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222 articles
Heart Mountain (book)
- Books
- Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Disillusionment and dreams, Displacement, Love and sacrifice, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Novel by acclaimed essayist and nature/travel writer Gretel Ehrlich. Set inside and outside of the Heart Mountain, Wyoming, concentration camp, Heart Mountain was published by Viking in 1988.
A Girl Like You (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Evils of racism, Family – blessing or curse, Importance of community, Motherhood, Quest for discovery, Role of women
- Available
Coming-of-age novel by Maureen Lindley that takes place largely in Manzanar and whose protagonist is a mixed-race Sansei girl.
Life behind Barbed Wire: The World War II Internment Memoirs of a Hawaii Issei (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Facing reality, Immigrant experience, Nationalism – complications, Role of men
- Widely available
Internment memoir by Honolulu Issei publisher and community leader Yasutaro Soga. Originally published in 1948 as Tessaku seikatsu, it was translated into English by Kihei Hirai and a team of volunteers at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i (JCCH) and published by the University of Hawai'i Press in 2008.
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.
Roy Sato, New Neighbor (book)
- Books
- Widely available
Children's book published in 1955 centering on Roy Sato, a ten-year-old Sansei, in the months after his move from Little Tokyo in Los Angeles to a nearby suburban area. Despite its descriptions of racism and its publication just ten years after the end of World War II, the book makes no mention of the wartime exclusion and confinement of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast, presumably including the Sato family.
Korematsu v. United States: Japanese-American Internment Camps (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8
- Grades 7-8
- Young Adult, History
- Convention and rebellion, Evils of racism, Individual versus society, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
- Available
Overview of the Korematsu Supreme Court case as part of Enslow Publishers' Landmark Supreme Court Cases series.
Beyond Heart Mountain (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Poetry
- Widely available
Lee Ann Roripaugh's first collection of poetry, which was selected by writer Ishmael Reed as one of five manuscripts published in 1999 through the National Poetry Series competition. The central section of the book is an interconnected series of dramatic monologues written in the voices of various Japanese Americans incarcerated at the Heart Mountain camp.
The Little Exile (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 7-8
- Memoir
- Evils of racism, Family – blessing or curse, Female roles, Immigrant experience
- Available
Memoir by Jeanette A. Arakawa covering her wartime incarceration at the Stockton Assembly Center and Rohwer, Arkansas, concentration camp and postwar resettlement in Denver. Though written in the first person, her name and those of others in the book have been changed.
A Brother Is a Stranger (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Change versus tradition, Desire to escape, Family – blessing or curse, Immigrant experience, Individual versus society, Nationalism – complications, Power of tradition
- Available
Memoir of a young Japanese immigrant/refugee Christian about his upbringing and travails in Japan, his journey to the U.S. and his wartime internment, and his postwar observations in Japan. Published in 1946 by the John Day Company, it was among the first books by a Japanese American to appear after the war.
The Japanese American Internment: Innocence, Guilt, and Wartime Justice (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Young Adult, History
- Displacement, Evils of racism, Hazards of passing judgment, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications
- Available
Overview of the wartime removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans by Ann Heinrichs that is part of Marshall Cavendish Benchmark's "Perspectives on... " series.
Racial Profiling (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8
- Grades 7-8
- Young Adult
- Evils of racism, Fear of other, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Rights - individual or societal
- Available
Book for middle schoolers that looks at both sides of the issue of racial profiling. One chapter focuses on the World War II exclusion and incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Stone, Bow, Prayer (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Poetry
- Available
Sansei poet Amy Uyematsu's fourth book of poetry, organized in twelve sections, each representing a month in the ancient Chinese lunar calendar that Japan adopted in the seventh century A.D.
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.
Beacon Hill Boys (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 7-8
- Young Adult, Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Convention and rebellion, Family – blessing or curse, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Identity crisis, Power of tradition
- Available
Novel for young adults by Ken Mochizuki about a Sansei teenager's quest for identity and meaning in 1972 Seattle.
House of the Red Fish (book)
- Books
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 7-8
- Historical Fiction, Young Adult
- Coming of age, Empowerment, Good versus bad, Importance of community
- Widely available
Young adult novel by Graham Salisbury about a Nisei teenager in wartime Honolulu who struggles to bring up the sunken fishing boat of his interned father. It is a sequel to the popular 1994 novel Under the Blood-Red Sun.
