Biblographies
Japanese American internment during World War II : a history and reference guide (2002)
Other Reference Sources
Americans of Japanese ancestry and the United States Constitution, 1787-1987 (1987)
Children of the Camps (PBS Website)
Confinement and ethnicity : an overview of World War II Japanese American relocation sites (2000). This report provides an overview of the tangible remains currently left at the sites of the Japanese American internment during World War II. The main focus is on the War Relocation Authority's relocation centers, but Department of Justice and U.S. Army facilities where Japanese Americans were interned are also considered. The goal of the study has been to provide information for the National Landmark Theme Study called for in the Manzanar National Historic Site enabling legislation.
Conscience and the Constitution / Resisters.com produced in association with the Independent Television Service ; produced, directed and written by Frank Abe. Hohokus, NJ : Transit Media, c2000. 1 VHS videocassette (57 min.) : sd., col. with b&w portions ; 1/2 in. D769.8.A6 C667 2000 Videocassette : Americans, organized as the Fair Play Committee, refused to be drafted from the concentration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Ready to fight, but not before their rights as U.S. citizens were restored and families released. The largest organized resistance to incarceration, leading to the largest trial for draft resistance in U.S. history. Prosecuted as criminals, Japanese American leaders and veterans ostracized them as traitors. The resisters served two years in prison, and for the next 50 were written out of the official history of Japanese America. Take a look at the Documentaries tab for more examples.
Due process : Americans of Japanese ancestry and the United States Constitution, 1787-1994 (1995)
Encyclopedia of Japanese American Internment / Gary Okihiro. Santa Barabara, CA : Greenwood, 2013. 342pp. Online resource D769.8.A6 E64 2013 : This reference for general readers provides alphabetical entries on key figures, legislation, organizations, movements, ethnic groups, and incidents of violence and discrimination related to the internment of Japanese American citizens during WWII. A separate section offers entries on camps, centers, and prisons. The book also includes a section of 15 primary documents, including personal letters and memoirs as well as official documents. It is illustrated with b&w historical photos.
Exploring the Japanese American Internment Through Film & the Internet : "This website was created as a public education resource for educators, students and the broader public. Produced by the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA), it utilizes a rich collection of video clips as a starting point for examining the many aspects and implications of the Japanese American internment." (NAATA)
Freedom for Some: The Japanese American Internment Experience. This online exhibit describes the internment experience of Japanese Americans. Viewers can examine photographs, correspondence, pamphlets, and other materials from the internment camps. The Balch Institute.
How Photographers Captured the Incarceration of Japanese Americans During WWII : A new exhibition chronicles a dark history. Anika Burgess, Atlas Obscura, January 26, 2018.
"The Injustice of Japanese-American Internment Camps Resonates Strongly to This Day". T. A. Frail, Smithsonian Magazine, January 2017.
Japanese American Internment. Courtesy of Awesome Stories.
Japanese-American Internment in World War II. Professor Ellen Wu shows some slides as she lectured on Japanese-American internment in the United States during World War II. Courtesy of C-Span, October 13, 2011.
Japanese American Internment Map. To view some basic data on any of the ten concentration camps that housed Japanese Americans during World War II, click on the name of the camp. The entries that appear in these pages were taken from Japanese American History: An A-to-Z Reference fr om 1868 to the Present, Brian Niiya, Editor. (New York: Fact on File, Inc., 1993). Copyright © 1993 by the Japanese American National Museum.
Japanese American Internment Map and Timeline.
Korematsu v United States (Famous Dissents)
Korematus v United States. Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy from Michigan dissents and is vindicated by history.
