Browse > Theme > Quest for discovery
27 articles
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Clark and Division (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Convention and rebellion, Disillusionment and dreams, Quest for discovery
- Widely available
Edgar Award winning mystery novel by Naomi Hirahara set among Japanese Americans who have resettled in Chicago in 1944.
Letters to Memory (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Circle of life, Family – blessing or curse, Optimism – power or folly, Power of the past, Quest for discovery
- Widely available
Incarceration-centered history of one Japanese American family told through short vignettes inspired by letters, photographs, and other objects in the family archive, as written by acclaimed novelist Karen Tei Yamashita.
Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song in Movement (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Expression through art, Quest for discovery, Rebirth
- Widely available
Documentary profile of performing artist and activist Nobuko Miyamoto tracing her early career as a precocious dancer and singer on Broadway and in Hollywood followed by a political awakening that saw her and her songwriting partner Chris Iijima become the musical voice of the Asian American Movement. The film traces her life as a single mother in Los Angeles, where she teaches dance out of the Senshin Buddhist Temple before forming the Asian American performing arts company Great Leap. The film also includes a brief segment of Miyamoto's memories of her and her family's wartime incarceration at the Santa Anita Assembly Center .
Yuki Shimoda: Asian American Actor (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Expression through art, Quest for discovery, Wisdom of experience
- Widely available
Documentary film profiling pioneering Nisei actor Yuki Shimoda that takes us from his youth in Sacramento, wartime incarceration as a young man at Tule Lake , and the ups and downs of his acting career. The film includes interviews with many of Shimoda's friends and contemporaries including Mako , Nobu McCarthy , and Soon Teck Oh, along with clips from key roles in Auntie Mame , Farewell to Manzanar , and Hito Hata among others. The film places his career in the larger context of Asian American actors who struggle to find meaningful parts and often are forced to play stereotypical roles to make ends meet.
Manzanar (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Power of the past, Quest for discovery, Growing up – pain or pleasure
- Limited availability
Experimental documentary film by Bob Nakamura made in 1971 that was one of the first films to explore the legacy of the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Voices Behind Barbed Wire: Stories of Hawai'i Island (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Power of the past, Injustice, Quest for discovery, Immigrant experience
- Widely available
Short film that tells the story of Japanese Americans on Big Island of Hawai'i who were interned during World War II using a combination of contemporary interviews, historical photographs and footage, and historical reenactments. It is one of a series of four films produced by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i about the internment experience in each of the four counties of Hawai'i as a follow up to the 2012 film The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai'i .
Voices Behind Barbed Wire: Stories of O'ahu (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Power of the past, Injustice, Quest for discovery, Immigrant experience
- Widely available
Short film that tells the story of Japanese Americans on O'ahu who were interned during World War II using a combination of contemporary interviews, historical photographs and footage, and historical reenactments. It is one of a series of four films produced by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i about the internment experience in each of the four counties of Hawai'i as a follow up to the 2012 film The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai'i .
The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai'i (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Power of the past, Injustice, Quest for discovery, Immigrant experience
- Widely available
Documentary film produced by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i (JCCH) in 2012 that provides an overview on the internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai'i during World War II—both those held in camps in the continental U.S. and those held in Hawai'i camps—as well as contemporary efforts to preserve the Hawai'i sites today.
American Sons (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama
- Empowerment, Evils of racism, Quest for discovery, Role of men
- Widely available
Docudrama by Steven Okazaki about four Asian American male characters talking about the role of race in their lives. Though played by actors, the words spoken by each character come from interviews with real people.
Sincerely, Miné Okubo (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Expression through art, Quest for discovery, Wisdom of experience
- Available
Biographical film on artist Miné Okubo produced for the exhibition Miné Okubo's Masterpiece: The Art of Citizen 13660 at the Japanese American National Museum (August 28, 2021 to March 27, 2022). Director Yuka Murakami provides an overview of Okubo's life and art, drawing on family members, friends and scholars, and uses archival photographs and footage along with two prior interviews with Okubo. Given the exhibition's focus on her wartime incarceration, the film provides a broader view of her life and work, especially the evolution of her postwar art and her postwar life in New York City.
The Sun Gods (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Power of the past, Power of silence, Quest for discovery, Everlasting love
- Widely available
Novel by Jay Rubin set in Seattle and that involves wartime incarceration at the Minidoka , Idaho, concentration camp.
Japanese American Detention Camps: Stories of Strength and Hope (play)
- Plays
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Quest for discovery, Power of the past, Evils of racism, Will to survive
- Limited availability
Storytelling performance by Megumi in which she tells stories of the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans from the perspective of various characters. Based on interviews with Japanese American former inmates, she has been performing Japanese American Detention Camps since 1997.
Kim/Kimi (book)
- Books
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 6-8
- Children's, Young Adult
- Coming of age, Identity crisis, Quest for discovery
- Widely available
Kim/Kimi (1987) by Hadley Irwin explores one teen's quest to discover herself by finding out about her father's past. Kimi Yogushi, who is more commonly known as Kim Anderson, has an Irish American mother. Kim's father Kenji, who had died before she was born, was Japanese American. Sixteen-year-old Kim happily lives with her family in an all-white community in Iowa but she begins to want to know more about the Japanese American part of her identity. Her mother finally tells Kim that Kenji had been disowned by his family for marrying outside his race.
