Browse > Interest Level > Grades 7-8

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Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese-American Internment Camps (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Memoir, Children's
Evils of racism, Facing darkness, Family – blessing or curse, Injustice, Loss of innocence, Power of the past
Widely available

Incarceration memoir of life at Pinedale Assembly Center , Tule Lake , and Minidoka , by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald, a seventeen-year-old Nisei at the time of her and her family's forced removal from their Washington state farm. First published in 2005 by NewSage Press, it was followed by a young reader's edition in 2010.

Lucky Ears: The True Story of Ben Kuroki, World War II Hero (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5
Children's, Biography
Patriotism – positive side or complications, Role of men, Heroism – real and perceived, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
Widely available

Biography of Nisei war hero Ben Kuroki , written for a fourth grade audience.

Manzanar Daze and Cold Nights (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Memoir
Desire to escape, Importance of community, Reunion
Available

Posthumously published memoir by a Nisei man about his years at Manzanar during World War II.

Manzanar National Historic Site Educator Resources Kit (curricula)

Curricula
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Displacement, Evils of racism, Self-awareness, War
Available

"How does identity shape my experience in America?" is the central question which serves to unify the wide range of materials in this resource kit. The kit includes printed materials (lesson plans, reproductions of primary sources, official park brochure, booklet for self-guided tours, Densho brochure), and digital resources (video documentary, electronic field trip, biographical sketches of former inmates, related standards, lesson plans, and historical photos). The Manzanar National Historic Site Educator Resources Kit was supported by a grant from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program and the Manzanar History Association.

Memories of the Camps (film)

Films and Video
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Circle of life, Power of the past, Injustice
Limited availability

Locally produced documentary by Los Angeles TV station KABC that provides an overview of the concentration camps and community efforts to remember them on their fiftieth anniversary. Hosted by KABC news anchor Joanne Ishimine, the program begins at Heart Mountain where former inmate and camp historian Bacon Sakatani gives a tour of the camp and talks about his experience and the larger impact of incarceration. The next segment is on Manzanar , focusing on Toyo Miyatake and his photographs, featuring an interview with his son Archie. The last segments focus on the commemoration of the camps: a visit to a UCLA class that Sakatani speaks to and interviews with the students; some of those same students at the 50th anniversary Manzanar Pilgrimage ; and visits to the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center and Japanese American National Museum in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles. A copy of the …

Minnesota's Remarkable Secret School for Language: Curriculum and Resource Guide (curricula)

Curricula
Grades 7-8
Patriotism - positive side or complications, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Widely available

During World War II, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) trained 6,000 soldiers—mostly Japanese Americans (second generation – "Nisei")—in the Japanese language to support the war effort with translation, interpretation and interrogation. The MIS language school (MISLS) came to Camp Savage, Minnesota, in 1942 and then moved in 1944 to Fort Snelling, both in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. It was originally established in 1941 at the Presidio in San Francisco and moved back to the Presidio in 1946. The MIS played a critical role in the American victory over Japan in the Pacific and is credited with shortening the war by two years, saving many lives and great expense. This 72-page curriculum and resource guide is intended for Grade 6, however, the authors suggest it can be adapted for Minnesota History and/or WWII History.

Missing in Action (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 7-8
Historical fiction
Coming of age, Companionship as salvation, Displacement, Forgiveness, Identity crisis
Available

A part-Navajo teenager moves with his mother to her hometown of Delta, Utah, and his struggle to find his own identity is aided by his friendship with Ken, a Japanese American teenager, who refuses to allow his family's incarceration at nearby Topaz defeat his spirit.

Nihonjin Face (play)

Plays
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Circle of life, Evils of racism, Progress – real or illusion, Wisdom of experience
Widely available

Short play for school audiences by Janet Hayakawa and Tere Martínez that juxtaposes the Japanese American incarceration with the Civil Rights Movement and anti-immigrant sentiment in the present.

My Name Is Yoshiko (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Memoir
Names – power and significance, Optimism – power or folly, Role of women, Working class struggles
Available

Memoir of an ordinary Nisei woman that includes her wartime incarceration in American concentration camps. Yoshiko Kawaguchi (born in 1921) was the eldest daughter in a farm family in Downey, California. After attending sewing school, World War II hits and the family ends up in the horse stalls of Santa Anita , then in the Rohwer , Arkansas, concentration camp. Resettling in Michigan, she eventually gets a job at a fancy restaurant. She meets and marries a Nisei from Kaua'i and settles in Chicago, where her sisters and parents also eventually settle. Her husband becomes a mail carrier, and they adopt a girl. Later, they move to back to Downey and retire in Kaua'i.

