Browse > Theme > Displacement
114 articles
Aleut Evacuation: The Untold War Story (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Displacement, Evils of racism, Injustice, Power of the past
Documentary film that tells the story of the forced removal and incarceration of the Aleut people from their ancestral Alaskan homes to detention camps in southwest Alaska during World War II. Based on interviews with surviving inmates and their descendants and on historical photographs and documents, Aleut Evacuation proceeds in largely chronological fashion, starting with a brief portrait of the Aleut community prior to the war, then covering their forcible removal by the U.S. government—ostensibly for their own protection in the face of possible Japanese attack—and their subsequent incarceration in several different camps. Focusing first on the largest camp, Funter Bay, which held those from the Pribilof Islands, it also considers a camp on Killisnoo Island where those from Atka were held, along with Ward Lake, where those from smaller villages were incarcerated. Former inmates remember the poor and harsh conditions in the camps and the rampant health problems they …
A Teacher's Resource for Farewell to Manzanar (curricula)
- Curricula
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-9, Grades 9-12
- Coming of age, Displacement, Evils of racism, Family - blessing or curse, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Identity crisis, Injustice
- Widely available
This study guide developed in 1999 by Facing History and Ourselves with Voices of Love and Freedom is part of the "Witness to History" series that examines a literary work confronting the complexity of history particularly around issues of prejudice and discrimination. It is based on the 1973 edition of Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. In this memoir, Wakatsuki Houston traces her family experiences during World War II, when because of their Japanese ancestry, they are incarcerated at Manzanar, a concentration camp in the California desert.
Nurse of Manzanar: A Japanese American's World War II Journey (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Non Fiction, Memoir
- Displacement, Facing reality, Importance of community, Overcoming - fear, weakness, vice, Role of women
- Available
Edited diary of Toshiko Eto Nakamura (1910–94), a nurse who volunteered to work at the hospital in Manzanar during World War II.
Only What We Could Carry: The Santa Anita Assembly Center (exhibition)
- Museum Exhibitions
- Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Adult
- History
- Displacement, Injustice
- Limited availability
Temporary exhibition at the Ruth and Charles Gilb Arcadia Historical Museum about the nearby detention facility. Drawing on photographs, objects, and issues of the Santa Anita Pacemaker in the museum's collection, Only What We Could Carry opened in November 2009. The museum also includes the story of the Santa Anita Assembly Center as part of its permanent gallery on the history of Arcadia.
Picture Bride (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Adult
- Historical fiction
- Change versus tradition, Disillusionment and dreams, Displacement, Facing reality, Female roles, Immigrant experience, Importance of community, Will to survive
- Available
The fictional account of a picture bride , from her arrival in the U.S. to the life she and her husband create for themselves with their daughter, to her experience of incarceration during World War II.
Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Grades 3-5
- Children's, Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Displacement, Evils of racism, Role of women
- Widely available
Children's novel aimed at ages 8 to 11 by Sandra Dallas centering on the wartime incarceration experience of the Itano family at the Tallgrass, Colorado, camp, featuring as its protagonist twelve year old Tomi Itano. The book is a sequel of sorts to Dallas' adult novel, Tallgrass (2007).
A Century of Change: The Memoirs of Nellie Yae Sumiye Nakamura from 1902 to 2002 (book)
- Books
- Memoir
- Coming of age, Death - inevitable or tragedy, Disillusionment and dreams, Displacement, Facing reality, Family - blessing or curse, Immigrant experience, Injustice, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Available
The recollections of a Nisei woman, from her childhood in the Santa Clara Valley, to her marriage, her family's incarceration at Santa Anita and Heart Mountain , and their efforts to rebuild their lives back in California after the war ended.
Our Burden of Shame: Japanese-American Internment During World War II (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Children's, History
- Displacement, Evils of racism, Hazards of passing judgment, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications
- Available
Book by Susan Sinnott on the wartime forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans intended for a middle-school audience and published by Franklin Watts in 1995.
Crossroads in Nihonmachi (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Displacement, Importance of community, Rebirth
- Limited availability
A 2006 documentary film by Adrianne Anderson and Tony Sondag about the redevelopment struggle in San Francisco's Japantown. As in other cities on the West Coast, plans for urban renewal disproportionately affected ethnic minorities including Japanese Americans, destroying or diminishing historical Japantowns after World War II. The film traces the history of San Francisco's Nihonmachi, focusing on the eviction of Japanese American residents of San Francisco's Nihonmachi starting in the 1960s—drawing parallels with the 1942 eviction of Japanese Americans under Executive Order 9066 —and 1970s efforts by community members to halt evictions and preserve and reclaim the community and its history. The film covers the 100th anniversary celebration of the community in 2006, while also noting the continuing threats it faces.
A Song for Manzanar (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama
- Displacement, Female roles
- Widely available
Dramatic narrative short film directed by Phil Emerson and Kazuko Golden centering on Sachie and Hiroko, two sisters we first meet in Hiroshima as Sachie, the elder, prepares to leave for the U.S. A few years later, Sachie is incarcerated in Manzanar with her husband Yoshizo and two young children and struggles to communicate with Hiroko, who remains in Hiroshima. Her efforts to enlist the help of a guard to send and receive letters to Japan is juxtaposed with Yoshizo's efforts to get the family released to Chicago .
Manzanar: Photographs by Ansel Adams of Loyal Japanese-American Relocation Center (exhibition)
- Museum Exhibitions
- Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Art
- Displacement, Injustice, Character - destruction, building up
- Available
Landmark exhibition of Ansel Adams ' photographs of Manzanar at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Opening on November 9, 1944, Manzanar was not only the sole major museum exhibition documenting the Japanese American incarceration to be displayed while incarceration was still ongoing, but arguably the only such exhibition to appear for the next twenty-five years.
Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8
- Grades 6-8
- Children's, Young Adult
- Displacement, Growing up - pain or pleasure
- Widely available
Pioneering 1971 novel by Yoshiko Uchida that was the first book for children on the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans written by a Japanese American. Based in part on Uchida's own family experience, Journey to Topaz was the first of five books the prolific children's book author wrote that focused on the incarceration experience.
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.
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 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 based in part on the experiences of the author's father, a former War Relocation Authority (WRA) resettlement officer.