Browse > Theme > Heartbreak of betrayal
14 articles
Phantoms (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Facing darkness, Heartbreak of betrayal, Injustice, Power of the past
- Widely available
Novel by Christian Kiefer centering on a white Vietnam War veteran who tries to unravel the story of what happened to a Nisei World War II veteran, gaining insight into his own experiences in the process.
"Putting Them Where They Could Do No Harm" (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Evils of racism, Heartbreak of betrayal, Power of words
- Widely available
Short film that makes the case for renaming Fletcher Bowron Square in downtown Los Angeles, named after the wartime mayor of Los Angeles who agitated for the removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. Eschewing narration, the film uses Bowron's wartime radio addresses (voiced by Maciek Kolodziejeczak) as evidence of his anti-Japanese and pro-exclusion stance, juxtaposed with excerpts from Japanese Americans testifying about their wartime experiences in clips from testimony before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians . The film ends with many examples of entities whose names have been changed in recent years due to changing societal attitudes towards race, before calling for the renaming of Fletcher Bowron Square. The title comes from one of Bowron's radio addresses.
We Hereby Refuse: The Akutsu Family Resists (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Animation
- Chaos and order, Evils of racism, Heartbreak of betrayal
- Widely available
Simply animated story focusing on the Akutsu family, told in Nisei Jim Akutsu's first-person voice, starting with the arrest of his father after the attack on Pearl Harbor, his internment and interrogation, Jim's unsuccessful attempts to enlist, and the family's subsequent removal to Puyallup . In between the Akutsu family story are scenes of Japanese American Citizens League leaders Mike Masaoka and James Sakamoto cooperating with government officials to facilitate the roundup. The story was adapted from the book We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration by Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura, with the animation based on Ross Ishikawa's artwork for the book.
The Flower Girls (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Heartbreak of betrayal, Loss of innocence, Optimism – power or folly, Progress – real or illusion
- Available
Short story by Lawson Fusao Inada . Two girls named Cherry and Rose—dubbed the "flower girls" by their teacher—become best friends as first and second graders in Portland, Oregon, just prior to World War II. They play at each other's houses after school and explore each other's neighborhood, though both agree that Cherry's—the Japantown area known as Shita Machi—is more interesting. But the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drives a wedge between them, and Cherry and her family are soon sent away. While the girls exchange a few letters, they soon lose touch. Switching to the present, the narrator writes about a new Cherry and Rose, who meet to play in the Japanese garden of a Portland park.
Betrayed Trust: The Story of a Deported Issei and His American-Born Family During World War II (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Adult
- Memoir
- Coming of age, Disillusionment and dreams, Displacement, Heartbreak of betrayal, Identity crisis, Immigrant experience, Losing hope
- Available
A Nisei shares his family's heart-wrenching experience of wartime incarceration and the complex background behind their decision to go to Japan instead of staying in the U.S. after the end of the war.
China Dolls (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Companionship as salvation, Empowerment, Female roles, Forgiveness, Heartbreak of betrayal, Will to survive
- Widely available
Historical novel by Lisa See centering on performers at Chinese themed nightclubs in San Francisco and New York in the 1930s and 1940s. One of the three main characters is a Japanese American woman passing as Chinese American.
Chikara!: A Sweeping Novel of Japan and America From 1907 to 1983 (book)
- Books
- Historical Fiction
- Change versus tradition, Coming of age, Death - inevitable or tragedy, Disillusionment and dreams, Displacement, Emptiness of attaining a false dream, Evils of racism, Facing reality, Family - blessing or curse, Forgiveness, Greed as downfall, Fate and free will, Heartbreak of betrayal, Heroism - real and perceived, Immigrant experience, Individual versus society, Inner versus outer strength, Lost honor, Lost love, Nationalism - complications, Patriotism - positive side or complications, Power of the past, Will to survive
- Available
This work of historical fiction traces the tumultuous rise and fall of the Hoshi family, whose scion, Sataro, takes his wife Itoko and eldest son Noboru to California in 1907 to seek his fortune and restore his family's honor. He leaves his second son Hiroshi behind with family, a decision that marks the inauspicious first step of the tragic transpacific drama that unfolds over the course of the novel.
