Browse > Theme > War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
38 articles
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Legacy of the Nisei: Stories of Japanese American Internment and World War II Veterans (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Heroism - real and perceived, Role of men, Injustice, Evils of racism
- Limited availability
The second video produced by the San Leandro Public Library built around interviews with Japanese American veterans and former concentration camp inmates from the San Francisco Bay area.
Peace Is a Chain Reaction: How World War II Japanese Balloon Bombs Brought People of Two Nations Together (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- History
- Forgiveness, Power of the past, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Narrative non-fiction book for middle grade readers about the aftermath of a tragedy involving World War II Japanese balloon bombs centering on Yuzuru John Takeshita, a Kibei man who had been incarcerated at Tule Lake .
The Hawai'i Nisei Story (website)
- Websites
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Virtual Exhibit
- Heroism – real and perceived, Role of men, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Website developed in the mid-2000s by the University of Hawai'i built around oral histories of Nisei veterans from Hawai'i.
An Alien Place: The Fort Missoula Detention Camp, 1941–1944 (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Facing darkness, Injustice, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Documentary film by Kimberly Hogberg on the Fort Missoula Detention Camp that covers the history of the Italian seamen and Issei community leaders who were imprisoned there during World War II.
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 …
Under the Blood Red Sun (book)
- Books
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 6-8
- Historical Fiction, Young Adult
- Coming of age, Companionship as salvation, Growing up – pain or pleasure, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Acclaimed novel for young adults set in the early months of World War II told through the eyes of a teenage Nisei protagonist in Honolulu whose father and grandfather are both interned. The novel was made into a feature film in 2014. It was followed by a sequel, House of the Red Fish , in 2006.
Armed with Language (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Heroism – real and perceived, Role of men, Vulnerability of the strong, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Documentary film on the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Camp Savage and Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and about Nisei in the MIS in general. Written and narrated by writer and poet David Mura, Armed with Language , begins with the forced removal and incarceration of West Coast Japanese Americans and the dilemma of the men who volunteered for the MIS despite their or their families' incarceration. The film uses interviews with MIS veterans and their families along with military historians to tell the story of the language school and of the MIS soldiers in the Pacific, highlighting stories of Merrill's Marauders, Nisei women in the MIS, and Nisei in the occupation of Japan. There is also a brief segment on resettlement and the growth of the Japanese American community in the Twin Cities as well as on the Redress movement and relevance of the story today.
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.
Beyond Barbed Wire (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Role of men, Disillusionment and dreams
- Available
A 1997 documentary film on the Japanese American soldiers of the 100th Infantry Battalion , the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service who fought for the United States during World War II while some of their families were held in concentration camps. The film is based on interviews with numerous veterans as well as with their wives and adult children. Among topics touched on in Beyond Barbed Wire are friction between men from Hawai'i and the continental U.S. during basic training; the unusual story of Korean American Colonel Young O. Kim; the rescue of the Lost Battalion , and the continuing legacy of the veterans for their families. One unique aspect of the film is its treatment of the controversy over the role of Major General John Dahlquist , whom some veterans feel used the Nisei as "cannon fodder." In telling the story of the mass incarceration, …
Before They Take Us Away (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Desire to escape, Evils of racism, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Documentary film on " voluntary evacuation ," built around interviews with Japanese Americans whose families were among the roughly 5,000 who left the West Coast restricted area prior to the forced removal of Japanese Americans. After providing background on the prewar context and beginning of World War II, the bulk of the film focuses on the experiences of the families, most of whom moved to Utah or Colorado where they faced much hardship and discrimination, while also retaining their freedom. The film also specifically notes the case of Keetley Farms , a Nikkei settlement in Utah. The film is narrated in the first-person by Evelyn Nakano Glenn, who also reflects on her own family's wartime experience. The interviews are augmented by voice actors reading quotes from key officials and newspaper accounts from the time.
Both Alike in Dignity (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Evils of racism, Reunion, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Wisdom of experience
- Widely available
Short story by Chester Sakamoto about an elderly Holocaust survivor who mistakenly gets off the bus in Little Tokyo , where he meets an elderly Nisei man. One Sunday, on his weekly visit to a friend in Pasadena, Mr. Muncznik gets off the bus too early and ends up in Little Tokyo. Sitting to get his bearings, he finds himself next to a statue of a Japanese man. Friendly Mr. Sata stops and explains that it is a statue of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who risked his career and safety to help thousands of Jews escape Lithuania during the war. Conversation ensues about each man's wartime experience—Mr. Sata had lived in Little Tokyo before the war and had been sent with his family to Heart Mountain —revealing a startling coincidence.