My Friends Behind Barbed Wire (film)

Films and Video
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary, History
Heroism – real and perceived, Individual versus society
Widely available

Short film that tells the story of the Rev. Emery Andrews , pastor of the Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle, and his family and their support of Japanese Americans during their World War II ordeal. The story is largely told through an interview with Brooks Andrews, Emery's son, and through historical photographs, including images from the Andrews family. Brooks provides an overview of the forced removal and incarceration and his childhood recollections of his Nisei friends being taken away. He also recounts the Andrews' family's move to Twin Falls, Idaho, so as to continue to serve the congregation that had been incarcerated at the nearby Minidoka concentration camp and the discrimination they faced from the local community. He also cites parallels to the contemporary treatment of Muslim Americans.

Resettled Roots: Legacies of Japanese Americans in Chicago (film)

Films and Video
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Importance of community, Power of silence, Rebirth
Available

Documentary film on the evolution of the Japanese American community in Chicago . Directors Anna Takada and Maria Pimentel tell the story using a generational framework with a brief prologue on Japanese immigration and the prewar Issei era and a longer segment on the wartime roundup and incarceration centered on the Nisei , before turning to Nisei and Sansei recollections of resettlement to Chicago and growing up there after the war. Many of the Sansei recall their parents' silence about their wartime experiences. The last segment focuses on Yonsei and recent activism featuring 2019 footage from an all camps reunion in Chicago and on a protest march that saw Chicago Japanese Americans drawing on their history to protest immigrant detention and deportation today.

The Heart No Longer Silent (play)

Plays
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Quest for discovery, Power of the past, Evils of racism, Will to survive
No availability

Storytelling performance with digital imagery by storyteller Megumi and artist Elaine Sayoko Yoneoka. Funded by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program , The Heart No Longer Silent: Stories with Images from the Japanese American Internment of World War II was performed several times in Central and Northern California in 2002.

Home of the Brave (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Children's
Injustice, Knowledge versus ignorance, Power of the past, Progress – real or illusion
Widely available

Children's picture book by Allen Say inspired by the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans 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 …

Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp (book)

Books
Grades 7-8
Grades 7-8
Young Adult, History
Evils of racism, Injustice, Power of the past, Reunion, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Widely available

Book for younger children about the Manzanar concentration camp.

"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 …

442: For the Future (film)

Films and Video
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Role of men, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Limited availability

Docu-drama by Patricia Kinaga that tells the story of the Japanese American World War II experience with a focus on the exploits of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team , through the experiences of four characters.

Diamonds in the Rough (film)

Films and Video
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Power of the past, Role of men
Widely available

Documentary film on Japanese American baseball that focuses on Kenichi Zenimura (1900–68), a pioneering Issei baseball player and coach in Hawai'i and in Fresno, California. The film includes four main sections. The first looks at Zenimura's prewar baseball exploits, and by extension, Japanese American baseball in general, featuring interviews with those who played with or against him. The next focuses on the World War II incarceration that saw Zenimura and his family sent to the Gila River, Arizona, concentration camp, where he famously built a baseball field. Next, the film looks at the postwar phenomenon of Nisei players going to Japan and becoming stars in the Japanese major leagues, focusing on the most prominent such player, Wally Yonamine. The final segment sees Zenimura's son Howard returning to the site of the Gila River camp and visiting the location of the former barracks and of the baseball field. Actor Noriyuki "Pat" …

A Fence Away From Freedom: Japanese-Americans and World War II (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 7-8
Young Adult, History
Displacement, Evils of racism, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Power of the past
Widely available

Book for young adults that tells the story of the wartime removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans through the oral history voices of those who were children and young adults at the time.

The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Children's, Historical Fiction
Coming of age, Injustice, Loss of innocence
Widely available

Novel for elementary and middle schoolers about a young white teenage girl's experience of World War II including the Japanese American removal and incarceration told in the form of a diary. The Fences Between Us is part of the Dear America series, all of which are written in the form of diaries by young women/girls from various key moments in U.S. history.

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).

Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Grades 7-8
Young Adult
Coming of age, Communication – verbal and nonverbal, Heroism – real and perceived, Injustice
Widely available

Book for young adult readers by Joanne Oppenheim that tells the story of the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans through the wartime correspondence between a San Diego librarian and the incarcerated young people whom she had befriended at the library.

Dear Miss Breed (play)

Plays
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Communication – verbal and nonverbal, Evils of racism, Growing up – pain or pleasure
No availability

Play about a San Diego librarian who corresponded with incarcerated Japanese American children during World War II. Playwright Joanne Oppenheim adapted Dear Miss Breed from her children's book Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference .

Fred Korematsu Speaks Up (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Children's, History
Heroism – real and perceived, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
Widely available

Book for middle school audiences on Fred Korematsu , who challenged the forced removal of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Fred Korematsu: All American Hero (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Grades 7-8
Comics
Convention and rebellion, Heroism – real and perceived, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Power of the past
Widely available

Comic book by two University of California at Davis law professors that tells the story of exclusion challenger Fred Korematsu through the eyes of a young Muslim American girl in post-9/11 America.

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