Browse > Theme > Evils of racism
164 articles
The Red Kimono (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Evils of racism, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Will to survive
- Widely available
Novel that tells parallel stories of a Japanese American family that is uprooted from their Berkeley, California, home and sent to American concentration camps during World War II, and a young African American man who goes to prison for the beating death of that family's patriarch.
The Red Tricycle (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Evils of racism, Injustice, Optimism – power or folly
- Available
The scene as a Nikkei family—a mother with her two daughters and four-year-old son Tommy—make the last preparations at their farmhouse before a truck comes to take them to the train station that will deliver them to a concentration camp. Their spirits are temporarily buoyed by a unexpected kind act by one of the soldiers who comes for them.
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.
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 from the Camps: Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8
- Young Adult, History
- Displacement, Evils of racism, Hazards of passing judgment, Injustice, Power of the past
- Available
Brief overview book for juvenile audiences on the wartime removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans by prolific children's book author Larry Dane Brimner. The "voices" of the title are taken from testimony by Japanese Americans before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC).
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.
Valor with Honor (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, War
- War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Heroism – real and perceived, Evils of racism
- Available
Documentary film by Burt Takeuchi that tells the story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team . Eschewing a narrator, the film is built around the thirty-five interviews with veterans Takeuchi conducted and also includes brief reenactments of battle scenes that were shot at Sequoia Paintball Park in Santa Cruz, California. Valor With Honor tells the story in largely chronological fashion, starting with prewar life, the impact of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the roundup of Japanese Americans on the West Coast before getting to induction and basic training, combat in Italy, the rescue of the Lost Battalion , the liberation of Dachau sub camps, and the return to postwar society. Much of the running time focuses on the Rescue of the Lost Battalion and includes interviews with members of the 141st, the men who were rescued. The 86-minute film was completed in 2010 and has been screened widely across …
The Tragic History of the Japanese-American Internment Camps (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8
- Grades 7-8
- Children's, History
- Displacement, Evils of racism, Hazards of passing judgment, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications
- Available
Overview work on the Japanese American wartime removal and incarceration for middle school audiences that is part of Enslow Publishers' "From Many Cultures, One History" series.
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.
Uncle Gunjiro's Girlfriend (play)
- Plays
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Evils of racism, Power of the past, Reunion, Role of Religion – virtue or hypocrisy
- Limited availability
Performance piece that incorporates storytelling, music, dance, and multimedia elements to expose the secret of Brenda Wong Aoki's family: her great-uncle's marriage to a white woman and the subsequent split in the family.
Tule Lake (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Evils of racism, Family – blessing or curse, Importance of community, Individual versus society
- Available
Novel by Edward Miyakawa set in the eponymous concentration camp. Tule Lake was likely the first novel by a Japanese American set in one of the World War II concentration camps to be published when it first appeared in 1979. It was also notable for its unflinching portrayal of life in the most repressive of the camps.
We the People: A Story of Internment in America (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Evils of racism, Importance of community, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Role of women
- Available
Memoir of Florin, California-based Nisei educator and activist Mary Tsukamoto co-authored by Elizabeth Pinkerton and published in 1987 when Tsukamoto was seventy-two. Though the book covers her entire life, well over half of it focuses on her and her family's wartime confinement, their resettlement in the Midwest, and eventual return to California.
Weedflower (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8
- Children's, Historical Fiction
- Growing up – pain or pleasure, Evils of racism, Fear of other, Losing hope
- Widely available
Coming-of-age novel for young adults set in Poston with a young Nisei girl as the protagonist. Weedflower was author Cynthia Kadohata's second young adult novel, after the Newbery Medal winning Kira-Kira .
Welcome Home! (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Evils of racism, Injustice, Totalitarianism
- Widely available
Short story that contrasts the reception of two returning soldiers to their homes after serving overseas. Two soldiers meet on a train and talk about what they look forward to upon returning home. The first, presumably white, gets off the train to a warm welcome by parents, a girlfriend and the family pet. The second, a Japanese American has no one waiting for him, since his family is still incarcerated in an Arizona concentration camp. He is ignored or greeted coldly by the locals in his hometown and when he gets to his family home, finds that it has been vandalized and painted with racist epithets. Authored by Sgt. Len Zinberg, Welcome Home! was first published in Yank , a weekly magazine published by the U.S. Army and reprinted in the Pacific Citizen in 1945.
What It Means To Be An American: Lesson Plans on Race and the Media in Times of Crisis (curricula)
- Curricula
- Middle School, High School
- Dangers of ignorance, Evils of racism, Fear of other, Injustice, Rights
Published by the Japanese American Citizens League in 2004, this 24-page booklet provides a middle/high school curriculum that addresses the parallels between the World War II experience of Japanese Americans and the post-September 11th experience of Arab and Muslim Americans. The unit is organized into three lessons "Hidden Truths – The Use of Spin," "Opinion-Editorials," "Political Cartoons," with a total of ten learning activities. The booklet also includes background information about the World War II Japanese American incarceration, the impact of September 11 on Arab and Muslim Americans, and myths and stereotypes.