A More Perfect Union : Japanese American and the U.S. Constitution : During the opening months of World War II, almost 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of them citizens of the United States, were forced out of their homes and into detention camps established by the U.S. government. Many would spend the next three years living under armed guard, behind barbed wire. This exhibit explores this period when racial prejudice and fear upset the delicate balance between the rights of the citizen and the power of the state. It tells the story of Japanese Americans who suffered a great injustice at the hands of the government, and who have struggled ever since to insure the rights of all citizens guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress : Look at the bottom right for information about the Stand Up for Justice : the Ralph Lazo Story Curriculum guide
Return to the Valley : The Japanese-American Experience After WWII : Return to the Valley is a documentary and educational project launched by KTEH in 2003. The documentary that premiered on PBS in June 2003, is a one-hour program about the resettlement experiences of Japanese Americans after World War II. The documentary is set in the Santa Clara, Salinas, and Pajaro Valleys and the Central Coast region--areas once well known for strawberry farming and fishing. The themes of strength, perseverance and the resiliency of the human spirit transcend geography and time in this moving reflective historical documentary. Includes a few videos and a teacher's guide.
The War Relocation Authority and the Incarceration.of Japanese-Americans During WWII. Provides 14 photographs, 62 documents comprising 911 pages, a chronology of events spanning the years 1941-1998, excerpts from Oral Histories, and Lesson Plans. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.
The War Relocation Centers of World War II: When Fear was Stronger than Justice. This lesson is based on the Manzanar War Relocation Center and the Rowher Relocation Center Memorial Cemetery, two of the thousands of properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Both properties have been designated National Historic Landmarks.
Americanism. The Central Japanese Association of America published this pamphlet in 1942 "in the hope that the Japanese residents in Southern California may familiarize themselves with the fundamental principles of American institutions, ideals and traditions."
Camp II, block 211; daily life in an internment camp (Graphic novel)
Center regulations. Includes facsimile of the Civilian Exclusion Order No. 5 issued by the Western Defense Command in 1942.
[Dillon Myer tells of relocating 110,000 Japanese-Americans to 10 relocation centers in 7 inland states]. Courtesy of the Vincent Voice Library.
Evacuation diary of Hatsuye Egami (1995)
Final report : Japanese evacuation from the West coast, 1942. Issued by the U.S. Army's. Western Defense Command and Fourth Army.
Hearings Held by the Dies Committee at Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Heart Mountain, Wyoming (1942). The Dies Committee was an alternate name for the House Un-American Activities Committee; it was charied by Congressman Martin Dies, Jr., of Texas.
Imprisoned apart : the World War II correspondence of an Issei couple (1997)
Instructions to all persons of Japanese ancestry living in the following area : all that portion of the county of Los Angeles, State of California, beginning at the point where the Santa Clara River crosses the Los Angeles-Ventura County line ... Issued by the U.S. Army's. Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, 1942.
Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the U.S. Hearings held by the House Un-American Activities Committee on subversive activities in internment camps
Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Digital Archive. Digitization of the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS), a research project initiated in 1942 at the University of California, Berkeley. It aimed to document and examine the mass internment of Japanese Americans by embedding Nisei social science students recruited from the Berkeley campus into selected internment sites. Another link.
Japanese-American Relocation Camp Newspapers : Perspectives on Day-to-Day Life (Gale Cengage Archives Unbound). : Japanese-American Relocation Camp Newspapers: Perspectives on Day-to-Day Life offers scholars rare first-person accounts and seldom-heard voices. By recording the concerns and challenges of the interned Japanese-Americans, this collection delivers new levels of depth and credibility. Use this unique digital resource to support research in Asian studies, ethnic studies, social history, journalism, law, conflict studies, World War II studies and more....In the months following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government was besieged with demands that action be taken against citizens of Japanese descent – motivated by the fear that Japanese-Americans would become a fifth column for the Japanese military command. By April 1942, more than 100,000 persons – resident aliens and American citizens alike – were moved to relocation centers run by the War Relocation Authority. Many of the 25 titles in this collection are complete or substantially complete. Editions have been carefully collated and omissions are noted. Although articles in these files frequently appear in Japanese, most of the papers are in English or in dual text....For more information, download a Product Fact Sheet [pdf, 633 KB]
Japanese American Relocation Camp Newspapers. Heart Mountain Sentinel (Cody, Wyoming Relocation Camp), November 7, 1942-June 2, 1945 (microfilm 29073); Manzanar Free Press (Manzanar, CA Relocation Camp), June 2, 1942-July 1, 1944; Newell Star (Newell, CA Relocation Camp), March 9, 1944 - Feb. 15, 1946. Tulean dispatch daily. Access restricted to MSU community and MSU Library visitors.
