Browse > Interest Level > Grades 7-8

116 articles

1
2
3
4
5

Dear Miss Breed (play)

Plays
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Communication – verbal and nonverbal, Evils of racism, Growing up – pain or pleasure
No availability

Play about a San Diego librarian who corresponded with incarcerated Japanese American children during World War II. Playwright Joanne Oppenheim adapted Dear Miss Breed from her children's book Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference .

Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Grades 7-8
Young Adult
Coming of age, Communication – verbal and nonverbal, Heroism – real and perceived, Injustice
Widely available

Book for young adult readers by Joanne Oppenheim that tells the story of the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans through the wartime correspondence between a San Diego librarian and the incarcerated young people whom she had befriended at the library.

Diamonds in the Rough (film)

Films and Video
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Power of the past, Role of men
Widely available

Documentary film on Japanese American baseball that focuses on Kenichi Zenimura (1900–68), a pioneering Issei baseball player and coach in Hawai'i and in Fresno, California. The film includes four main sections. The first looks at Zenimura's prewar baseball exploits, and by extension, Japanese American baseball in general, featuring interviews with those who played with or against him. The next focuses on the World War II incarceration that saw Zenimura and his family sent to the Gila River, Arizona, concentration camp, where he famously built a baseball field. Next, the film looks at the postwar phenomenon of Nisei players going to Japan and becoming stars in the Japanese major leagues, focusing on the most prominent such player, Wally Yonamine. The final segment sees Zenimura's son Howard returning to the site of the Gila River camp and visiting the location of the former barracks and of the baseball field. Actor Noriyuki "Pat" …

Farewell to Manzanar Educational Kit (curricula)

Curricula
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Memoir, Drama, History
Coming of age, Displacement, Evils of racism, Family - blessing or curse, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Injustice, Patriotism - positive side or complications, Power of the past
Limited availability

In 2003, the Farewell to Manzanar Education Initiative distributed 10,000 copies of the Farewell to Manzanar Educational Kit to California public schools and public libraries. The kit consists of the book, Farewell to Manzanar and Related Readings (1998), a teaching guide for the book (1998), a VHS cassette of the Farewell to Manzanar made-for-television movie (1976) with an additional 35-minute classroom version, and a video study guide (2002). Separate elements of the kit are available for purchase (except for the video study guide).

A Fence Away From Freedom: Japanese-Americans and World War II (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 7-8
Young Adult, History
Displacement, Evils of racism, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Power of the past
Widely available

Book for young adults that tells the story of the wartime removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans through the oral history voices of those who were children and young adults at the time.

The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Children's, Historical Fiction
Coming of age, Injustice, Loss of innocence
Widely available

Novel for elementary and middle schoolers about a young white teenage girl's experience of World War II including the Japanese American removal and incarceration told in the form of a diary. The Fences Between Us is part of the Dear America series, all of which are written in the form of diaries by young women/girls from various key moments in U.S. history.

Fighting for Honor: Japanese Americans and World War II (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 7-8
Young Adult
Evils of racism, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Widely available

Book aimed at middle and high school audiences on the experience of Japanese Americans during World War II, that focuses equally on the wartime incarceration and on military service.

Dust of Eden (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 7-8
Children's, Historical Fiction
Coming of age, Injustice
Widely available

Acclaimed children's book in verse about the wartime incarceration experience of a Japanese American family told from the perspective of a middle-school aged girl.

Enemy Child: The Story of Norman Mineta (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Biography, Children's
Growing up – pain or pleasure, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Power of the past
Widely available

Short biography of American politician Norman Mineta by Andrea Warren, published in 2019. The book, which is written for young adult readers, focuses on Mineta's childhood, with an emphasis on the years he and his family were incarcerated at Heart Mountain . The book includes historical War Relocation Authority photographs and a few personal photos from the Mineta family collection.

Floating Home (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Facing reality, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Reunion, Working class struggles
Widely available

Short story about a family returning to Little Tokyo from Rohwer . When fourteen-year-old Mari returns home with her parents, she expects to go to their old house, but is dismayed when they go to a run down residential hotel instead. Her father explains to her that they had rented the house they had lived in before the war, and they it was now being rented to someone else. Mari decides to walk to the house to take a last look. She finds an African American girl about her age on the swing in front. Initially suspicious, the girl becomes friendlier when Mari tells her why she and her family had to leave and invites her inside.

Fred Korematsu: All American Hero (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Grades 7-8
Comics
Convention and rebellion, Heroism – real and perceived, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Power of the past
Widely available

Comic book by two University of California at Davis law professors that tells the story of exclusion challenger Fred Korematsu through the eyes of a young Muslim American girl in post-9/11 America.

Four-Four-Two (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 popular and confident Nisei boy and his best friend enlist in the all-Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team and are thrown into the horrific reality of combat in Europe.

Fred Korematsu Speaks Up (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Children's, History
Heroism – real and perceived, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
Widely available

Book for middle school audiences on Fred Korematsu , who challenged the forced removal of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Home of the Brave (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Children's
Injustice, Knowledge versus ignorance, Power of the past, Progress – real or illusion
Widely available

Children's picture book by Allen Say inspired by the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

The Heart No Longer Silent (play)

Plays
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Quest for discovery, Power of the past, Evils of racism, Will to survive
No availability

Storytelling performance with digital imagery by storyteller Megumi and artist Elaine Sayoko Yoneoka. Funded by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program , The Heart No Longer Silent: Stories with Images from the Japanese American Internment of World War II was performed several times in Central and Northern California in 2002.

