Browse > Genre > Historical Fiction
70 articles
Weedflower (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8
- Children's, Historical Fiction
- Growing up – pain or pleasure, Evils of racism, Fear of other, Losing hope
- Widely available
Coming-of-age novel for young adults set in Poston with a young Nisei girl as the protagonist. Weedflower was author Cynthia Kadohata's second young adult novel, after the Newbery Medal winning Kira-Kira .
Woman from Hiroshima (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Immigrant experience, Motherhood, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Wisdom of experience
- Available
Novel by Toshio Mori written in the first-person voice of an Issei woman telling her life story to two grandchildren shortly after World War II.
Woman With a Blue Pencil (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Mystery, Historical Fiction
- Character – destruction, building up, Communication – verbal and nonverbal, Disillusionment and dreams, Evils of racism, Heroism – real and perceived, Manipulation
- Widely available
Novel about a pulp mystery novel written by a young Nisei as World War II breaks out, his interactions with a sometimes overzealous editor, and his protest in the form of an unpublished manuscript centering on the Nisei private detective he was forced to remove from the novel.
Why She Left Us (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Family – blessing or curse, Motherhood, Power of the past, Role of women
- Widely available
A 1999 novel by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto that follows the Okada family from the 1920s to the 1990s and includes their incarceration at the Santa Anita Assembly Center and Amache as well as the experiences of two Nisei who serve in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team . The novel is structured as a series of vignettes told from the points of view of four characters. Why She Left Us was honored with an American Book Award in 2000.
Beacon Hill Boys (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 7-8
- Young Adult, Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Convention and rebellion, Family – blessing or curse, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Identity crisis, Power of tradition
- Available
Novel for young adults by Ken Mochizuki about a Sansei teenager's quest for identity and meaning in 1972 Seattle.
Burma Rifles: A Story of Merrill's Marauders (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Historical Fiction, Children's
- Heroism – real and perceived, Injustice, Vulnerability of the strong, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Limited availability
Book for young readers by Frank Bonham centering on a Nisei intelligence soldier in Burma during World War II. Published in 1960, it is among the first children's books to depict the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Best Friends Forever: A World War II Scrapbook (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Children's, Historical Fiction
- Everlasting love, Family – blessing or curse, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
- Widely available
Children's book about the friendship between a German American girl and her forcibly removed Japanese American friend in the form of a scrapbook from the year 1942.
Bridge of Scarlet Leaves (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Romance, Historical Fiction
- Communication – verbal and nonverbal, Everlasting love, Family – blessing or curse, Heroism – real and perceived, Love and sacrifice
- Widely available
Novel by Kristina McMorris that centers on an interracial romance between a white woman and a Nisei man during World War II.
China Dolls (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Companionship as salvation, Empowerment, Female roles, Forgiveness, Heartbreak of betrayal, Will to survive
- Widely available
Historical novel by Lisa See centering on performers at Chinese themed nightclubs in San Francisco and New York in the 1930s and 1940s. One of the three main characters is a Japanese American woman passing as Chinese American.
Chikara!: A Sweeping Novel of Japan and America From 1907 to 1983 (book)
- Books
- Historical Fiction
- Change versus tradition, Coming of age, Death - inevitable or tragedy, Disillusionment and dreams, Displacement, Emptiness of attaining a false dream, Evils of racism, Facing reality, Family - blessing or curse, Forgiveness, Greed as downfall, Fate and free will, Heartbreak of betrayal, Heroism - real and perceived, Immigrant experience, Individual versus society, Inner versus outer strength, Lost honor, Lost love, Nationalism - complications, Patriotism - positive side or complications, Power of the past, Will to survive
- Available
This work of historical fiction traces the tumultuous rise and fall of the Hoshi family, whose scion, Sataro, takes his wife Itoko and eldest son Noboru to California in 1907 to seek his fortune and restore his family's honor. He leaves his second son Hiroshi behind with family, a decision that marks the inauspicious first step of the tragic transpacific drama that unfolds over the course of the novel.
Color of the Sea (book)
- Books
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Young Adult, Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
A coming-of-age novel by first time novelist John Hamamura centering on a Kibei raised in Japan, Hawai'i, and California and that climaxes with his wartime experiences that include arrest, the Military Intelligence Service , and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The book won an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association in 2007.
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.
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 …
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.
Camp Nine (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Evils of racism, Power of wealth, Role of women
- Available
Coming of age novel set in and around "Camp Nine," a fictionalized Japanese American concentration camp based on Rohwer , narrated by a girl from a prominent white family in the adjacent town whose life is transformed by the camp.
Thin Wood Walls (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8
- Children's, Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Evils of racism, Loss of innocence, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Children's book by David Patneaude that follows a Japanese American boy and his family as they are forcibly removed from their Washington state home and sent to the Tule Lake concentration camp during World War II.
The Sun Gods (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Power of the past, Power of silence, Quest for discovery, Everlasting love
- Widely available
Novel by Jay Rubin set in Seattle and that involves wartime incarceration at the Minidoka , Idaho, concentration camp.
House of the Red Fish (book)
- Books
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 7-8
- Historical Fiction, Young Adult
- Coming of age, Empowerment, Good versus bad, Importance of community
- Widely available
Young adult novel by Graham Salisbury about a Nisei teenager in wartime Honolulu who struggles to bring up the sunken fishing boat of his interned father. It is a sequel to the popular 1994 novel Under the Blood-Red Sun .
Kai's Mother (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Immigrant experience, Motherhood, Will to survive, Wisdom of experience
- Available
Short story by Gretel Ehrlich told in the first person voice of an Issei woman as she rides the train back to California from Heart Mountain at war's end. The characters in the story were introduced in Ehrlich's earlier novel Heart Mountain .
Kibei (book)
- Books
- Historical Fiction
- Change versus tradition, Disillusionment and dreams, Displacement, Facing reality, Identity crisis
- Available
The saga of a Kibei Nisei confronting prejudice and his own conflicted identity as his and his family’s lives are irreparably transformed by the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.
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 …