Thin Wood Walls (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Grades 7-8
- Children's, Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Evils of racism, Loss of innocence, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Children's book by David Patneaude that follows a Japanese American boy and his family as they are forcibly removed from their Washington state home and sent to the Tule Lake concentration camp during World War II.
The War (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Documentary mini-series by Ken Burns on the American experience of World War II. Produced in 2006, The War debuted on public television stations in September 2007, shown in seven roughly two-hour parts. Included in the sprawling documentary is the story of Japanese American forced removal and incarceration as well as the story of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team .
Japanese American Internment Camps (Children's Press) (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5
- Grades 3-5
- Children's, History
- Evils of racism, Hazards of passing judgment, Injustice, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Available
Short overview book for younger children on the wartime removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans that is part of Children's Press's "Cornerstones of Freedom," Second Series of books.
Korematsu and Civil Liberties (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12
- Documentary
- Injustice, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Documentary video focusing on the collision of security concerns and civil liberties as illustrated by theWorld War II roundup of Japanese Americans and the Korematsu Supreme Court case.
Legacy of the Nisei Veterans: WWII Stories of the 100th/442nd and Military Intelligence Service (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Heroism - real and perceived, Role of men
- Limited availability
Documentary film made up of interviews with ten Nisei World War II veterans from the San Francisco Bay area. Short segments of the interviews are organized by topic in more or less chronological fashion, with the occasional insertion of still photographs from the period. Segments include the reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the arrest of Issei leaders, Executive Order 9066 and its aftermath, early recruits to the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), the formation of the 442nd and the loyalty questionnaire episode of early 1943, the battlefield experiences of the MIS in the Pacific and the 442nd in Europe, and the role of the MIS in occupation Japan. The film ends with a brief summary of each man's life after the war. One unusual element in the inclusion of Takeshi "Gish" Endo's story of being recruited out of Heart Mountain by the British Political Warfare Mission, and doing translation …
Letters to Eve (play)
- Plays
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Expression through art, Facing darkness, Love and sacrifice, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- No availability
Musical play that juxtaposes the experiences of a Japanese American family in Manzanar with that of an African American musician and his Jewish girlfriend held in captivity in a Nazi prison camp.
Looking Like the Enemy (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Evils of racism, Role of men, Heroism – real and perceived
- Widely available
Documentary film on the unique experiences of Japanese American soldiers in Asian wars: World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The 52-minute film was made by Karen L. Ishizuka and Robert A. Nakamura in conjunction with the exhibition Fighting for Tomorrow: Japanese Americans in America's Wars at the Japanese American National Museum and screened in the exhibition gallery.
Memoirs of a Certain Nisei (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Empowerment, Patriotism – positive side or complications, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Available
Posthumously published memoir by Kibei war hero Thomas Taro Higa , translated from its original Japanese and published in 1988. The vast majority of the book covers events taking place during World War II.
MIS: Human Secret Weapon (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Heroism – real and perceived, Role of men, Vulnerability of the strong, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Feature length documentary film on the history of Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) during World War II. Written and directed by Japanese filmmaker Junichiro Suzuki, MIS: Human Secret Weapon is the third film in Suzuki's trilogy of documentaries on Japanese Americans during World War II.
Okage Sama De (I Am What I Am Because of You) (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- History
- Heroism – real and perceived, Vulnerability of the strong, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Filmed version of storyteller Alton Takiyama-Chung performing a one-person show mostly centering on the stories of Japanese American soldiers during World War II.
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.
Stanley Hayami, Nisei Son (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Evils of racism, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Role of men, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Book built around the wartime diary and letters of Stanley Hayami that document his incarceration at the Heart Mountain , Wyoming, concentration camp and his military service in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team .
American (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama, War
- Heroism – real and perceived, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Wisdom of experience
- Widely available
Short narrative film starring George Takei as a Nisei veteran and Japanese American National Museum docent named Clinton Nakamoto. While on duty one day at the museum, he meets a woman with a young daughter and starts to give them a tour. The woman mentions that her grandfather had fought in the "422" and shows Clinton a picture of him on her phone. The picture sends Clinton back to the 1942, recalling his anger at the forced removal and later of serving in the 442nd with the grandfather, who was killed in the rescue of the Lost Battalion . He takes her to visit the Go for Broke memorial, where they find his name on it. On the way home on the bus, he strikes up a friendship with a young Muslim boy.
Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8
- Grades 7-8
- Young Adult, History
- Evils of racism, Injustice, Power of the past, Reunion, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Book for younger children about the Manzanar concentration camp.
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