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307 articles
Go for Broke! (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama, War
- War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Heroism - real or perceived, Hazards of passing judgment
- Widely available
1951 feature film that tells the story of 442nd Regimental Combat Team and that climaxes with the rescue of the "Lost Battalion." A popular and critical success, Go For Broke! represents a landmark in the representation of Japanese Americans in Hollywood films. The film focuses on the transformation of the initially bigoted Lt. Michael Grayson (played by Van Johnson), who is assigned to command the all-Japanese American unit. The members of the 442nd were mostly played by Nisei veterans. Producer and MGM studio head Dore Schary would produce another film centered around bigotry aimed at Japanese Americans four years later, Bad Day at Black Rock (1955).
Guilty by Reason of Race (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Evils of racism, Power of the past
- Widely available
Documentary film produced by NBC and shown nationally on September 19, 1972, as part of the NBC Reports series. It was the second major network documentary on the wartime removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans after The Nisei: The Pride and the Shame , which aired on CBS in 1965.
The Hawai'i Nisei Story (website)
- Websites
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Virtual Exhibit
- Heroism – real and perceived, Role of men, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Website developed in the mid-2000s by the University of Hawai'i built around oral histories of Nisei veterans from Hawai'i.
Fox Drum Bebop (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Family – blessing or curse, Immigrant experience, Power of words
- Widely available
Novel by Gene Oishi that tells the saga of the Konos, a Japanese American farming family from coastal California, covering the years 1940 to 1982. Largely based on the author's own life and family, each chapter is a stand alone short story set in a particular time period. Early chapters covering the prewar years and the upheavals of World War II are told from the perspective of different family members, while later chapters covering the postwar years are largely through the perspective of Hiroshi, the character based on the author. Fox Drum Bebop was published by Kaya Press in 2014 and received the 2016 Association for Asian American Studies book award in the Creative Writing: Prose category.
Roar of Silence (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Communication—verbal and nonverbal, Power of silence, Wisdom of experience
- Widely available
While watching a young boy play in a puddle, an elderly Nisei recalls his Issei father. Forced to start over again in his sixties in Chicago after having lost his farm during the mass roundup and incarceration, he also found his role as family leader usurped by his eldest son, who had been a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team . Despite these setbacks, the narrator recalls the lessons his father had silently transmitted to him.
The Moon Bridge (book)
- Books
- Widely available
Ruthie Fox and her best friend Shirl are fifth graders at a San Francisco elementary school. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, a new student named Mitzi Fujimoto joins the neighboring fifth grade class. Ruthie steps in to stop Shirl and a classmate from bullying Mitzi. As a result, Ruthie is disinvited from Shirl's exclusive birthday party at the Japanese Tea Garden —recently renamed the "Chinese" Tea Garden. Left behind, Ruthie and Mitzi begin talking and agree that the Moon Bridge in the tea garden is the most beautiful place in the world. Over time, Ruthie's apprehension about befriending Mitzi fades as the girls play at Ruthie's secret places after school, share movie star crushes, and look for buried treasure. Mitzi shares her greatest secret: that she does not live in their school district and is using a family friend's address to attend their school. Ruthie promises to keep Mitzi's …
Eyewitness: Stan Honda: Reflections of a Photojournalist (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, Biography
- Expression through art, Facing darkness
- Widely available
Short documentary film about photojournalist Stan Honda, who gained fame for the photographs he took of the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
An American Story: World War II Stories of the Tragedy and Triumph of Our Japanese-American Community During Wartime (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Importance of community
- Widely available
Video on the World War II odyssey of Japanese Americans from the Watsonville area based on interviews with survivors of that time. The video was part of a larger project that also included a curriculum guide/lesson plan kit for teachers and an interactive video kiosk available for display by community organizations. The project was sponsored by the Watsonville Public Library and Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League and funded by a $14,000 grant from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program . The film's premiere screening took place on August 27, 2011. [1]
Molly Donnelly (book)
- Books
- Widely available
Written for younger teen readers (6th-9th grade), Molly Donnelly by Jean Thesman chronicles the life of a young Irish American girl from ages 12 through 16 during World War II in Seattle, Washington. Serving as a subplot of the novel, one of Molly's best friends is her next door neighbor, Emily Tanaka, who along with her family is sent to an incarceration camp for the duration of the war. While on a picnic at the beach on Sunday December 7 with Emily and another friend Louise, Molly's Uncle Charlie suddenly runs up to them to say that the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. Emily, who moved to Washington from Honolulu three years prior, still has family in Hawai'i and frantically runs home.
The Pigtail Twins
- Books
- Widely available
Children's book published in 1943 that may have been the first book-length work of fiction to mention the Japanese American exclusion and incarceration, if obliquely. The book was authored by Anne M. Halladay and published by Friendship Press.