Japanese American Relocation Collection This collection of over 200 photographs from the Hearst collection documents the relocation of Japanese Americans in California during World War II. Courtesy of the University of Southern California Digital Library.
Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (JARDA). This portal contains thousands of Japanese American internment primary source materials, including : (1) Personal diaries, letters, photographs, and drawings; (2) US War Relocation Authority materials, including camp newsletters, final reports, photographs, and other documents relating to the day-to-day administration of the camps; (3) Personal histories documenting the lives of the people who lived in the camps as well as the administrators who created and worked in the camps. Courtesy of the University of California.
Japanese camp newspapers. Microfilm collection (1977)
Last witnesses : reflections on the wartime internment of Japanese Americans (2001)
Life Interrupted : The Japanese American Experience in WWII Arkansas. During World War II, the United States government placed over 120,000 Japanese Americans from the west coast and Hawaii in ten war relocation camps. Two of those camps were located in southeastern Arkansas. One in Rohwer, the other in Jerome. Life Interrupted will offer a unique opportunity to educate Arkansans and Americans on the unique struggle fo the Japanese American people during this trying time in our nation's past.
Online Archive of the Japanese American Relocation during World War II. From 1941 to 1946, Occidental College President Remsen DuBois Bird and College Librarian Elizabeth McCloy made it their mission to preserve articles, newspapers, pamphlets, and other items related to the forced internment of persons of Japanese ancestry along the West Coast. Several years ago, a beneficent grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation's Archival Grants Program made the digitization of these documents possible. The result is this engaging and important digital collection, which includes close to 300 items. At the heart of this collection are the 275 letters and papers from the correspondence of President Bird. As their website suggests "The correspondence offers a rich resource for learning more about the issues of higher education, civil liberties and actions of individuals during the forced evacuation of the Japanese Americans during World War II." Users can use the "Search Archive" tab to access the collection, and they will probably want to take a look at the topical headings here or just use the drop-down "Letters" tab to look through select letters.
Papers of the U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocatiom and Internment of Civilians. Microfilm collection (1984). Guide
People in motion : the postwar adjustment of the evacuated Japanese Americans (1975) Produced by the Dept. of the Interior, War Agency Liquidation Unit. Also called the Cullum Report.
Personal Justice Denied : Public Hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment, 1981. Gale Cengage Archives Unbound online resource. : On February 19, 1942, ten weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 giving the Secretary of War and delegated military commanders the power to exclude any and all persons, citizens and aliens, from designated areas in order to provide security against sabotage, espionage and fifth column activity. Shortly thereafter, all American citizens of Japanese descent were prohibited from living, working or traveling on the West Coast of the United States. The same prohibition applied to the generation of Japanese immigrants who, pursuant to federal law and despite long residence in the United States, were not permitted to become American citizens. Initially, this exclusion was to be carried out by "voluntary" relocation. That policy inevitably failed, and these American citizens and their alien parents were removed by the Army, first to "assembly centers"—temporary quarters at racetracks and fairgrounds—and then to "relocation centers"—bleak barrack camps mostly in desolate areas of the West. The camps were surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by military police. Departure was permitted only after a loyalty review on terms set, in consultation with the military, by the War Relocation Authority. Many of those removed from the West Coast were eventually allowed to leave the camps to join the Army, go to college, or to whatever private employment was available. For a larger number, however, the war years were spent behind barbed wire until the prohibition was lifted in December 1944....This digital collection consists of testimony and documents from more than 750 witnesses: Japanese Americans and Aleuts who had lived through the events of WWII, former government officials who ran the internment program, public figures, internees, organizations such as the Japanese American Citizens League, interested citizens, historians, and other professionals who had studied the subjects of the Commission's inquiry. Many of the transcripts are personal stories of experiences of evacuees. Documents include publications, reports, press releases, photographs, newspaper clippings, etc. related to the hearings.
The Student Yearbooks of a Japanese-American Detention Camp. Erin Pack-Jordan, Atlas Obscura, March 16, 2018. Topaz operated like any other 1940s U.S. high school, except its teenagers were prisoners of the federal government.
Tule Lake Relocation Center : newspaper clippings and correspondence (1943)
Colors of confinement : rare Kodachrome photographs of Japanese American incarceration in World War II (2012). In 1942, Bill Manbo(1908-1992) and his family were forced from their Hollywood home into the Japanese American internment camp at Heart Mountain in Wyoming. While there, Manbo documented his surroundings using Kodachrome film, a technology then just seven years old, to capture community celebrations and to record his family's struggle to maintain a normal life under the harsh conditions of racial imprisonment. Colors of Confinement showcases sixty-five stunning images from this extremely rare collection of color photographs, presented along with three interpretive essays by leading scholars and a reflective, personal essay by a former Heart Mountain internee.
Densho Archive: Japanese American Legacy Project - The Densho Digital Archive holds over 550 visual histories (more than 1,100 hours of recorded video interviews) and over 10,800 historic photos, documents, and newspapers. The archive is growing as Densho continues to record life histories and collect images and records. These primary sources document the Japanese American experience from immigration in the early 1900s through redress in the 1980s with a strong focus on the World War II mass incarceration.
Elusive truth : four photographers at Manzanar (2007)
Executive order 9066 : the internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans (1992)
Impounded : Dorothea Lange and the censored images of Japanese American internment (2006). his indelible work of visual and social history confirms Dorothea Lange's stature as one of the twentieth century's greatest American photographers. Presenting 119 images originally censored by the U.S. Army—the majority of which have never been published—Impounded evokes the horror of a community uprooted in the early 1940s and the stark reality of the internment camps. With poignancy and sage insight, nationally known historians Linda Gordon and Gary Okihiro illuminate the saga of Japanese American internment: from life before Executive Order 9066 to the abrupt roundups and the marginal existence in the bleak, sandswept camps. In the tradition of Roman Vishniac's A Vanished World, Impounded, with the immediacy of its photographs, tells the story of the thousands of lives unalterably shattered by racial hatred brought on by the passions of war.
KUED Topaz Residents Photograph Collection : The photos in this collection document the lives of Japanese American men, women, and children as they faced evacuation from their California homes in 1942 and internment at the Topaz Internment Camp, near Delta, Utah.
Manzanar photographs by Ansel Adams ; commentary by John Hersey (1988)
Placing memory : a photographic exploration of Japanese American internment (2008). When the U.S. government incarcerated 120,000 Japanese Americans as “domestic enemy aliens” during World War II, most other Americans succumbed to their fears and endorsed the confinement of their fellow citizens. Ten “relocation centers” were scattered across the West. Today, in the crumbling foundations, overgrown yards, and material artifacts of these former internment camps, we can still sense the injustices suffered there...Placing Memory is a powerful visual record of the internment. Featuring Todd Stewart’s stunning color photographs of the sites as they appear today, the book provides a rigorous visual survey of the physical features of the camps—roads, architectural remains, and monuments—along with maps and statistical information....Also included in this volume—juxtaposed with Stewart’s modern-day images—are the black-and-white photographs commissioned during the 1940s by the War Relocation Authority. Thoughtful essays by Karen Leong, Natasha Egan, and John Tateishi provide provocative context for all the photographs.
"See how photographer Ansel Adams captured life inside a Japanese internment camp", Upworthy, April 7, 2016.
Established on March 18, 1942, the War Relocation Authority (WRA) planned and executed a program for removal, relocation, maintenance, and supervision, in 10 interior relocation centers, of persons (principally of Japanese ancestry) excluded from military areas. After the U.S. Army did away with the exclusion of Japanese-American on January 2, 1945, the Authority was primarily involved in resettling internees. Note: most of the following items are located in Special Collections Radicalism.
