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536 articles
Those Who Helped Us (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Coming of age, Heroism – real and perceived, Rights - individual or societal
- Available
Simply animated story set in Minidoka told in the first-person voice of a young Nisei girl named Sumi that highlights the role that key white supporters in and out of the concentration camps played in aiding Japanese Americans. After noting the deprivations Nikkei faced in the early months at Minidoka, Sumi notes the presence of Reverend Andy ( Emery Andrews ), who had come to minister to his flock all the way from Seattle. Later, she highlights the role played by Thomas Bodine of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council and Father Leopold Tibesar in helping Sumi's older sister, Yuri, leave Minidoka to attend college in Philadelphia. The black and white animation turns to color as Yuri leaves camp. After the main story, author Ken Mochizuki provides brief profiles of Andrews, Bodine, and Tibesar, along with Minidoka Education Superintendent Arthur Kleinkopf and Deaconess Margaret Peppers, both of whom are …
When You Leave (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama, Short
- Evils of racism, Loss of innocence, Family - blessing or curse
- Limited availability
Dramatic short film mostly set in Minidoka about a small family that is split on the prospect of leaving camp. As the film begins, Yukio, a young man, returns from a stint doing farm labor on the outside. Sullen and quiet, he refuses to tell his family about his experience. But when his sister and mother announce that they have received clearance to leave, he is unexpectedly reluctant. To try to make the camp seem more like home, he begins building furniture. But when he builds a box for his sister's baby shoes, the crisis comes into the open.
Jinan: A Japanese American Story of Duty, Honor, and Family (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Capitalism – effect on the individual, Family – blessing or curse, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
- Available
Memoir of a Kibei man whose story takes him from Los Angeles to Hiroshima and back, to " voluntary evacuation " in Colorado, and postwar business success back in Southern California.
Namba: A Japanese American's Incarceration and Life of Resilience (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Empowerment, Heroism – real and perceived, Power of the past, Role of women
- Available
Documentary profile of Nisei activist May Namba told through interviews, narration by her granddaughter, Miyako Namba, and comments by scholars and colleagues she worked with in Seattle. One of the Nikkei Seattle school employees forced to resign in 1942, Namba saw her father interned before she and her family were forcibly removed and held at Puyallup and Minidoka . Years later, she was a key figure in the movement for redress for the school employees and in Minidoka Pilgrimages and the establishment of the Minidoka National Historic Site, while being a frequent speaker at schools and events in her later years.
Nisei Bowl (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Importance of community, Power of the past, Wisdom of experience
- Widely available
Documentary about the denizens of a Nisei senior bowling league in Salt Lake City. While the first half is a lighthearted look at the league and the role it plays in the lives of the members, the second half delves into the origins of the league in the context of the Japanese American community in Salt Lake City, many of whom resettled there out of concentration camps, as well as the exclusion of Japanese Americans from American Bowling Congress sponsored leagues after the war.
Oh! Poston, Why Don't You Cry for Me? And Other Stops Along the Way (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Convention and rebellion, Quest for discovery, Role of Religion – virtue or hypocrisy
- Available
Memoir by Paul Okimoto, a Nisei who grew up in San Diego, California, and spent his childhood years incarcerated with his family at Poston . Postwar chapters tell stories of his many travels, business ventures, and encounters with notable people. The title of the book comes from a Nisei adaptation of the song "Oh! Susanna" sung in Poston.
Oregon's Japanese Americans: Beyond the Wire (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Evils of racism, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Power of the past
- Widely available
Documentary film on Japanese Americans in Oregon that largely focuses on the wartime incarceration and aftermath. Part of the Oregon Experience series, it was produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting in partnership with the Oregon Historical Society.
80 Years Later (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Circle of life, Power of the past, Wisdom of experience
- Widely available
Documentary film by Celine Parreñas Shimizu that explores in the impact of the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans on three generations of family members.