America's Betrayal (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 7-8
Fiction, History
Coming of age, Companionship as salvation, Everlasting love, Evils of racism, Female roles, Losing hope, Will to survive
Limited availability

Young adult novel by Jodi Icenoggle written in the first person voice of Margaret Yamaguchi, a high school sophomore and aspiring writer in Valle Verde in coastal California. Her father runs a successful orchard and oversees a happy family that includes Margaret's mother, an older brother Robert, and younger brother Timmy. She has also started going steady with John Wilson, star athlete of Valle Verde High. But her happy life is slowly torn apart by the outbreak of war. As anti-Japanese sentiment rises after the attack on Pearl Harbor, so do tensions at the high school, particularly for an interracial couple like John and Margaret. Inevitably, the Yamaguchis get sent first to the Salinas Assembly Center , then to Poston , while John gets drafted. As family tragedies ensue, Margaret comes of age in the concentration camp, starting a camp newspaper and waiting for John to come back. But will …

Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp (book)

Books
Grades 7-8
Grades 7-8
Young Adult, History
Evils of racism, Injustice, Power of the past, Reunion, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Widely available

Book for younger children about the Manzanar concentration camp.

Resettled Roots: Legacies of Japanese Americans in Chicago (film)

Films and Video
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Importance of community, Power of silence, Rebirth
Available

Documentary film on the evolution of the Japanese American community in Chicago . Directors Anna Takada and Maria Pimentel tell the story using a generational framework with a brief prologue on Japanese immigration and the prewar Issei era and a longer segment on the wartime roundup and incarceration centered on the Nisei , before turning to Nisei and Sansei recollections of resettlement to Chicago and growing up there after the war. Many of the Sansei recall their parents' silence about their wartime experiences. The last segment focuses on Yonsei and recent activism featuring 2019 footage from an all camps reunion in Chicago and on a protest march that saw Chicago Japanese Americans drawing on their history to protest immigrant detention and deportation today.

"Wase Time!": A Teen's Memoir of Gila River Internment Camp (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Memoir
Family – blessing or curse, Importance of community, Role of men
Limited availability

First person memoir by Kenneth A. Tashiro of his and his family's forced removal and incarceration at the Gila River , Arizona, concentration camp. After a brief introduction that introduces Tashiro's family, the story begins on Pearl Harbor day when Kenneth—nicknamed "Iggy"—hears about the start of the war after exiting an Abbott and Costello movie. He and his family move from Los Angeles to Del Rey in an attempt to avoid incarceration, but they are eventually removed from Sanger to Gila in August of 1942. His father, Kenji Tashiro, is a journalist, who becomes the editor of the camp newspaper , before leaving to join the army at age 37. His mother, eight months pregnant at the time of the removal, stays behind for a time, rejoining the family later with the baby girl. Twelve when he entered the camp, Tashiro's perspective is purely that of an active teenager, so …

442: For the Future (film)

Films and Video
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Role of men, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Limited availability

Docu-drama by Patricia Kinaga that tells the story of the Japanese American World War II experience with a focus on the exploits of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team , through the experiences of four characters.

Alice and the Bear (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Companionship as salvation, Desire to escape, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Power of the past
Widely available

Short story by Kiyoshi Parker about an old woman whose trip to a Little Tokyo store with her great-granddaughter brings back memories of her camp experience. Alice Miyamoto visits Little Tokyo in Los Angeles for the first time in thirty years with her family. After lunch, her daughter suggests they go visit the Go For Broke Monument . But on the way, her four-year-old great-granddaughter drags her into a store and picks up a stuffed Totoro toy. Alice is immediately reminded of a stuffed bear she had as a child of about the same age that was her constant companion when she was in an unspecified concentration camp.

A Teacher's Resource for Farewell to Manzanar (curricula)

Curricula
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 7-9, Grades 9-12
Coming of age, Displacement, Evils of racism, Family - blessing or curse, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Identity crisis, Injustice
Widely available

This study guide developed in 1999 by Facing History and Ourselves with Voices of Love and Freedom is part of the "Witness to History" series that examines a literary work confronting the complexity of history particularly around issues of prejudice and discrimination. It is based on the 1973 edition of Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. In this memoir, Wakatsuki Houston traces her family experiences during World War II, when because of their Japanese ancestry, they are incarcerated at Manzanar, a concentration camp in the California desert.

Through the Lens of Russell Lee: Mathias Uchiyama's Story (film)

Films and Video
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Power of the past, Working class struggles, Displacement
Widely available

Short documentary film about a Japanese American family that left the Portland Assembly Center to engage in farm labor in eastern Oregon, produced to accompany the traveling exhibition Uprooted: Japanese American Farm Labor Camps during World War II .

The Experience of Japanese Americans in the United States: A Teacher Resource Manual (curricula)

Curricula
Pre-K, Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Displacement, Evils of racism, Immigrant experience, Injustice, Knowledge versus ignorance, Overcoming - fear, weakness, vice, Patriotism - positive side or complications, Rights - individual or societal, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Widely available

The Advisory Council to the Ethnic Heritage Project of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) developed, printed and distributed this manual in 1975. It was one of the first efforts to provide K–12 instructional materials about the history and achievements of Japanese Americans in the United States. The aim of the manual was to counter existing teaching materials which contained information that "portray(ed) persons of Japanese ancestry in a distorted or stereotypic fashion" (page 6). In addition, the authors sought to see Japanese Americans represented in the educational system's instructional framework of cultural pluralism.

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."

1
2
3
4
5