Browse > Time > 1941–45
9 articles
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.
The Empty Chair (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Power of the past, Importance of community
- Available
Feature length documentary film by Greg Chaney that recounts the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans from Juneau, Alaska, during World War II.
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 …
"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 …
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 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.
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.
The War (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Documentary mini-series by Ken Burns on the American experience of World War II. Produced in 2006, The War debuted on public television stations in September 2007, shown in seven roughly two-hour parts. Included in the sprawling documentary is the story of Japanese American forced removal and incarceration as well as the story of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team .
This Light Between Us: A Novel of World War II (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Everlasting love, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Young adult novel by Andrew Fukuda centering on Alex Maki, a bookish and artistic teenager growing up in a farming family in Bainbridge Island, Washington and his unlikely pen pal relationship with Charlie Lévy, a Jewish teenager growing up in Paris. First assigned to correspond with Charlie as part of a school exercise, Alex is initially disappointed because Charlie was a girl. But they continue to write to each other, and their relationship deepens into a quasi-romantic one as they grow older. World War II sees Alex and his family forcibly removed from their home and sent to Manzanar, while Charlie's family feels growing unease as Nazi occupation approaches. When her letters stop, Alex is moved to volunteer for the army and is eventually sent to Europe as part of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion .