Browse > Genre > Memoir
79 articles
Oh! Poston, Why Don't You Cry for Me? And Other Stops Along the Way (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Convention and rebellion, Quest for discovery, Role of Religion – virtue or hypocrisy
- Available
Memoir by Paul Okimoto, a Nisei who grew up in San Diego, California, and spent his childhood years incarcerated with his family at Poston . Postwar chapters tell stories of his many travels, business ventures, and encounters with notable people. The title of the book comes from a Nisei adaptation of the song "Oh! Susanna" sung in Poston.
A Brother Is a Stranger (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Change versus tradition, Desire to escape, Family – blessing or curse, Immigrant experience, Individual versus society, Nationalism – complications, Power of tradition
- Available
Memoir of a young Japanese immigrant/refugee Christian about his upbringing and travails in Japan, his journey to the U.S. and his wartime internment, and his postwar observations in Japan. Published in 1946 by the John Day Company, it was among the first books by a Japanese American to appear after the war.
Citizen 13660 (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir, Graphic Novels
- Displacement, Evils of racism, Expression through art, Will to survive
- Widely available
Published in 1946 as the last camps were being shuttered, Nisei artist Miné Okubo 's illustrated eponymous memoir, Citizen 13660 , has the distinction of being the earliest, first-person, book-length account of the American concentration camp experience. Always a vigorous booster of her own work, Okubo promoted the book that came to define her career as "the first and only documentary story of the Japanese evacuation and relocation written and illustrated by one who was there." [1] All told, Okubo produced an estimated 2,000 portraits of camp life in a range of styles and materials, including ink, charcoal, and gouache, while imprisoned at the Tanforan temporary detention camp in California and the Topaz concentration camp in Utah. Okubo's voluminous output notwithstanding, it was primarily Citizen 13660' s roughly 200 line-drawings that established her standing as a major chronicler of and historic witness to the camp experience.
They Call Me Moses Masaoka: An American Saga (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Patriotism – positive side or complications, Quest for power, Rights - individual or societal
- Available
Nisei known primarily for his role as executive secretary of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) during World War II reflects on his life experiences, and declares with confidence that he would make the same choices if he could do it over again.