Copy of a Japanese Relocation Order.
Source:
"Japanese Relocation Order." World Book Student, World Book, 2021. Online photo,
https://www-worldbookonline-com.wv-o-ursus-proxy10.ursus.maine.edu/student/media?id=pc316335. Accessed 15 Dec. 2021.
The site that once held 110,000 Japanese Americans is now a historic site where people can learn about the forced incarceration of children and adults during World War II.
Barbed Wire Baseball by
As a boy, Kenichi "Zeni" Zenimura dreams of playing professional baseball, but everyone tells him he is too small. Yet he grows up to be a successful player, playing with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig! When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1941, Zeni and his family are sent to one of ten internment camps where more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry are imprisoned without trials. Zeni brings the game of baseball to the camp, along with a sense of hope. This true story, set in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, introduces children to a little-discussed part of American history.
Children of Topaz by
The Story of a Japanese-American Internment Camp: Based on a Classroom Diary.During World War II, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Hardworking and patriotic, Japanese Americans were as stunned by the attack as the rest of the country. Still, the U.S. government questioned their loyalty, and within hours of the invasion, FBI agents searched their homes. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, giving the army the power to establish military zones in the U.S. "from which any or all persons may be excluded as deemed necessary." As a result, thousands of Japanese Americans were ordered to leave their homes and move to war relocation centers.Lillian "Anne" Yamauchi Hori was among the unfortunate Americans removed to an internment camp in Topaz, Utah. During her time there, she taught a third-grade class that kept a daily diary. Although the words and drawings in the twenty entries excerpted here reveal the injustices experienced by the children, the students were remarkably resilient. They collected desert pets, put on plays, and celebrated holidays. With invaluable commentary and archival photographs, Michael O. Tunnell and George W. Chilcoat have placed the diary in a historical context, expanding on the details of daily life in a war relocation camp.
Imprisoned by
While Americans fought for freedom and democracy abroad, fear and suspicion towards Japanese Americans swept the country after Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
Japanese-American Internment in American History by
Author David K. Fremon looks at the events behind this unfortunate episode from American history, highlighting the personal accounts of many Japanese Americans who were forced to live through this difficult time. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the loyalty of Japanese Americans was questioned simply because of their ancestry. The effects of this internment are still emerging, but the United States today recognizes that injustices were inflicted on thousands of Japanese Americans.
Remembering Manzanar by
In this close look at the first relocation camp built for Japanese evacuees living on the West Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, social historian Michael Cooper makes extensive use of the actual words--from diaries, journals, memoirs, and news accounts--of the people who were held behind barbed wire in the high California desert. Many were American citizens who felt betrayed by their country. They had to leave their jobs, their homes, and their friends and go live in crowded barracks, eat in noisy mess halls, and do without supplies or books for work or schooling. They showed remarkable bravery and resilience as they tried to lead normal lives, starting their own schools, playing baseball, attending Saturday night dances, and publishing their own newspaper. Archival photographs, some by Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, augment the informative text. Manzanar is now a National Historic Site and hosts an annual pilgrimage that is attended by former internees, their families, and friends. Endnotes, Internet resources, index.
Voices from the Camps by
ThiS book gives an account of the effect of American policy during World War II on Japanese-Americans in California. Their internment in prison camps is described through interviews with the survivors and their children. Includes a 32 pp. black & white photo insert, sources, a bibliography, and an index.
Best Friends Forever by
German-American Louise Kessler, 14, starts a scrapbook when her best friend, Dottie Masuoka, leaves for the Japanese internment camps. Louise's scrapbook includes items from her life "on the home front" as well as Dottie's letters and drawings from the internment camp. Together, their intertwined stories tell of a friendship that even war cannot tear apart.
A Boy No More by
After witnessing the USS Arizona sink in Pearl Harbor -- with his father aboard -- fifteen-year-old Adam Pelko, along with his mother and young sister, moves from Hawaii to California. Without his dad, facing a new school and new surroundings is hard enough, but then Adam's best friend, Davi Mori, writes from Hawaii asking for help in finding his father. Davi and his family are Japanese American, and his father has been arrested and is imprisoned somewhere in the United States.What is Adam to do? Can he risk traveling to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp, and asking questions? At a time when the nation is threatened and all foreigners are viewed with suspicion, who can Adam trust?