No No Girl (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama
- Family – blessing or curse, Power of the past, Quest for discovery
- Available
Full-length feature film by Paul Daisuke Goodman about the long shadow of the World War II incarceration on a Southern California Nikkei family.
Nikkei Style (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Change versus tradition, Importance of community, Power of tradition, Quest for discovery
- Limited availability
Personal essay on being Japanese American by Sansei filmmaker Steven Okazaki , narrated in his first person voice. Beginning his journey at a family mochizuki event in Oxnard, California, he explores his family history, taking us to the house he grew up in in Venice, California, and telling us what he knows of his mother's and father's families, including their World War II incarceration (his mother went to Santa Anita , then Amache , his father to Heart Mountain ) and featuring a brief interview with his mother. In search of more information about his father's side, he goes to Japan to visit a distant cousin and to Hawai'i to visit one of his father's old army buddies, from whom he learns much. The film ends with footage from various bon dances in Hawai'i and the continental U.S, which Okazaki cites as a living symbol of being Japanese American. Along …
Ho'onani Makuakane (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama
- Power of the past, Injustice, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Quest for discovery
- Widely available
Episode of the Hawaii Five-0 TV series from 2013 that featured a Japanese American internment-related storyline.
The Heart No Longer Silent (play)
- Plays
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Quest for discovery, Power of the past, Evils of racism, Will to survive
- No availability
Storytelling performance with digital imagery by storyteller Megumi and artist Elaine Sayoko Yoneoka. Funded by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program , The Heart No Longer Silent: Stories with Images from the Japanese American Internment of World War II was performed several times in Central and Northern California in 2002.
Family Gathering (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Family – blessing or curse, Power of the past, Quest for discovery, Self-awareness
- Available
Documentary film by Lise Yasui that chronicles her exploration of her family's hidden history—especially that of her paternal grandfather, Masuo Yasui —through interviews and family home movies and photographs. One of the most acclaimed films about the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans, Family Gathering was nominated for an Academy Award in 1988.
Death Rides the Rails to Poston (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Mystery
- Power and corruption, Quest for discovery
- Widely available
Short story murder mystery by Hisaye Yamamoto that takes place on the train taking forcibly removed Japanese Americans to the Poston , Arizona, concentration camp. Death Rides the Rails to Poston first appeared in serialized form in the Poston Chronicle newspaper in 1943.
Old Man River (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Biography, History
- Family – blessing or curse, Power of the past, Power of silence, Quest for discovery
- Available
Filmed version of Cynthia Gates Fujikawa's one-woman play of the same name about her search to unearth the secrets in the life of her father, actor Jerry Fujikawa. The play premiered in New York in 1997. Gates and documentary film director Allan Holzman filmed her performances during the run of the play in Los Angeles in early 1998. To try to recapture the effect of Fujikawa talking directly to the audience, Holzman positioned cameras on stage that she could talk into and added additional historic photographs and video. Premiering later in 1998, the film version went to play in various film festivals, community screenings and Days of Remembrance in succeeding years. The DVD version of the film also includes Fujikawa's 2003 documentary, Day of Remembrance .
Old Man River (play)
- Plays
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Family – blessing or curse, Power of the past, Power of silence, Quest for discovery
- Available
One-woman play about the playwright's search for the truth about her actor father's life story. Jerry Fujikawa was a successful Nisei actor after World War II who worked steadily in character roles in movies and television and who did well enough to own a home and put three children through college. But after his death in 1983, playwright and performer Cynthia Gates Fujikawa found a picture of her father with a woman who is not her mother and a little girl who looks like her, but is not. Old Man River documents her search for her father's history, in which his wartime incarceration at Manzanar and stint in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team play a key role.
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.
Oh! Poston, Why Don't You Cry for Me? And Other Stops Along the Way (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Convention and rebellion, Quest for discovery, Role of Religion – virtue or hypocrisy
- Available
Memoir by Paul Okimoto, a Nisei who grew up in San Diego, California, and spent his childhood years incarcerated with his family at Poston . Postwar chapters tell stories of his many travels, business ventures, and encounters with notable people. The title of the book comes from a Nisei adaptation of the song "Oh! Susanna" sung in Poston.
Removed by Force: The Eviction of Hawai`i's Japanese Americans During WWII (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Empowerment, Injustice, Quest for discovery
- Available
Documentary film by Ryan Kawamoto about Japanese Americans in Hawai'i who were excluded or removed from their homes, but not interned, along with the 1990s efforts by the Honolulu Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League to secure redress for this group under the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 .
Yonsei Eyes (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Power of the past, Quest for discovery, Wisdom of experience
- Widely available
Documentary film that follows young Yonsei siblings Mika & Lee Osaki as they go on a pilgrimage to Tule Lake in 2016, their first trip to the camp in which both of their grandfathers had been held. Mika and Lee's narration of their trip is intercut with interview footage of both grandfathers, Tsukasa Matsueda (1925–2011) and Wayne Osaki (1923–2015).
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