When Military Necessity Overrides Constitutional Guarantees: The Treatment of Japanese Americans During World War II (curricula)
- Curricula
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Evils of racism, Immigrant experience, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
This curriculum guide examines the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans through the lens of its constitutional merit. It should be noted that it was published in 1982, and it contains terminology that in 2017 is considered inappropriate and/or offensive in the use of "Oriental" versus Asian or Asian American. In addition, many of the suggested classroom materials are outmoded (filmstrips) or out of print and may be difficult to access. The guide refers to a "media kit" which may have been available when the guide was first published.
When the Emperor Was Divine: Teacher's Guide (curricula)
- Curricula
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Displacement, Growing up - pain or pleasure, Evils of racism, Injustice
The Information provided in this 10-page guide aims to get students to understand When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka "as both a work of art and a meditation on freedom, identity, and loyalty" (page 2). There is background information about the novel and the author, including excerpts from an interview with Otsuka. The historical information provided about the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans was garnered from Lauren Kessler's Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese-American Family (New York, Random House, 1993).
When Your Body Has Been Rolled in Thorns (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Fiction
- Evils of racism, Facing reality, Loss of innocence, Will to survive
- Widely available
Short story by Ferris Takahashi about a Japanese American family leaving a concentration camp to return to their old home in Los Angeles. Told from the perspective of a college educated Nisei husband and father of two young children, the story begins as they gather up their possessions and prepare to leave the camp. Yosh, a friend who had returned earlier and was able to reestablish his business, greets them at the train station. When they return to their home, they find it trashed and vandalized, with all the furniture gone. They also learn that the Buddhist temple in which they had stored other possessions had burned down. Yosh and his family offer to put them up until they can fix their house. Returning to look more closely at the house after dinner, the man and his Issei mother find racist graffiti. His mother assures him that they will rebound.
White Road of Thorns: Journalist's Diary—Trials and Tribulations of the Japanese American Internment During World War II (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Evils of racism, Facing darkness, Will to survive
- Available
Wartime diary of Issei journalist and Japanese language school teacher Hisa Aoki that covers the period prior to her return to Japan on the second voyage of the Gripsholm . Originally published in Japan in 1953, it was translated into English by Archie Miyamoto at the behest of Aoki's elder daughter, Mary Yoko Nakamura.
Woman With a Blue Pencil (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Mystery, Historical Fiction
- Character – destruction, building up, Communication – verbal and nonverbal, Disillusionment and dreams, Evils of racism, Heroism – real and perceived, Manipulation
- Widely available
Novel about a pulp mystery novel written by a young Nisei as World War II breaks out, his interactions with a sometimes overzealous editor, and his protest in the form of an unpublished manuscript centering on the Nisei private detective he was forced to remove from the novel.
Yuri Kochiyama: Passion for Justice (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Convention and rebellion, Evils of racism, Empowerment, Importance of community, Working class struggles
- Available
Documentary film profiling Nisei political activist Yuri Kochiyama co-produced and co-directed by Patricia Saunders and Rea Tajiri.
An American Contradiction (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Evils of racism, Injustice, Power of the past, Power of words
- Widely available
Filmmaker Vanessa Yuille goes to visit the Heart Mountain site, where her mother was born, to learn more about its history. Through interviews with former inmates—particularly Bacon Sakatani—and local residents and experts, she provides an overview of the mass removal and incarceration and of life at Heart Mountain. We also see LaDonna Zall, acting curator at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center , lead tour of the site as it is today. The film concludes with Sakatani leading what looks like a local community meeting in a discussion about whether the camp should be called a "concentration camp."
Ancestry is Not a Crime: The Internment of People of Japanese Descent During World War II (curricula)
- Curricula
- Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12
- Displacement, Evils of racism, Injustice, Patriotism - positive side or complications, Rights - individual or societal, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Limited availability
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Hawai'i state legislature funded the development of Ancestry is Not a Crime , focused on the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. The 192-page curriculum aims to engage elementary through high school students with this complex history, to wrestle with the meaning of democratic principles, and to think critically about civil liberties and the responsibilities of a democratic citizenry.
And Then a Rainbow (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Evils of racism, Role of women, Will to survive, Working class struggles
- Limited availability
Memoir by a Nisei woman who renounces her citizenship at Tule Lake and lives in Japan for thirteen years before returning to the U.S.
And Then They Came for Us (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Evils of racism, Expression through art, Power of the past, Rights - individual or societal
- Widely available
Documentary film that provides an overview of the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans while drawing explicit parallels to agitation against Arab Americans in the early months of the Trump Administration.