Point of Departure (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Expression through art, Power of the past, Rebirth
- Widely available
Short documentary film that highlights the creation of interpretive artworks at the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial in 2022. Featuring interviews with Bainbridge Island incarceration survivor Lilly Kitamoto Kodama and artists Anna Brones and Luc Revel, we see the fabrication of the pieces and their installation, concluding with their September 2022 dedication. The film was funded by the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation and City of Bainbridge Island.
Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, Biography, Music
- Expression through art, Identity crisis, Power of the past
- Widely available
Feature length musical documentary film that follows singer/songwriter Kishi Bashi as he writes and performs songs from a project inspired by the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Peace Is a Chain Reaction: How World War II Japanese Balloon Bombs Brought People of Two Nations Together (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- History
- Forgiveness, Power of the past, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Narrative non-fiction book for middle grade readers about the aftermath of a tragedy involving World War II Japanese balloon bombs centering on Yuzuru John Takeshita, a Kibei man who had been incarcerated at Tule Lake .
displacement (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Injustice, Power of the past
- Widely available
Graphic novel set in 2016 whose protagonist, sixteen-year-old "Kiku Hughes," begins to experience strange episodes of time travel that take her back to her grandmother's wartime exclusion and incarceration at Tanforan and Topaz . Completely lost at first, "Kiku" comes of age in the concentration camps, making close friends, building community, and enjoying a romance with another teenage girl. Back in the present, she and her mother—who reveals that she has also experienced such episodes of "displacement"—discuss the importance of their family history and the need to use that knowledge to protest on behalf of others.
Jimmy Murakami-Non Alien (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Expression through art, Power of the past
- Widely available
Irish documentary filmmaker Sé Merry Doyle's profile of expatriate Nisei animator, filmmaker, and artist Jimmy Murakami.
Bad Day at Black Rock (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Thriller
- Evils of racism, Fear of other
- Widely available
Critically acclaimed 1955 movie starring Spencer Tracy whose plot is built around the murder of the Issei father of a Nisei war hero in a forlorn desert town and its subsequent cover up. Though it was one of the first movies to note the discrimination Japanese Americans faced during World War II, no Japanese American characters appear in it. Bad Day at Black Rock was nominated for three Academy Awards.
Baseball Saved Us (book)
- Books
- Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5
- Grades 3-5
- Children's, Sports, Picture book
- Character - destruction, building up, Fear of failure
- Widely available
Popular and acclaimed children's picture book written by Ken Mochizuki and illustrated by Dom Lee about the concentration camps and their aftermath through the prism of baseball.
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.
What If Heroes Were Not Welcome Home? (exhibition)
- Museum Exhibitions
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- History
- Heroism - real and perceived, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Isolation
- Widely available
Exhibition on the return of Nisei soldiers to their Hood River, Oregon, home, recounting the chilly reception they received from the local community as well as highlighting those who stood up for them. Curated by Linda Tamura and Marsha Matthews and organized by the Oregon Historical Society (OHS), What If Heroes Were Not Welcome Home? debuted at the OHS in Portland in August 2013 in conjunction with the display of the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to Japanese American veterans of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team , 100th Infantry Battalion , and Military Intelligence Service .
When the Emperor Was Divine (book)
- Books
- Widely available
Short novel centering on the forced removal and incarceration of a Japanese American family from Berkeley, California, in 1942 and their return to their home after the war. Praised for its spare yet detailed and poignant text that tells each section of the story from the perspective of a different character, the novel received numerous and positive reviews. Educators in particular embraced the book in part for its relevance in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy and fallout. The book has been translated into six languages and has sold more than 250,000 copies.
Boy from Nebraska (book)
- Books
- Widely available
Brief biography of Ben Kuroki , Nisei war hero, by Ralph G. Martin and published in late 1946 when Kuroki was arguably the best known Japanese American.
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.
The Climate of the Country (book)
- Books
- Widely available
A dramatic novel by Marnie Mueller published in 1999 by Curbstone Press set in Tule Lake "Segregation Center" in 1943. The novel is loosely based on the experiences of the author's parents, who were staff members at the camp.
Clark and Division (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Convention and rebellion, Disillusionment and dreams, Quest for discovery
- Widely available
Edgar Award winning mystery novel by Naomi Hirahara set among Japanese Americans who have resettled in Chicago in 1944.
Conscience and the Constitution (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Convention and rebellion, Illusion of power, Injustice, Power of the past, Rights - individual or societal
- Widely available
Influential documentary film that tells the story of the draft resistance movement at Heart Mountain . Journalist Frank Abe produced, directed, and wrote the hour-long film, which was released in 2000.