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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.

A Crossroad Called Manzanar (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Short, History
Growing up - pain or pleasure, Loss of innocence
No availability

Short dramatic film about two nine-year-old girls who are best friends—Aya Matsui and Penny Chan—in the final days before Aya's family will be forced to board busses for Manzanar . On what will be her final day of school, Penny—wearing the "Proud to Be Chinese" button than her mother pins on her every morning—comes to pick up Aya as usual. But after being harassed by white children on their way to school, they decide to spend the day playing in the fields and parks before heading home. Aya's family eats on the floor, the rest of their things packed or sold off. The next morning, the Matsuis report for their exile and are put on busses for Manzanar. Penny comes by their house, finding it empty and, shunned by the other kids, rides alone on the school bus to school.

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).

Fish for Jimmy (book)

Books
Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5
Grades 3-5
Children's, Picture book
Growing up - pain or pleasure, Heroism - real and perceived, Family - blessing or curse
Widely available

Fish for Jimmy: Inspired by One Family's Experience in a Japanese American Internment Camp , written and illustrated by Katie Yamasaki, is based on the author's great-grandfather's family experience at the Granada camp in Amache, Colorado. This picture book for young readers which expresses in few words an older brother's act of kindness and daring that kept a family strong during their imprisonment.

Heroes (book)

Books
Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5
Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5
Children's, Picture Book
War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Heroism - real and perceived
Widely available

Children's picture book by Ken Mochizuki and illustrated by Dom Lee about a young boy facing Asian stereotypes and bullying in the postwar years. Donnie Okada is continually made to play the part of the "enemy" in war games with friends, even as he tries to explain that his father and uncles served on the American side. A school visit by Donnie's father and uncle in their uniforms and medals changes the way he and his friends view their histories.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (book)

Books
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Grades 6-8
Fiction
Family - blessing or curse, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Evils of racism, Lost love
Widely available

Bestselling 2009 novel by Jamie Ford about a doomed romance between a young Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl in 1942 Seattle.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (curricula)

Curricula
Family - blessing or curse, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Evils of racism, Lost love
Widely available

This teacher's guide supports the instructional use of the bestselling 2009 novel by Jamie Ford about a budding romance between a young Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl, set in 1942 Seattle as aspects of World War II impact their lives. Appropriate for the middle/high school English/language arts classroom, and because of the setting, also social studies. The guide notes the novel is written at a seventh grade reading level.

Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8
Grades 6-8
Children's, Young Adult
Displacement, Growing up - pain or pleasure
Widely available

Pioneering 1971 novel by Yoshiko Uchida that was the first book for children on the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans written by a Japanese American. Based in part on Uchida's own family experience, Journey to Topaz was the first of five books the prolific children's book author wrote that focused on the incarceration experience.

Looking After Minidoka: An American Memoir (book)

Books
Memoir
Change versus tradition, Coming of age, Displacement, Female roles, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Immigrant experience, Love and sacrifice, Overcoming - fear, weakness, vice, Power of tradition, Will to survive
Available

A third-generation Japanese American shares the multi-generational story of both sides of his family, from immigration to the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and wartime incarceration, to resettlement and his own childhood.

Made in Japan and Settled in Oregon (book)

Books
Memoir
Coming of age, Displacement, Evils of racism, Facing reality, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Isolation
Available

An Oregon-born Nisei woman shares her family's story, including her parents' efforts to establish a farm in Hood River, her childhood, and the impact of being taken from their home and incarcerated during World War II.

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 .

Take Me Home: Curricular Resource Materials (curricula)

Curricula
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Injustice, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Power of the past, Rights - individual or societal
Widely available

This guide supports the instructional use of the 15-minute video, Take Me Home: A Child's Experience of Internment . The authors of the 19-page resource target grades 6 – 8, however; the materials can be adapted to upper elementary as well. Although the film and curriculum materials were produced in Washington, their use has broad application as they are not specific (other than the mention of the academic standards) to Washington State.

To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek's Mr. Sulu (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Adult
Memoir
Coming of age, Disillusionment and dreams, Displacement, Family - blessing or curse, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Identity crisis, Importance of community, Love and sacrifice
Widely available

Famous actor and celebrity recounts some of the most important periods of his life, including his early childhood spent at Rohwer and Tule Lake concentration camps.

When the Emperor Was Divine: Teacher's Guide (curricula)

Curricula
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Displacement, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Evils of racism, Injustice

The Information provided in this 10-page guide aims to get students to understand When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka "as both a work of art and a meditation on freedom, identity, and loyalty" (page 2). There is background information about the novel and the author, including excerpts from an interview with Otsuka. The historical information provided about the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans was garnered from Lauren Kessler's Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese-American Family (New York, Random House, 1993).

Children of Detention Camps, 1942-1946 (exhibition)

Museum Exhibitions
Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
History
Coming of age, Growing up - pain or pleasure
No availability

Traveling exhibition produced by the National Japanese American Historical Society that debuted in February 1992 at San Francisco City Hall. The sixty-panel photo exhibition looked at the incarceration experience from the perspective of children, who made up a significant portion of affected Japanese Americans. In addition to Japanese American youth, the exhibition includes the experiences of Aleuts and Japanese Latin Americans in the U.S. detention camps. A follow up to the 1990 exhibition U.S. Detention Camps, 1942–1946 , Children of Detention Camps was displayed at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California and Children's Museum of Indianapolis among other venues.