Fugetsu-Do (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Capitalism – effect on the individual, Change versus tradition, Importance of community
- Widely available
Documentary film on the Fugetsu-Do Japanese confectionery shop in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, narrated by third-generation proprietor Brian Kito. Kito discusses the history of the shop that was founded in 1903 by his grandparents, the decision to take over the shop from his Nisei father, his trials and tribulations as the shop owner, the different kinds of manju and mochigashi the store carries, and the hopes for the future of the shop now that his son has expressed a desire to take it over one day. The film also explores the Kito family's wartime incarceration at Heart Mountain and its long-term impact. Filmmaker Kaia Rose shot the film at the shop itself and at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center , sometimes using archival footage against the backdrop of contemporary scenes.
Desert Exile (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Biography, Non fiction
- Injustice, Displacement, Evils of racism
- Widely available
Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family is an autobiography by noted children's book author Yoshiko Uchida that chronicles her experiences in the years before and during her incarceration in an American concentration camp during World War II. It was originally published in 1982 by the University of Washington Press and reissued with a new introduction by Traise Yamamoto in 2015.
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).
G-Men vs. The Black Dragon/Black Dragon of Manzanar (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Thriller, Crime
- Fear of other, Good vs. bad, Nationalism - complications
- Available
A war-era movie serial produced by Republic Pictures in 1943 that pits Los Angeles-based American Special Investigator Rex Bennett against the Black Dragon Society (BDS), a Japanese led organization that is attempting to aid the Axis-war effort. There is a brief intersection of the BDS with the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.
A Grain of Sand (album)
- Albums
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Contemporary Folk
- Evils of racism, Immigrant experience, Injustice
- Widely available
Originally produced and released in 1973 by Paredon Records, A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America by folk trio Chris Kando Iijima , Nobuko JoAnne Miyamoto , and William "Charlie" Chin is widely recognized to be the first album of Asian American music. The record is a combination of folk songs, political ballads and protest songs. The music was written, performed and recorded at the height of the Asian American, black, and anti-war movements in the early '70s by New York musicians and activists Iijima, Miyamoto, and Chin, who were then in their twenties and early thirties. The original album includes artwork by Arlan Huang/Artist Resource Basement Workshop on the album jacket and liner notes with a political statement by the musicians, lyrics, and a list of Asian American publications from the era. One of the songs, "We Are the Children," is likely the first …
Evacuation 1942-1945: A Japanese American Perspective (exhibition)
- Museum Exhibitions
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- History
- Injustice, Evils of racism
- No availability
Exhibition at the University of Washington's Suzzallo Library in 1979. Curated by Karyl Winn, the curator of manuscripts at the library, the exhibition provided an overview of the forced removal and incarceration using letters, photographs, newspaper articles and other period publications from the holdings of the library. Though the title focuses on the Japanese American perspective, the exhibition also includes perspectives of non-Japanese Americans about the events of the time.
Executive Order 9066 (exhibition)
- Museum Exhibitions
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- History, Art, Photography
- Injustice, Evils of racism
- Limited availability
Landmark photographic exhibition on the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans curated by Richard and Maisie Conrat for the California Historical Society in 1972. The first exhibition on this topic to tour nationally—including such venues as the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York—it likely introduced many Americans to this story and was part of a resurgence of interest in the topic both inside and outside the Japanese American community in the 1970s.
Executive Order 9066: 50 Years Before and 50 Years After (exhibition)
- Museum Exhibitions
- Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- History
- Evils of racism, Injustice, Displacement
- Limited availability
Exhibition on the Japanese American experience in the Seattle area mounted by the Wing Luke Asian Museum to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 . The exhibition was organized, scripted, and constructed largely by volunteer community members and was accompanied by an exhibition catalog authored by David Takami.
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.
