Browse > Genre > Historical Fiction

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The Legend of Fire Horse Woman (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Female roles, Family – blessing or curse, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
Widely available

Novel by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston published in 2003 that is set in large part in Manzanar .

Memories of Pop (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Family – blessing or curse, Forgiveness
No availability

Short story by Jiro Saito about a young college dropout Sansei returning home to San Diego for the funeral of his estranged father. Written in the first person voice of Mas Mayeda, it is set in around 1960. As the story begins, Mas gets a call from his sister Rose informing him of their father's death. Disowned by his father after dropping out of UC Berkeley's engineering program to become a writer, Mas had not seen the family in three years. Upon his return, Rose tells him that their father, though stubborn, indicated that he wanted Mas to return. Before the funeral, Mas sees old family photos that tell their story: his parents' wedding in 1927 (his Issei father married a Nisei woman from San Diego); a successful farm; his father becoming a community leader; his father's subsequent arrest after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the family's removal and …

Nasakenai (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Evils of racism, Facing reality, Will to survive, Working class struggles
Limited availability

Short story about an Issei couple in the San Francisco Bay area in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor . Both work as servants—the husband as a gardener and the wife as a maid—for prominent white families in a wealthy adjacent community and support three children at home, with a son in the army. After the attack, the husband goes to work and is assured by his employer that she will not fire him despite community pressure to do so. But the wife, who has worked for the family of a prominent lawyer for over a decade, is fired, since the lawyer represents a farming organization that supports anti-Japanese actions. An Issei gardener who works for the same family is also fired. Afterwards, the wife visits briefly with the family of the gardener and goes home to work on her garden, vowing that things will be okay.

O Furo (The Bath) (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Beauty of simplicity, Fulfillment, Nature as beauty
Available

Short story by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston about an elderly woman in an unspecified American concentration camp during the World War II. Yuki, a seventy-three year old widow, lives with her grandson, Dixon, a separate barracks room away from the rest of the family. When the falling snow reminds her of Japan, she prevails on Dixon to help her build a Japanese style furo , which they accomplish using scrap lumber and a discarded metal drum. Sitting in the tub, she reflects contentedly on her life.

Otoko (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Disillusionment and dreams, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Immigrant experience, Loss of innocence, Role of men, Vulnerability of the meek
Widely available

Short story by Wakako Yamauchi centering on a Nisei brother and sister who recall their father and their family's prewar and wartime hardships while listening to Japanese folksongs. On the longest day of the year one summer, Kiyo visits his sister, the narrator, bringing a record of Japanese children's songs. The act of listening to the songs triggers memories of their early years. Once relatively prosperous, their fortunes turn dire quickly when their father loses his job. He becomes a tenant farmer, but can't make enough to support the family. Kiyo recalls a time when he went with his father to visit a friend, Kiyo thinks, to ask to borrow money. The narrator recalls working as a "school girl" with a white family for a few months, returning to find her family living in a tent, her little sister's teeth rotting, and her father suffering from a stomach ailment. Later, …

Painting the Rainbow (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Children's, Historical Fiction
Family – blessing or curse, Coming of age, Communication – verbal and nonverbal, Growing up – pain or pleasure
Widely available

Coming-of-age novel for young readers about two thirteen-year old cousins at a New England family summer retreat in 1965 who grapple with both their changing relationship and with the discovery of family secrets stemming from the World War II period that tangentially involve the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.

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 .

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.

A Place Where Sunflowers Grow (book)

Books
Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5
Grades 1-2
Children's, Historical Fiction
Darkness and light, Empowerment, Expression through art, Importance of community, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
Widely available

Children's picture book by Amy Lee-Tai and illustrated by Felicia Hoshino about Mari, a young Japanese American girl in Topaz , an American concentration camp during World War II. As the book begins, she plants sunflower seeds in the desert soil, hoping they will grow like the sunflowers in their old backyard. She recalls their prewar home, where she lived with her older brother and artist parents. At Topaz, she goes with her father to the art school he started. Initially unable to draw anything in the children's class, she slowly starts to find things to draw with the help of a supportive teacher, her father, and her new friend Aiko. After drawing a picture of her barrack with the sunflowers growing tall in front, she returns home to find little sunflower seedlings, giving her hope for the future. A final page provides biographies of the author and illustrator and …

Private Life (book)

Books
Historical Fiction
Facing reality, Identity crisis, Female roles, Disillusionment and dreams
Available

A middle-aged white woman recounts her friendship with a Japanese American family she first meets through personal tragedy; the injustice they experience, partly as a result of her own husband, leads her to a personal awakening.

Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5
Children's, Historical Fiction
Coming of age, Displacement, Evils of racism, Role of women
Widely available

Children's novel aimed at ages 8 to 11 by Sandra Dallas centering on the wartime incarceration experience of the Itano family at the Tallgrass, Colorado, camp, featuring as its protagonist twelve year old Tomi Itano. The book is a sequel of sorts to Dallas' adult novel, Tallgrass (2007).

Seki-nin (Duty Bound) (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Convention and rebellion, Displacement, Facing darkness, Family – blessing or curse, Power of tradition
Available

Novel by George Nakagawa about a Nisei stranded in Japan during World War II.

