Browse > Theme > Rights - individual or societal

41 articles

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A Hero's Hero (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Convention and rebellion, Heroism – real and perceived, Individual versus society, Rights - individual or societal
Available

Documentary film on Nisei draft resister Yosh Kuromiya and his nephew, civil rights activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya, directed by Robert Shoji. The film begins with Shoji's first person narration of meeting Yosh Kuromiya and with scenes of Kuromiya, shot shortly before his 2018 passing, in which he discusses growing up in the San Gabriel Valley before the war and being forcibly removed with his family to the Heart Mountain , Wyoming, concentration camp, where he was among the young men who resisted the draft, subsequently serving time in prison. The film then follows him to the cemetery, where he visits the resting place of Kiyoshi, while recalling his life of activism. An audio interview of Kiyoshi continues the story of his role in the Civil Rights Movement and as founder of the Critical Path newsletter that provided crucial information about HIV/AIDS. The film ends with Shoji expressing gratitude for having met …

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.

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.

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."

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.

Blue Jay in the Desert (book)

Books
Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5
Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5
Children's, Picture book
Quest for discovery, Rights - individual or societal
Widely available

Blue Jay in the Desert by Marlene Shigekawa and illustrated by Isao Kikuchi is a children's picture book about how the gift of a hand-carved wooden blue jay symbolizes the love and hope a grandfather gives to his grandson.

Citizen Tanouye (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Heroism - real or perceived, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Rights - individual or societal
Available

A 2005 documentary film that tells the story of eight high school students from Torrance High School in California, and their discovery of a school alumnus named Ted Tanouye and his experiences during World War II. A Japanese American soldier of the renowned 442nd Regimental Combat Team who was killed in action and a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient , Technical Sergeant Tanouye and his family were nonetheless incarcerated at the Jerome and Rohwer , Arkansas, concentration camps from 1942–45, without due process. By researching Tanouye's personal history through school yearbooks, newspapers, internet sites and by conducting interviews with Japanese American veterans, the relevance of history and importance of civil liberties becomes tangible for the students, who come to see the parallels between the Japanese American experience during World War II and their own lives and the impact war had on their city.

Dark Clouds Over Paradise: The Hawai'i Internees Story (exhibition)

Museum Exhibitions
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
History
Lost honor, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Rights - individual or societal
No availability

Exhibition organized by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i (JCCH) that focused on the World War II internment of Japanese Americans living in Hawai'i. Originally organized in 2004, a later traveling version of the exhibition debuted in 2006 and traveled widely in Hawai'i over the next several years.

Day of Remembrance (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Dangers of ignorance, Facing darkness, Hazards of passing judgment, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
Limited availability

Documentary film by Cynthia Gates Fujikawa consisting of highlights from 2003 Day of Remembrance (DoR) commemorations in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Honolulu, all of which highlight the parallels between what happened to Japanese Americans in 1942 and what was then happening to Arab and Muslim Americans in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The film also includes brief interviews with some of the event organizers and excerpts from press conferences organized in reaction to remarks defending the roundup and imprisonment of Japanese Americans by North Carolina Congressman Howard Coble two weeks prior to the DoRs. Highlighted speakers include Hakim Oaunsafi, Muslim Association of Hawai'i; Nadine Hamoui, whose family in the Seattle area were imprisoned by the INS in 2002; Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council; legal scholar Chris Iijima; Congressman Mike Honda ; and civil rights attorney Dale Minami . Day of …

Fred Korematsu Speaks Up (book)

Books
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
Children's, History
Heroism – real and perceived, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
Widely available

Book for middle school audiences on Fred Korematsu , who challenged the forced removal of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Ganbare Don't Give Up! (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Immigrant experience, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Rights - individual or societal, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
No availability

Documentary film that provides an overview of what happened to Japanese Americans in Hawai'i during World War II, focusing on the limited internment of Issei community leaders and the exploits of Japanese American men in the armed forces. Ganbare Don't Give Up! was produced as a part of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i's core exhibition, Okage Sama De: I am what I am because of you , which remains the only place where it can be viewed.

I Call to Remembrance: Toyo Suyemoto's Years of Internment (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Grades 9-12, Adult
Memoir
Rights - individual or societal, Motherhood, Displacement
Widely available

The memoir of poet Toyo Suyemoto that spans her years of incarceration in Tanforan Assembly Center and later, at Topaz in Utah, from spring 1942 to late autumn 1945. The book, published in 2007 by Rutgers University Press, focuses on the quotidian life in an American concentration camp, while coping both physically and psychologically with the brutality of imprisonment behind barbed wire. The book is dedicated to Suyemoto's son Kay and details his short life from birth in Berkeley, California, to his first steps at Tanforan in a crowded horse stall, and finally to Utah where he developed a serious asthmatic condition and pneumonia in the harsh atmosphere of camp which eventually lead to his premature death. Suyemoto's memoir includes the impact of policies and wartime decisions on her family and the larger Japanese American community, bringing insight on complex and controversial questions of loyalty, citizenship and resistance. She also …

Japanese Relocation During World War II (curricula)

Curricula
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Displacement, Injustice, Patriotism - positive side or complications, Rights - individual or societal
Widely available

This resource from the National Archives provides historical background, an annotated bibliography of other resources, links to primary source materials (documents, photos), standards correlations, and teaching activities.

