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141 articles

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An Internment Odyssey: Haisho Tenten (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Memoir
Immigrant experience, Nationalism – complications, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Will to survive
Widely available

An Internment Odyssey: Haisho Tenten is the third book in a series published by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i and University of Hawai'i Press of a Hawai'i inmate's account of their incarceration experience during World War II. It represents a critical addition to Japanese American history as it provides the perspective of an Issei from Hawai'i who authorities incarcerated at multiple sites in the Islands and the mainland. The author, Kumaji Furuya , thus gives voice to some of the experiences faced by the 1,320 inmates from Hawai'i who like Furuya were often separated from their families for the duration of the war.

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.

American Scrapbook (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical fiction
Identity crisis, Family
Widely available

Novel set in Manzanar and Tule Lake by prolific writer Jerome Charyn and published in 1969.

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.

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.

Children of Topaz (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Companionship as salvation, Isolation, Nature as beauty
Widely available

A snowfall at Topaz brings children out of the barracks to engage in snowball fights and snowman building. They recall friends back home and wish their non-Japanese American friends can join them in play. The very short story by Toshio Mori —dubbed "A Sketch"—appeared in the Pacific Citizen newspaper in 1945.

The Children of Topaz: The Story of the Japanese-American Internment Camp (book)

Books
Grades 3-5
Grades 3-5
Children's
Companionship as salvation, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Loss of innocence
Widely available

Children's book by Michael O. Tunnell and George W. Chilcoat based on a class diary kept by a 3rd grade teacher at Topaz .

Citizen 13559 (play)

Plays
Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8

Play for children by Naomi Iizuka, based on the children's book The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp by Barry Denenberg. The story focuses on the wartime experiences of twelve-year-old Ben Uchida, whose family is incarcerated at the fictional "Mirror Lake" camp in Wisconsin. After workshop productions at the Kennedy Center and the Mark Taper Forum's Asian Theatre Workshop, the hour-long play premiered in March 2006 as part of the Kennedy Center Family Theater's first season.

Seki-nin (Duty Bound) (book)

Books
Grades 9-12, Adult
Historical Fiction
Convention and rebellion, Displacement, Facing darkness, Family – blessing or curse, Power of tradition
Available

Novel by George Nakagawa about a Nisei stranded in Japan during World War II.

Come See the Paradise (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Drama, History, Romance
Everlasting love, Family – blessing or curse, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
Widely available

The content in this article is still under development. A completed version will appear soon!

Comforting the Afflicted (film)

Films and Video
Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Importance of community, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Role of Religion – virtue or hypocrisy
No availability

Moderated panel discussion led by Phil Shigekuni with four prominent Japanese American Protestant ministers with ties to Los Angeles who were incarcerated during World War II. Three—Rev. Paul Nagano , Rev. John Miyabe, and Bishop Roy Sano—were at the Poston , Arizona, concentration camp, while Rev. Sam Tonomura was a boy in British Columbia caught up in the forced removal of Japanese Canadians during the war. The discussion covers the men's experiences during the war and the role of the church during the incarceration, particularly with regard to issues of "loyalty" and resistance. The men talk about the role of the church in the Redress Movement , in bridging divides in the Japanese American community today, and in the anti-Muslim/Arab climate following the 9/11 attacks. The format of the film largely follows that of a "talking heads" type television program, with the insertion of still historical photographs.

Coming Home: Memories of Japanese American Resettlement (exhibition)

Museum Exhibitions
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
History
Displacement, Evils of racism
No availability

Exhibition organized by the Japanese American National Museum and curated by Darcie Iki and Jim Gatewood that explored the obstacles—such as housing and employment shortages and discrimination—that Japanese Americans faced after they left the confines of America's concentration camps. The exhibit opened on August 14, 1998, and ran until February 7, 1999. The exhibit explored the process of rebuilding community as well as the individual struggle to come to terms with the larger "camp" experience.

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.

Case History (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Evils of racism
Widely available

Short story about a young Nisei couple settling in "Centreville," a fictional small town in California, after World War II. John and Mary Mori arrive and open a flower market in town. But despite John's military service and the couple's good deeds, the face anti-Japanese harassment before a series of events begin to turn the tide. Author Bradford Smith tells the story using fictitious newspaper articles, letters, and personal testimony.

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.

The Brothers Murata (short story)

Short Stories
Grades 9-12, Adult
Fiction
Family – blessing or curse, Nationalism – complications, Rights - individual or societal, Role of men
Available

Novella by Toshio Mori about two brothers in Topaz who clash over the issue of military service. Likely written in Topaz, it was first published in the 2000 Mori anthology Unfinished Message: Selected Works of Toshio Mori .

The Cat Who Chose to Dream (book)

Books
Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5
Grades 1-2, Grades 3-5
Children's
Disillusionment and dreams, Facing darkness, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Will to survive
Widely available

Children's picture book about a cat who accompanies his Japanese American family to an American concentration camp during World War II.

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.

Honor and Sacrifice: The Roy Matsumoto Story (film)

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

A 2013 documentary film about Japanese American Kibei war hero Roy Matsumoto and his family during World War II, as told through the eyes of his daughter Karen. A decorated linguist with the Military Intelligence Service who was a part of Merrill's Marauders, an American guerrilla unit in Burma, Matsumoto served even though his parents and sisters were living in Hiroshima and three of his Nisei brothers were ultimately conscripted into the Japanese army.

I Am an American: A True Story of Japanese Internment (book)

Books
Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Grades 7-8
Children's
Displacement, Evils of racism, Injustice
Widely available

Book aimed at middle school audiences that tells the larger story of the Japanese American World War II removal and incarceration through the experiences of one typical Nisei teenager.

The Idaho Homefront: Of Camps and Combat (film)

Films and Video
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
Documentary
Injustice, Patriotism - positive side or complications
Widely available

Documentary video written and produced by Jim Peck for Idaho Public Television that tells the story of the Minidoka camp in Idaho and of Japanese Americans who served in World War II from Idaho, both those in Minidoka and those born and raised in Idaho. The show was a follow up to an earlier documentary by Peck titled The Idaho Homefront: World War II that had included a mention of Minidoka and of the 442nd . Narrated by Sue Galligan, and featuring interviews with Hero Shiosaki, Roy Gikui, Robert Sims, Bethine Church, Fumiko Hayashida, and Toshi Ito. Funding for the show came in part from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, WETA Public Broadcasting, and from Wal-Mart. The half-hour show premiered on Idaho public television stations on September 20, 2007.

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.

Japanese American Internment Camps (Greenhaven Press, 2001) (book)

Books
Grades 7-8
Grades 7-8
Young Adult, History
Displacement, Evils of racism, Hazards of passing judgment, Injustice
Available

Anthology of first-person pieces on the wartime removal and incarceration as part of Greenhaven Press's "History Firsthand" Series.

Japanese American Internment Camps (Greenhaven Press, 2002) (book)

Books
Grades 7-8
Grades 7-8
Young Adult, History
Displacement, Evils of racism, Hazards of passing judgment, Injustice
Available

Collection of pieces on the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans for middle and high school audiences. As part of Greenhaven Press's "Opposing Viewpoints" and "At Issue in History" series, the assembled pieces express different perspectives on the topic.

The Japanese American Internment: An Interactive History Adventure (book)

Books
Grades 3-5
Grades 3-5
Children's, History
Displacement, Injustice, Patriotism – positive side or complications
Available

Children's book on the wartime incarceration by Rachael Hanel that allows the reader to choose one of three stories and to make a series of decisions in each story that determines its outcome.

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