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303 articles

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The Service Flags (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Evils of racism, Heroism—real and perceived, Individual versus society, Loss of innocence, Self-reliance
Widely available

Short story by Bill Hosokawa about the first days of resettlement of a young mother and her nine-year-old son. Helen Yamano and her son Jamie arrive in an unspecified city, and she hangs two flags, one for her brother who had been killed, presumably as an Military Intelligence Service linguist, and one for her husband, who is serving in Europe in the 442nd . Her first days on the job are difficult, as one of her co-workers makes trouble for her. Jamie is called a "Jap" by one of the boys on his first day of school. Helen tells him that like his father, he needs to fight to be accepted, and the next day he does.

The Steel Helmet (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Widely available

Dramatic film about infantry soldiers in the Korean War written and directed by Samuel Fuller. One of the ensemble is a Nisei soldier and World War II veteran played by Richard Loo. It is likely the first Hollywood film to note the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II in a disapproving manner.

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.

Take What You Can Carry (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Young Adult
Coming of age, Individual versus society, Vulnerability of the strong, Wisdom of experience
Widely available

The lives of two older teen boys, Kyle and Ken, alternate stories in the graphic novel Take What You Can Carry (2012) by Kevin C. Pyle. Although experienced a generation apart, the stories of these two teens merge into a complete story of healing and redemption.

Tallgrass (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Change versus tradition, Coming of age, Dangers of ignorance, Female roles, Loss of innocence
Widely available

Coming-of-age novel by Sandra Dallas set in rural Colorado during World War II when the life of adolescent girl is transformed by the arrival of Japanese Americans from the West Coast in a nearby concentration camp.

Tadaima (film)

Films and Video
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Companionship as salvation, Darkness and light, Disillusionment and dreams, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
Widely available

Short dramatic film by Robin Takao D'Oench that chronicles the return of a Japanese American family to their West Coast home after being released from an American concentration camp. The family—two presumably Issei parents and two presumably Nisei kids, an older teenage boy and younger teenage girl—arrive at a home that is unkempt and dirty and also marred by anti-Japanese graffiti both inside and out. As they set about making the house livable again, the two kids go out into the woods and dig up a box filled with Japanese objects—family photographs, documents, and precious objects such as Japanese dolls and clothing—they had presumably buried in the period prior to their forced removal. As they slowly settle back into their home, each family member finds some degree of hope by the end of the first day. The title is a Japanese expression generally uttered by someone who is announcing his …

Swimming in the American: A Memoir and Selected Writings (book)

Books
Adult
Adult
Memoir, Poetry
Coming of age, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Wisdom of experience, Working class struggles
Widely available

Memoir by Nisei playwright Hiroshi Kashiwagi (1922–2019) told in short prose vignettes, poetry and a play.

Sylvia and Aki (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5
Historical Fiction, Children's
=Coming of age, Convention and rebellion, Evils of racism, Immigrant experience, Rights - individual or societal
Widely available

Chapter book for children by Winifred Conkling centering on the the Mendezes and the Munemitsus, the two families behind the landmark Mendez v. Westminster school desegregation case.

Voices Behind Barbed Wire: Stories of Hawai'i Island (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary, History
Power of the past, Injustice, Quest for discovery, Immigrant experience
Widely available

Short film that tells the story of Japanese Americans on Big Island of Hawai'i who were interned during World War II using a combination of contemporary interviews, historical photographs and footage, and historical reenactments. It is one of a series of four films produced by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i about the internment experience in each of the four counties of Hawai'i as a follow up to the 2012 film The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai'i .

Voices Behind Barbed Wire: Stories of O'ahu (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary, History
Power of the past, Injustice, Quest for discovery, Immigrant experience
Widely available

Short film that tells the story of Japanese Americans on O'ahu who were interned during World War II using a combination of contemporary interviews, historical photographs and footage, and historical reenactments. It is one of a series of four films produced by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i about the internment experience in each of the four counties of Hawai'i as a follow up to the 2012 film The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai'i .

Unexpected Journeys: Remarkable Stories of Japanese in America (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Power of the past, Wisdom of experience
Widely available

Documentary film consisting of short profiles of Japanese Americans whose "surprising stories" were shaped by World War II in unusual ways. The segments include

The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai'i (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary, History
Power of the past, Injustice, Quest for discovery, Immigrant experience
Widely available

Documentary film produced by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i (JCCH) in 2012 that provides an overview on the internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai'i during World War II—both those held in camps in the continental U.S. and those held in Hawai'i camps—as well as contemporary efforts to preserve the Hawai'i sites today.

Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience during World War II (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 9-12
Young adult
Displacement, Evils of racism, Hazards of passing judgment, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications
Widely available

Acclaimed overview work on the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans by professional historian and prolific children's book author Albert Marrin.