From Barbed Wire to Battlefields: Japanese American Experiences in WWII (exhibition)
- Museum Exhibitions
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- History
- Heroism - real and perceived, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Displacement, Evils of racism
- Available
Exhibition on the Japanese American incarceration and on Japanese Americans in the U.S. armed forces during World War II at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. Barbed Wire to Battlefields opened in the Joe W. and D. D. Brown Foundation Special Exhibit Gallery on March 15, 2014, and ran through October 12, 2014. The exhibition featured the photographs of Dorothea Lange , Ansel Adams , and Bill Mambo along with objects and video interviews. In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum put on a slate of public programs including book events, lectures, and film screenings, and incorporated curricular material and a webinar aimed at school children. The exhibition was funded in part by the Annenberg Foundation and the Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation. The National World War II Museum opened in New Orleans in 2000 at the National D-Day Museum.
Reflections of Internment: The Art of Hawaii's Hiroshi Honda (exhibition)
- Museum Exhibitions
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Art
- Displacement, Expression through art, Injustice
- No availability
Exhibition of paintings by Hawai'i Kibei artist Hiroshi Honda, most of which depict the various internment and concentration camps he was held in during World War II. The paintings displayed came from a collection discovered and preserved by Honda's son, Ed Honda. Working with an ad hoc committee that included Bill Hoshijo and University of Hawai'i Professor Franklin Odo, the Hondas donated the collection to the Honolulu Academy of Art (HAA) (now the Honolulu Art Museum). With funding from the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Reflections of Internment opened at HAA on September 10, 1994, alongside a traveling exhibit, The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps, 1942–1945 , a broader survey of art from the concentration camps. An accompanying thirty-three page catalog included essays by Odo and Marcia Morse and color reproductions of nineteen of the artworks; …
21st Century Manzanar (book)
- Books
- Adult
- Fiction
- Evils of racism, Importance of community, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Will to survive
- Available
Novel by Perry Miyake that imagines an early 21st century roundup of Japanese Americans and how Sansei and Yonsei would react to it.
Home Again (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Fiction
- Character - destruction and building up, Displacement, Evils of racism
- Available
A 1955 novel authored by a former War Relocation Authority (WRA) official that tells the epic story of one Japanese American family from California, covering their prewar travails, their wartime incarceration, and their return to California after the war. The book was heavily promoted particularly within the Japanese American community and widely reviewed.
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.
Right from Wrong: Learning the Lessons of Honouliuli (exhibition)
- Museum Exhibitions
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- History
- Facing darkness, Rights - individual or societal
- Limited availability
Wayside exhibition produced by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i (JCCH) that debuted in 2011. The sixteen panel exhibition focuses on the Honouliuli detention camp and JCCH's efforts to preserve the site and tell the story of Hawai'i's World War II Japanese American internees. Funding for the exhibition came from a grant from the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program and from the Island Insurance Foundation. JCCH contracted Mo'ili'ili Blind Fish Tank (MBFT) Media to produce the exhibition. Arnold Hiura wrote the exhibition script and Stephen Doi designed and built it.
Hawaii, End of the Rainbow (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Immigrant experience, Injustice, Will to survive, Working class struggles
- Available
Kazuo Miyamoto (1897–1988) was a Nisei doctor and author who was interned at various incarceration camps for the duration of World War II as a result of the publication of his observations during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). During his incarceration at Sand Island , Miyamoto began writing Hawaii, End of the Rainbow , which took him seventeen years to complete. Although a fictional account of the experiences of Japanese immigrants spanning nearly seventy years from their arrival in the Islands to World War II, it provides key insights from a participant in these important events.
Hell to Eternity (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- War, Drama
- Evils of racism, Heroism - real or perceived, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Available
Hell to Eternity , directed by Phil Karlson and released in 1960, is a Hollywood war film that dramatizes the real-life story of Guy Gabaldon (played by Jeffrey Hunter), an American Marine who singlehandedly captured over 1,500 Japanese soldiers and civilians on the Island of Saipan during the fighting there in mid-1944. In addition to its portrait of Gabaldon's wartime heroism, Hell to Eternity is notable as the first Hollywood film to portray the wartime confinement of Japanese Americans.