Shirley Temple, Hotcha-cha (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Fiction
- Displacement, Heartbreak of betrayal, Isolation, Wisdom of experience
- Available
Short story by Wakako Yamauchi about a Nisei strandee couple and their difficulties both in wartime Japan and in the resettlement era U.S. Told in the first-person voice of Mie, the story begins in 1939 when Mie is seventeen. As was the case for a sizable minority of Nisei youth, she had been sent to Japan for her education, having arrived there three years prior. She attends a boarding school and spends holidays with the Kodamas, a wealthy childless couple who are family friends. On a holiday, she meets Jobo Endo, a fellow Nisei, who is in Japan attending college. Courtship ensues. Recognizing the difficulties they would face in Japan as the war heats up, Jobo suggests that Mie ask the Kodamas for money to return to the U.S. However, the Kodamas had hoped to marry off Mie to a grand nephew. Though they consent to Jobo and Mie getting …
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 .
Dash (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8
- Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8
- Children's, History
- Companionship as salvation, Evils of racism, Displacement, Heartbreak of betrayal
- Widely available
Dash, Kirby Larson's book for 4-6 grade readers, tells the story of 11-year-old Mitsi Kashino and how the love for her dog Dash gives her strength while she and her family are sent to an incarceration camp.
Flowers from Mariko (book)
- Books
- Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5
- Grades 3-5
- Children's, Historical Fiction
- Growing up – pain or pleasure, Heartbreak of betrayal, Optimism – power or folly, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Working class struggles
- Widely available
Picture book for children about a Japanese American family's World War II incarceration and difficulties in restarting their lives after the war, told from the perspective of a young girl of about nine of ten. Mariko, her little sister Emi, and their parents live in Los Angeles before the war, where their father works as a gardener. When they are forced to leave, he leaves his gardening truck and equipment with their landlord. When Japanese Americans are allowed to return to the West Coast in 1945, the family makes plans to return. However their father finds that his truck and equipment have been sold, and the former landlord is nowhere to be found. The family is forced to live in a government-run trailer park upon their return, and her father is unable to find work. One day, he finds some old equipment in the trash, along with some flower seeds. …
Asian Americans, Episode 2: A Question of Loyalty (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Heartbreak of betrayal, Nationalism – complications, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
The second of five episodes of a landmark documentary on the Asian American experience, A Question of Loyalty focuses on the World War II period, telling the story of three Asian American families, two of whom are Japanese American.
Alternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066 (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Heartbreak of betrayal, Injustice, Manipulation, Power and corruption
- Widely available
Documentary film that explores the chain of events that led to Executive Order 9066 and the three Japanese American Supreme Court cases that subsequently challenged the curfew and exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast, with a focus on the set of knowingly false claims that proponents of the exclusion used to justify it. Largely following the storyline of Peter Irons ' classic study of the Japanese American Cases, Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases . , filmmaker Jon Osaki uses interviews—with scholars (including Irons), lawyers and activists involved in the coram nobis cases, and descendants of some of the key figures involved in the decision to forcibly remove Japanese Americans—archival audio and video, and historic photos and documents to tell the story. He uses two college-age Japanese Americans (Mika Osaki, the filmmaker's daughter, and Joseph Tsuboi) as a framing device for the story, …
Harusame Spring Rain (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama
- Disillusionment and dreams, Heartbreak of betrayal, Losing hope
- Widely available
Narrative short film by Jose De Vega set during World War II centering on Naomi, a young Nisei dancer, whose bitterness about her wartime exclusion and incarceration saps her love of dance. In an unnamed American concentration camp, she encounters a child who dreams of becoming a professional dancer and who asks Naomi to teach her.