The Sensei (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Facing reality, Nationalism – complications, Reunion
Widely available

Short story by Wakako Yamauchi centering on a former Buddhist priest whose gambling addiction has turned him into a beggar in the early postwar years. Told in the first person by a Nisei woman named Utako, the story begins with the outbreak of war and the then seventeen-year-old Utako's incarceration with her family in an Arizona concentration camp. The loyalty questionnaire divides the family, as her brother Toshio becomes a " no-no boy " and gets sent alone to Tule Lake . There, he becomes friends with Jim Morita, a fellow "no-no." After the war, the family returns to Los Angeles, and Utako ends up marrying Jim; she works as a painter of shower curtains, while he attends college. A couple of years later, Jim and Utako visit Las Vegas. On their way out, they run into the title character, a former Buddhist priest who had been a powerful inmate …

Snapshot, 1944 (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Power of silence, Power of the past, Wisdom of experience
Limited availability

Short story by David Mas Masumoto told in the first person voice of a Sansei young adult reflecting on the meaning of an old snapshot of his father's family taken at Gila River in 1944. The occasion is the funeral of his Uncle George, killed as an American soldier in the war . In the photo, the narrator's grandfather holds a flag and his grandmother holds a picture of George, while his father and aunts and uncles stand uneasily to the side. The narrator writes in turn about the postwar fates of his grandfather, who died before he was born; his grandmother, who lives with the family, but suffers from dementia; and his father, who struggled to buy a farm after the war and now grows raisins and other crops on eighty acres. Each in his her own way remains as silent to the narrator as in the photograph.

A Star Is Something to Steer By (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Coming of age, Convention and rebellion, Losing hope
Widely available

Short story by Mataileen Larkin Ramsdell about the contentious but affectionate relationship between a white high school teacher in Rohwer and an intelligent but cynical student. A young teacher from Wisconsin, Eve Erickson is immediately drawn to Joe Moriyama, the smallest boy in 11th grade homeroom class, who is constantly challenging her by pointing out the contradictions between the American creed and the treatment of Japanese Americans. In one instance, he tells her about a girl in her class who had her family farm registered in her name to get around the alien land law , but who now found herself the target of an escheat case upon the death of her father. Over time Joe and Eve come to like and respect each other. When Nisei are deemed eligible for the draft in 1944, Joe and other boys in her class are drafted, but he is uncharacteristically silent. He …

Suitcase Sefton and the American Dream (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Everlasting love, Family – blessing or curse, Importance of community, Injustice
Widely available

Novel by Jay Feldman about a New York Yankees scout who discovers a hot Nisei pitching prospect in an American concentration camp during World War II.

The Summer of '43 (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Evils of racism, Individual versus society, Working class struggles
Limited availability

Short story centering on Akira Koyama, a Nisei man who has left an unspecified concentration camp to attend college in Utah. There, he stubbornly tries to find a summer job in the face of rampant discrimination. After being turned down for a draftsman position because of his ancestry, he visits a laundry owned by an acquaintance's family in search of other leads. Meanwhile, Dale, a white navy veteran and one of his college roommates, suffers from stomach pains that resemble appendicitis. Akira accompanies him to the hospital and waits as Dale has successful surgery. After a conversation with the doctor, Akira is offered a job at the hospital.

Sundown in Topaz (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Losing hope, Self-preservation
Limited availability

Short story about an Issei man in Topaz during the time of the loyalty questionnaire . Shojiro Mikawa, a grandfather from Hiroshima, is incarcerated in Topaz with his family. His close friend, Tanimoto, is among those in the camp who is organizing resistance to the questionnaire. He attends a meeting led by Tanimoto that advocates refusing to answer the questionnaire. However an informant at the meeting has reported to the camp administration the names of all who attended. Called before the camp director, Mikawa is ordered to tell what he knows about the organization of the meeting or else be sent to Tule Lake and thus separated from his family.

Sylvia and Aki (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5
Historical Fiction, Children's
=Coming of age, Convention and rebellion, Evils of racism, Immigrant experience, Rights - individual or societal
Widely available

Chapter book for children by Winifred Conkling centering on the the Mendezes and the Munemitsus, the two families behind the landmark Mendez v. Westminster school desegregation case.

Tallgrass (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Change versus tradition, Coming of age, Dangers of ignorance, Female roles, Loss of innocence
Widely available

Coming-of-age novel by Sandra Dallas set in rural Colorado during World War II when the life of adolescent girl is transformed by the arrival of Japanese Americans from the West Coast in a nearby concentration camp.

The Harvest of Hate (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Evils of racism, Family – blessing or curse, Loss of innocence, Patriotism – positive side or complications
Available

Novel focusing on one Japanese American family's forced removal and incarceration written by a former teacher at Poston . Originally written in 1946, The Harvest of Hate first saw publication forty years later.

The Issei Prisoners of the San Pedro Internment Center (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Immigrant experience, Injustice, Losing hope, Power and corruption, Will to survive
Available

Novel by Stanley N. Kanzaki about Issei internees at the fictional San Pedro Internment Camp in New Mexico.

The Japanese Lover (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Everlasting love, Evils of racism, Circle of life, Family – blessing or curse, Immigrant experience
Widely available

Novel by best-selling Chilean American novelist Isabel Allende, the title character of which is a Nisei man whose story of wartime incarceration is woven into the narrative.

The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5
Children's, Historical Fiction
Convention and rebellion, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Injustice
Widely available

Chapter book for children by Barry Denenberg in the form of a journal by a young Nisei boy covering the first ten months of incarceration at the fictitious "Mirror Lake Internment Camp."

The Red Kimono (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Coming of age, Evils of racism, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Will to survive
Widely available

Novel that tells parallel stories of a Japanese American family that is uprooted from their Berkeley, California, home and sent to American concentration camps during World War II, and a young African American man who goes to prison for the beating death of that family's patriarch.

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