The Bracelet by
Emi, a Japanese American girl, is confused & frightened when she is interned in a prison camp during World War II.
A Diamond in the Desert by
For Tetsu, baseball is so much more than just a game. On December 6, 1941, Tetsu is a twelve-year-old California boy who loves baseball. On December 7, 1941, everything changes. The bombing of Pearl Harbor means Tetsu's Japanese-American family will be relocated to an internment camp. Gila River camp isn't technically a prison, but with nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no time frame for leaving, it might as well be. So when someone has the idea of building a baseball diamond and starting a team, Tetsu is overjoyed. But then his sister gets dangerously sick, forcing him to choose between his family and his love of the game. This is an impeccably researched, lyrical story about baseball, honor, and a turbulent period in U.S. history.
The Journal of Ben Uchida by
For almost 11 months in the internment camp, 12-year-old Ben Uchida keeps a journal and he writes, "It never seemed to matter before, but now my face was the face of the enemy".
Missing in Action by
Dirty. Lazy. Good-for-nothing. Jay Thacker is used to hearing himself called names because his dad is half-Navajo. But he's hoping, now that he and his mom have moved to stay with his grandparents because of WWII, that things could be different. Delta is a tiny town in Utah, nothing like Salt Lake, where they used to live. And Jay's grandfather is an elder in the church, a beloved and well-respected man. Jay begins to make friends and even to make some money as he works the fields for his grandfather. There's just one problem: he works alongside a young man named Ken, who's from the camps in nearby Topaz. And Jay's dad, who's been fighting for the navy out in the Pacific, was recently declared Missing in Action.
A Place to Belong by
A Japanese-American family, reeling from their ill treatment in the Japanese internment camps, gives up their American citizenship to move back to Hiroshima, unaware of the devastation wreaked by the atomic bomb in this piercing look at the aftermath of World War II.
Thin Wood Walls by
Eleven-year-old Joe Hanada likes playing basketball with his best friend, Ray, writing plays and stories, and thinking about the upcoming Christmas holiday. But his world falls apart when Japanese planes bomb Pearl Harbor. His country goes to war. The FBI takes his father away. And neighbors and friends in his hometown near Seattle begin to suspect Joe, his family, and all Japanese Americans of spying for the enemy. When the government orders people of Japanese heritage living on the West Coast to move to internment camps, including Joe and his family, Joe turns to the journal his father gave him to record his thoughts and feelings.
This Light Between Us: a Novel of World War II by
In 1935, ten-year-old Alex Maki from Bainbridge Island, Washington is disgusted when he's forced to become pen pals with Charlie Lévy of Paris, France--a girl. He thought she was a boy. In spite of Alex's reluctance, their letters continue to fly across the Atlantic--and along with them, the shared hopes and dreams of friendship. Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the growing Nazi persecution of Jews force them to confront the darkest aspects of human nature. From the desolation of an internment camp on the plains of Manzanar to the horrors of Auschwitz and the devastation of European battlefields, the only thing they can hold onto are the memories of their letters. But nothing can dispel the light between them.
Weedflower by
After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on a Mojave Indian reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors, becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream of owning a flower shop.
Displacement by
A teenager is pulled back in time to witness her grandmother's experiences in World War II-era Japanese internment camps in Displacement, a historical graphic novel from Kiku Hughes. Kiku is on vacation in San Francisco when suddenly she finds herself displaced to the 1940s Japanese-American internment camp that her late grandmother, Ernestina, was forcibly relocated to during World War II. These displacements keep occurring until Kiku finds herself "stuck" back in time. Living alongside her young grandmother and other Japanese-American citizens in internment camps, Kiku gets the education she never received in history class. She witnesses the lives of Japanese-Americans who were denied their civil liberties and suffered greatly, but managed to cultivate community and commit acts of resistance in order to survive. Kiku Hughes weaves a riveting, bittersweet tale that highlights the intergenerational impact and power of memory.
They Called Us Enemy by
A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love.