Korematsu v. The United States: World War II Japanese-American Internment Camps (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
Grades 9-12
Young Adult, History
Convention and rebellion, Evils of racism, Individual versus society, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
Available

Book for young adult readers on the Korematsu v. U.S. Supreme Court case by Karen Latchana Kenney. The 160 page volume is part of ABDO Publishing Company's "Landmark Supreme Court Cases" series of eight books.

Korematsu v. United States: Japanese-American Internment (book)

Books
Grades 9-12
Grades 9-12
Young Adult, History
Convention and rebellion, Evils of racism, Individual versus society, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
Available

Overview of the Korematsu Supreme Court case —as well as the related Hirabayashi , Yasui , and Endo cases—as part of Marshall Cavendish Benchmark's "Supreme Court Milestones" series.

Korematsu v. United States: Japanese-American Internment Camps (book)

Books
Grades 7-8
Grades 7-8
Young Adult, History
Convention and rebellion, Evils of racism, Individual versus society, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
Available

Overview of the Korematsu Supreme Court case as part of Enslow Publishers' Landmark Supreme Court Cases series.

Manzanar and Beyond (book)

Books
Memoir
Coming of age, Disillusionment and dreams, Displacement, Importance of community, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
Available

Prominent Nisei attorney recounts his life, including his experiences as the administrator of the hospital at Manzanar concentration camp and his role in landmark legal battles advocating for redressing injustices experienced by Japanese Americans.

Manzanar Rites (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Fiction, History
Coming of age, Evils of racism, Rights - individual or societal, Vulnerability of the strong
Limited availability

Coming of age novel by William Hohri about two teenage boys from West Los Angeles who end up at Manzanar with their families.

Nisei Odyssey: The Camp Years (book)

Books
Memoir
Displacement, Facing reality, Injustice, Patriotism - positive side or complications, Rights - individual or societal, War - glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
Limited availability

Nisei's recollections of his experiences incarcerated in an assembly center and concentration camp during World War II as well as a recounting of various stories he remembers hearing from others both before and during the war.

Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
Available

Documentary film by Eric Paul Fournier that chronicles the story of American civil rights hero, Fred Korematsu , whose refusal to obey orders prohibiting Japanese Americans from remaining on the West Coast led to a landmark Supreme Court case .

Passing It On--A Memoir (book)

Books
Memoir
Coming of age, Overcoming - fear, weakness, vice, Rebirth, Rights - individual or societal
Available

Leading human rights activist reflects on her life, including her insulated childhood and the wartime incarceration experience that awakened her lifelong commitment to advocacy for all marginalized peoples.

A Personal Matter: Gordon Hirabayashi vs. the United States (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Injustice, Character - destruction, building up, Rights - individual or societal
Limited availability

Documentary film on Gordon Hirabayashi and his legal challenge to the World War II-era measures against Japanese Americans during the war and the revival of that challenge forty years later. John de Graaf directed the 28-minute documentary, which tells his story in a largely chronological manner, ending with the 1980s coram nobis case verdict. In addition to Hirabayashi's own words and contemporary footage of him visiting such key locales as the Federal Court House in Seattle, where he was first tried; the King County Jail, where he was incarcerated; and his alma mater, Auburn High School, the filmmakers tell the story through interviews with two of his brothers, friends, and some of his lawyers (including Arthur Barnett , his friend and lawyer in the 1940s cases). A Personal Matter aired nationally on Public Broadcasting Service stations in 1992. Among the funders of the film are the National Commission on the …

Racial Profiling (book)

Books
Grades 7-8
Grades 7-8
Young Adult
Evils of racism, Fear of other, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Rights - individual or societal
Available

Book for middle schoolers that looks at both sides of the issue of racial profiling. One chapter focuses on the World War II exclusion and incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Redress: The JACL Campaign for Justice (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
Limited availability

Documentary film produced by Visual Communications for the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) in 1991 documenting the JACL's role in the Redress Movement , which had recently culminated in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 . Written and directed by John Esaki, the film was shown at Days of Remembrances and other events. William Hohri , a frequent critic of the JACL, wrote a letter to Japanese American vernacular papers that compared the video to "how history was manipulated in the old Soviet Union" noting the omission of the corm nobis cases and non-JACL contributors to the movement. In response, Cherry Kinoshita, the JACL's national redress chair, noted the video's goal "to document JACL's role in the redress effort," and not to tell a comprehensive story of redress. [1]

Relocation, Arkansas: Aftermath of Incarceration (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Circle of life, Evils of racism, Power of the past, Reunion, Rights - individual or societal
Limited availability

Documentary film by Vivienne Schiffer about the legacy of the Rohwer , Arkansas, concentration camp that focuses on the incarceration's impact on the Sansei and the role of a local mayor in preserving Rohwer's history.

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