Looking After Minidoka: An American Memoir (book)
- Books
- Memoir
- Change versus tradition, Coming of age, Displacement, Female roles, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Immigrant experience, Love and sacrifice, Overcoming - fear, weakness, vice, Power of tradition, Will to survive
- Available
A third-generation Japanese American shares the multi-generational story of both sides of his family, from immigration to the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and wartime incarceration, to resettlement and his own childhood.
Japanese American Journey: The Story of a People (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- History, Children's
- Empowerment, Fulfillment, Heartbreak of betrayal, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Progress – real or illusion
- Available
Overview work for children on the Japanese American experience produced by the Japanese American Curriculum Project (JACP) in 1985. Consisting of a historical overview, eleven biographies of notable Japanese Americans, and three short stories, Japanese American Journey was adapted from a 1970 JACP publication titled Japanese Americans: The Untold Story.
A Stone Cried Out: The True Story of Simple Faith in Difficult Days
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Change versus tradition, Faith versus doubt, Forgiveness, Identity crisis, Overcoming - fear, weakness, vice
- Available
A Christian minister reflects on his life, including the difficult years he and his family spent in wartime concentration camps.
Mendez v. Westminster: For All the Children (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5
- Grades 3-5
- Children's, Historical Fiction
- Change versus tradition, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
- Limited availability
Children's picture book that tells in simplified form the story of the landmark Mendez case that ultimately ended segregated schools in California. The story is told through the perspective of Sylvia Mendez who is eight years old in 1943. Having rented the farm of Munemitsu family, who had been forcibly removed to concentration camps, they were new to Westminster, California. When she and her brothers are prohibited from attending the same school as her cousins (who can pass as "white") and must attend the inferior school for those of Mexican, African or Asian ancestry, her family decides to sue. With the help of lawyer David C. Marcus—and support from various organizations including the Japanese American Citizens League—the suit proves successful, ending segregation in the state. A brief epilogue notes the long-term impact of the case and the fate of Sylvia and others involved in it.
Sleeping on Potatoes: A Lumpy Adventure from Manzanar to the Corporate Tower (book)
- Books
- Memoir
- Coming of age, Desire to escape, Displacement, Facing reality, Overcoming - fear, weakness, vice, Social mobility
- Limited availability
Memoir of a Nisei, from his early childhood as the son of a violent father and a loving mother, his experience incarcerated at Manzanar, his career as a successful physicist at Honeywell, and his years after retiring.
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.
A Boy No More (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Young Adult, History
- Coming of age, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Patriotism – positive side or complications
- Widely available
A 2004 young adult novel by Harry Mazer about Adam Pelko, who is torn between grieving his father, who died on the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and his feelings of loyalty towards his Japanese American best friend, Devi, whose own father has been arrested and taken to the War Relocation Authority camp in Manzanar, California. When Devi asks Adam to help him find his father, Adam is faced with a moral conflict: should he risk both his own safety and his friendship in order to do what is right? He is also still deeply affected by the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the urge to scapegoat the Japanese Americans, despite his urge to help and defend his friend.
Blood Hina (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Adult
- Fiction, Mystery
- Family – blessing or curse, Hazards of passing judgment, Heroism – real and perceived, Love and sacrifice
- Widely available
The fourth book in the Mas Arai Mysteries series by Naomi Hirahara finds the Kibei gardener coming to the aid of his best friend, Haruo Mukai, whose impending wedding is interrupted by accusations of theft and by his sudden disappearance.
Japanese American Internment Camps (Children's Press) (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5
- Grades 3-5
- Children's, History
- Evils of racism, Hazards of passing judgment, Injustice, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Available
Short overview book for younger children on the wartime removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans that is part of Children's Press's "Cornerstones of Freedom," Second Series of books.
Best Friends Forever: A World II Scrapbook (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Children's, Historical Fiction
- Everlasting love, Family – blessing or curse, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
- Widely available
Children's book about the friendship between a German American girl and her forcibly removed Japanese American friend in the form of a scrapbook from the year 1942.