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209 articles
Warning Shot: The Killing of James H. Wakasa (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Death – inevitable or tragedy, Injustice
- Availability
Film essay by Tina Takemoto about James Hatsuaki Wakasa and other men who were shot to death by guards in concentration camps holding Japanese Americans during World War II. Takemoto uses clips from Hollywood movies, period documentaries and industrial films along with images of camp newspapers and contemporaneous reports to tell the story, augmented with captions. Takemoto suggests that Wakasa was gay, noting the close male companion with whom he traveled the country prior to the war. After detailing Wakasa's killing, Takemoto lists the other Japanese Americans killed by guards in the camps.
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."
An American Hero: Shiro Kashino (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, Animation
- Heroism – real and perceived, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications
- Widely available
Short documentary film that uses animation and archival footage to tell the story of Shiro Kashino, a Nisei from Seattle who becomes a war hero as a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team , but who loses his rank for his role in a fight in France.
An American History: Resettlement of Japanese Americans in Greater Cleveland (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Self-reliance, Injustice
- Available
Oral history-based documentary centering on Japanese Americans who resettled in Cleveland after leaving the concentration camps. Directed by Greg Petusky and Johnny Wu, the film was funded in part by a grant from the Japanese American Citizen's League's National Endowment Fund. It debuted at a screening at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History on April 8, 2000.
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.
Burma Rifles: A Story of Merrill's Marauders (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Historical Fiction, Children's
- Heroism – real and perceived, Injustice, Vulnerability of the strong, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Limited availability
Book for young readers by Frank Bonham centering on a Nisei intelligence soldier in Burma during World War II. Published in 1960, it is among the first children's books to depict the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Best Friends Forever: A World War 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.
A Bitter Legacy (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Convention and rebellion, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
- Widely available
Documentary film by Claudia Katayanagi that provides an overview of the Japanese American incarceration with a focus on resistance, in particular on the Moab and Leupp Isolation Centers and the events leading up to them. In addition to many interviews with scholars, former inmates, local residents (many of whom are Native American), and others, Katayanagi uses actors to reenact some key scenes in the story. She also uses Wendy Maruyama's Tag Project—an art installation consisting of thousands of tags similar to those attached to Japanese Americans and their possessions as they were being forcibly removed—as recurring motif between the eight chapters, from "Pre-War Days" to "Redress and Reparations."
The Bitter Memory: America's Concentration Camps (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice
- Widely available
Early film that provides an overview of the wartime forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans on the West Coast produced by the University of California, Berkeley in 1975. Bitter Memory tells the story through narration and interviews with former inmates accompanied by archival footage from Office of War Information/War Relocation Authority (WRA) films and WRA still photos. All footage—even contemporary interview footage and footage shot at Tule Lake —is in black and white. Identified inmate narrators include poet and playwright Hiroshi Kashiwagi , Mary Otani, Michi Mukai, and Kumito Ishida. The bulk of the film deals with living conditions in the concentration camps—the lack of privacy, the breaking up of the family unit, employment, food and so forth—along with the loyalty questionnaire and segregation . The film is also known as Bitter Memories: Tule Lake , even though only the last few minutes of the film focus on Tule …
Blue Skies and Thunder: Farm Boy, Pilot, Inventor, TSA Officer, and WWII Soldier of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (book)
- Books
- Memoir
- Coming of age, Death - inevitable or tragedy, Disillusionment and dreams, Displacement, Facing reality, Family - blessing or curse, Injustice, Loss of innocence, Overcoming - fear, weakness, vice, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Available
Mixed race Nisei shares his story, from a tough childhood growing up on a farm in the Midwest to his experiences in combat with the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion during World War II.
Bob Sakata: American Farmer (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5
- Grades 3-5
- Biography, Children's
- Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Injustice, Role of men, Coming of age
- Available
Biography for children by Daniel Blegen about a Nisei farmer in Colorado that covers his wartime incarceration in an American concentration camp.
Blossoms and Thorns: A Community Uprooted (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Evils of racism, Injustice
- Available
Documentary film that examines Japanese American cut flower growers in Richmond, California, before, during and after World War II. Written and directed by Ken Kokka, the 19-minute film was funded by the Contra Costa Japanese American Citizens League.
So Far from the Sea (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5
- Grades 3-5
- Children's
- Change versus tradition, Death – inevitable or tragedy, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Injustice, Power of the past
- Widely available
Children's picture book by Eve Bunting about a Japanese American family's pilgrimage to Manzanar in 1972.
Song of Anger: Tales of Tule Lake (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Darkness and light, Displacement, Injustice
- Available
Reflections and observations of a social worker in Tule Lake segregation center during World War II.