The Travelers (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Fiction
Desire to escape, Optimism – power or folly, Power of silence
Widely available

Short story by Toshio Mori centering on two groups of inmates as they leave Topaz . One group of nine are those leaving the camp permanently to " resettle " in areas outside the restricted area of the West Coast; the other group consists of those who are visiting town briefly to shop or to see off relatives before returning to the camp. Those leaving for good includes a soldier leaving for the battlefront and being seen off by his mother, as well as those leaving for jobs in cities such as New York and Chicago . As the resettlers exchange information about their destinations, the soldier is drawn to an attractive young woman heading to Chicago, but does not speak to her. After the train leaves, a white family offers a ride to town to the mother of the soldier. "The Travelers" originally appeared in the Topaz literary publication …

A Tribute to Ruth Asawa (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Expression through art, Power of the past
Widely available

Short documentary film on artist Ruth Asawa by Dianne Fukami. Released shortly after Asawa's death in August 2013, the film incorporates interview footage from Fukami's earlier 2008 film Ruth Asawa: Community Artist .

Tsuru (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama
Desire to escape, Evils of racism, Individual versus society, Will to survive
Widely available

Short dramatic film about an elderly Issei couple whose attempt to avoid the mass roundup of Japanese Americans during World War II is aided by a white nurse. Tsuru was a senior year project at Chapman University by Chris K. T. Bright.

Topaz Mosaic (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Communication—verbal and nonverbal, Family—blessing or curse, Optimism—power or folly, Reunion
Widely available

Three vignettes by Toshio Mori centering on a family in Topaz and the furlough visit of their Nisei soldier son. In the first, an Issei father struggles to write a letter to his son Sam in English. In the second, Sam stops in Salt Lake City to buy presents for his family before visiting them in Topaz the next day, recalling the friend (presumably in Topaz) who was convinced he was a "sucker" for volunteering. In the last, Sam is greeted warmly by his family and learns that a sister has left camp for New York and a brother is also joining the army.

Toyo Miyatake: Infinite Shades of Gray (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Darkness and light, Expression through art, Nature as beauty
Widely available

Documentary film on photographer Toyo Miyatake , directed by Robert A. Nakamura for the Japanese American National Museum in 2001. Toyo Miyatake: Infinite Shades of Gray traces Miyatake's various identities as Little Tokyo studio photographer of portraits, weddings, and other events before and after the war; prewar art photographer; and surreptitious chronicler of incarceration during World War II. The film is an expansion of Nakamura's earlier documentary on Miyatake, The Brighter Side of Dark: Toyo Miyatake, 1895–1979 . Among its awards are a CINE Gold Eagle and the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Short at the Florida Film Festival; it was also an official selection of the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

Tradition (book)

Books
Widely available

Young adult novel about the impact of a family of Japanese American resettlers on a Chicago area community and high school. The first novel by prolific author Anne Emery (1907–84), Tradition was published in 1946 by The Vanguard Press.

Under the Blood Red Sun (book)

Books
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Grades 6-8
Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Coming of age, Companionship as salvation, Growing up – pain or pleasure, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Widely available

Acclaimed novel for young adults set in the early months of World War II told through the eyes of a teenage Nisei protagonist in Honolulu whose father and grandfather are both interned. The novel was made into a feature film in 2014. It was followed by a sequel, House of the Red Fish , in 2006.

Tule Lake: An Issei Memoir (book)

Books
Widely available

The autobiographical account of Noboru Shirai, published in 2001 by Muteki Press. The book was originally published in Tokyo, Japan, in 1981 by Kawade Shobo Shinsha under the title, Kariforunia nikkeijin kyōsei shūyōjo , and translated into English by Ray Hosoda. Illustrations in the book are by Sylvia Neff, calligraphy by Etsuko Wakayama.

Two Homelands (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Death – inevitable or tragedy, Emptiness of attaining a false dream, Evils of racism, Family – blessing or curse, Heroism – real and perceived, Individual versus society, Nationalism – complications, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Vulnerability of the strong
Widely available

Epic three volume novel by best-selling Japanese novelist Toyoko Yamasaki that centers on the identity dilemmas of a Kibei man during and immediately after World War II. Published in Japan in 1983, it was adapted into a popular Japanese television drama the following year. Alarmed by reports that the novel/TV show portrayed Japanese Americans as having split loyalties, Japanese American leaders succeeded in preventing the TV drama from being shown in the continental U.S. In 2007, the University of Hawai'i Press published an English language translation by V. Dixon Morris under the title Two Homelands .

Two Nails, One Love (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Fiction, Gay and Lesbian
Communication – verbal and nonverbal, Family – blessing or curse, Individual versus society, Power of the past
Widely available

Short novel told in the first-person voice of Ethan Taniguchi, a Sansei musician living in New York City in the year 2000, centering on the visit of his estranged mother from Hawai'i. Throughout his life—but particularly after the death of his beloved father—Ethan has felt distant from his mother, whom he feels is too bound by arcane Japanese tradition and who hasn't supported his being gay and his pursuing a career as a musician. But learning the details of her wartime incarceration story—her father had been interned and their family had been deported to Japan on the M.S. Gripsholm as part of a civilian exchange—and her quest for reparations via the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 changes the dynamic between them.

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.

We Are Not Free (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Children's, Historical Fiction
Coming of age, Companionship as salvation, Facing darkness, Importance of community
Widely available

Young adult novel by Traci Chee that tells the wartime incarceration story through the eyes of a group of teenage friends from San Francisco.

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