pieces together the story starting with Suki's Issei parents' immigration, the impact of exclusion and incarceration, the string of events leading to her current state, and Suki's most recent, hopeful, letter.
Passing It On--A Memoir (book)
- Books
- Memoir
- Coming of age, Overcoming - fear, weakness, vice, Rebirth, Rights - individual or societal
- Available
Leading human rights activist reflects on her life, including her insulated childhood and the wartime incarceration experience that awakened her lifelong commitment to advocacy for all marginalized peoples.
Phantoms (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Facing darkness, Heartbreak of betrayal, Injustice, Power of the past
- Widely available
Novel by Christian Kiefer centering on a white Vietnam War veteran who tries to unravel the story of what happened to a Nisei World War II veteran, gaining insight into his own experiences in the process.
One-Two-One-Seven (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Family – blessing or curse, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Power of the past
- Widely available
Documentary film by Brett Kodama about the experiences of his grandmother, Sharon Shizuko Okazaki Kodama, at Manzanar . Just three years old when she and her family were forcibly removed from their Southern California home and sent to Manzanar, Okazaki Kodama's Issei father killed her Kibei mother in September 1942. She and her older sister spent the rest of the war at the Manzanar Children's Village , the camp orphanage. They were raised after the war by an aunt and uncle in Washington state. Okazaki Kodama recalls her memories of the camp and the orphanage, talks about her parents' deaths and reflects on the impact on the incarceration over visuals that include archival photographs and footage, photographs from her own family album, and images of the Manzanar National Historic Site today. The title refers to the Okazaki's family number at Manzanar.
Paper Wishes (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Grades 3-5
- Children's, Historical Fiction
- Communication – verbal and nonverbal, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Lost love, Power of silence
- Widely available
Children's novel by Lois Sepahban centering on a young girl from Bainbridge Island, Washington , who turns mute when she and her family are uprooted and sent to Manzanar .
People Aren't All Bad (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Companionship as salvation, Darkness and light, Evils of racism
- Widely available
Short video by Matthew Hashiguchi that centers on the wartime experience of Yutaka Kobayashi, a Nisei from San Francisco, who recalls a memorable moment of kindness from a guard at Topaz .
Prisoners of the Empire: Educators' Guide (curricula)
- Curricula
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Coming of age, Companionship as salvation, Growing up - pain or pleasure, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Overcoming - fear, weakness, vice, Patriotism - positive side or complications
- Widely available
This guide, produced by Random House is for the Prisoners of the Empire series of four books by Graham Salisbury of which Under the Blood-Red Sun is the first title. These young adult novels focus on Japanese Americans in Hawai'i during World War II. The other titles in the series are Eyes of the Emperor , House of the Red Fish , and Hunt for the Bamboo Rat .