Stories from America's Concentration Camps (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Displacement, Evils of racism, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications
- Limited availability
Filmed presentation by members of Nisei VFW Post 8985, based in Sacramento, on the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. According to leader Kiyo Sato-Viacrucis , the group had been making such presentations for fourteen years to schools. Joining Sato-Viacrucis are members Kaoru "Kirk" Shibata, Robert Kashiwagi, H. Gary Shiota, Kinya Noguchi, Jim Tanaka, Yoshiro William Matsuhara. The group talk through the core story— Executive Order 9066 and the roundup of Japanese Americans, life in the concentration camps, volunteering for the army from the camps, and the aftermath of the war, ending with the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 —taking turns and often using photographs or other objects to tell the story. The group also tells the story of the formation of their group: how as Nisei veterans, they were not allowed to join existing Veterans of Foreign Affairs groups and thus had to form their own. The roughly …
Strawberry Yellow (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Adult
- Fiction, Mystery
- Injustice
- Widely available
The fifth book in Naomi Hirahara's Mas Arai Mysteries series finds the Kibei gardener back in his hometown of Watsonville for the funeral of a relative. But the apparent murder of an anti-GMO activist and the suggestion by his widow that the deceased relative may have been murdered plunge Mas into another mystery.
Suitcase Sefton and the American Dream (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Everlasting love, Family – blessing or curse, Importance of community, Injustice
- Widely available
Novel by Jay Feldman about a New York Yankees scout who discovers a hot Nisei pitching prospect in an American concentration camp during World War II.
Civil Rights and Japanese-American Internment (curricula)
- Curricula
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Expression through art, Immigrant experience, Individual versus society, Injustice, Overcoming, Patriotism, Rights, War
Developed in 2000 by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) and the Institute for International Studies (IIS) at Stanford University, this high school/college curriculum module presents civil rights in the context of the Japanese-American experience from immigration in the early 20th century to World War II, and on through more contemporary issues of redress, reparations and memorializing the incarceration. Organized into six lessons, this curriculum can provide up to three weeks of stand-alone instruction or select lessons can be used to augment U.S. history textbook coverage.
Canefields and Deserts: Japanese American Internment (exhibition)
- Museum Exhibitions
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- History
- Evils of racism, Injustice
- No availability
Early traveling exhibition assembled by the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) and displayed in venues in Honolulu and Denver, Colorado, in 1992. As part of the 50th anniversary commemoration of Executive Order 9066 , JANM put together Canefields and Deserts , which opened at the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu on July 10, 1992. Curated by Pam Funai, the exhibition included photographs of Hawai'i internment camps Sand Island and Honouliuli , letter and sketches by artist George Hoshida , and a large scale model of Manzanar made by Robert Hasuike. After its brief ten-day run in Honolulu, the exhibition traveled to Denver in August 1992.
Then Becoming Now (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Coming of age, Empowerment, Injustice, Power of the past
- Widely available
Documentary film by Emiko Omori about three men—Kazumu "Kaz" Julio Cesar Naganuma, Hiroshi Fukuda, and Hiroshi "Shim" Shimizu—who met as young children when their families were interned at the Crystal City , Texas, internment camp, became friends in postwar San Francisco, and participated in protests against Trump administration immigrant detention and family separation policies in 2019. In interviews, each man discusses his family history and internment trajectory, with Fukuda's—whose father was a Konko-kyo minister—and Shimizu's being from San Francisco, while Naganuma's was among the Japanese Peruvians who were seized by the U.S. Government as part of a prisoner exchange program. They became friends after the war through the Boy Scout troupe run by the San Francisco Konko Church. The film ends with each speaking at 2019 protests, including one at a Dilley, Texas, detention center near the site of the Crystal City camp.
Though I Be Crushed: The Wartime Experiences of a Buddhist Minister (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Displacement, Immigrant experience, Injustice
- Limited availability
Translated memoir of an Issei Buddhist priest focusing on his wartime incarceration at several camps.
Confined Citizens: The Amache-Granada Relocation Center, 1942-1945 (exhibition)
- Museum Exhibitions
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- History
- Displacement, Injustice
- Available
Section within the Colorado Stories exhibition, a permanent installation at the History Colorado Center in Denver that was part of its 2012 grand opening.
Conversations: Before the War/After the War (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama
- Injustice, Power of the past
- Limited availability
A 1986 dramatic film by Robert Nakamura that is based on the play "Truth of the Matter" by Karen L. Ishizuka. In Conversations , three characters discuss their life experiences, feelings and the facts of the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, exploring the changes in their lives and long term effects of their wartime experiences. Though taking the form of oral history interviews, the three characters were nonprofessional actors playing composite characters based on their own experiences and that of others. The cast included Kimiko Nakamura—the mother of director Nakamura—along with Warren Furutani , playing a role based on his father, and Grace Ino, playing the part of a younger Nisei . in a 2009 interview, Nakamra said that the film "was experimental in that we used the experiences of the non-actors themselves reading transcripts of interviews, and a little bit of coaching." [1]
The Colorado Experience: Freedom and Poverty (film)
- Films and Video
- Adult
- Documentary
- Desire to escape, Injustice, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
- Widely available
Documentary film that looks at the experience of one Japanese American family from California that "voluntarily" migrates to rural Colorado to avoid the mass forced removal of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast in 1942. Bryan Yokomi, a young descendant of that family, produced and directed the 31 minute film.
The Crystal City (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Immigrant experience, Injustice, Power of the past
- Widely available
Documentary film about the Crystal City internment camp by Kenya Gillespie. The short film tells the story of three families—the Utsushigawas from Peru , the Fukudas from San Francisco, and Eisorlohs, German Americans from Ohio—through narration and mostly contemporary footage of the Crystal City site, as well as images from a contemporaneous Crystal City government film. There is also a brief excerpt of remarks by another internee, Haru Kuromiya.