[Agenda for relocation meetings with speech by Dr. P.A. Webber.].
Background for the relocation program
Chronology of evacuation and relocation.
Community government in war relocation centers
Dealing with Japanese-Americans
Impounded people; Japanese-Americans in the relocation centers
"Written in 1946 as one of the final reports of ... the War Relocation Authority."
Information concerning Tule Lake Center
Japanese groups and associations in the United States
Records of the War Relocation Authority, 1942-1946 : Field Basic Documentation located at the National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Microfilm collection
Relocation communities for wartime evacuees
Relocation of Japanese-Americans
Segregation program : a statement for appointed personnel in W.R.A. Centers.
Summary notes on segregation conference of W.R.A. officials, Denver, Colorado, July 26-27, 1943
WRA, a story of human conservation
War Relocation Authority : books 1-12
Microfilm Collection
While driving North from Moab, Utah (where we visited Arches and Canyonlands National Parks), my wife said oh look there’s a historical marker. So we pulled over and read the following information:
JAPANESE-AMERICAN WORLD WAR II CONCENTRATION CAMP, 1943. On January 11, 1943, a train pulled into the Thompson Station north of here with armed Military Police guarding sixteen male American citizens of Japanese ancestry. While the locals of the town waited to cross the tracks, the entourage was loaded and transferred to the old abandoned "CCC" camp located here at Dalton Wells. Their crime? They were classified as "troublemakers" in the Manzanar, California Relocation center where they and their families had been forciby located at the start of World War II. Removed from their homes and lands in California under a Presidential Excecutive Order, they were subject to the whim and mercy of poorly-trained bureaucrats and military personnel in the center. This Presidential Executive Order was the result of wartime hysteria, racial bigotry, and greed. The original sixteen men were removed from Manzanar and brought here without the benefit of council. They did not have a formal hearing or proper arrest proceedings, and the action was in total violation of their civil rights. It was a process more compatible with facism than democracy. The inmates troubles worsened when an informer and confidant of the administration was beaten. An organizer of the mess hall workers was thrown into jail as a suspect. A meeting was held in the camp to protest the jailing and a riot resulted. Two inmates were killed by trigger-happy soldiers. Other Japanese-American men were soon brought to the camp. Thirteen came from Gila River, Arizona, having been charged as being members of an organization which was fully sanctioned by camp officials. Ten more came from Manzanar as "suspected troublemakers". Fifteen came from Tule Lake, California, charged with refusing to register their availability for the draft and their loyalty to the U.S. under a set of confusing denigrating requirements. All of these men were U.S. citizens; some were veterans of World War I, others were family men, college graduates, and responsible U.S. citizens. Their incarceration here is a vivid example of how our Japanese-American citizens were treated during World War II. May this sad, low point in the history of our democracy never be forgotten, in the hope that it will never happen again. The group was transferred by truck to an abandoned Indian school at Leupp, Arizona on April 27, 1943. As those involved began to realize the inequity of the situation, the inmates were released back to relocation centers later that year. Thus a black mark in the history of liberty and justice in the United States was ended.
Barbed wire baseball / written by Marissa Moss ; illustrated by Yuko Shimizu. New York : Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2013. 39pp. MSU Children's and Young Adult Collection picture GV863.A1 M676 2013 : 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 through Marissa Moss's rich text and Yuko Shimizu's beautiful illustrations. The book includes author and illustrator notes, archival photographs, and a bibliography. Praise for Barbed Wire Baseball "In language that captures the underlying sadness and loss, Moss emphasizes Zeni's fierce spirit as he removes every obstacle in order to play his beloved baseball and regain a sense of pride. Shimizu's Japanese calligraphy brush-and-ink illustrations colored in Photoshop depict the dreary landscape with the ever-present barbed wire, with that beautiful grassy baseball field the only beacon of hope." -- Kirkus Reviews
Behind barbed wire : the story of Japanese-American internment during World War II / by Lila Perl. New York : Benchmark Books, [2003], ©2003. 112pp. D769.8.A6 P47 2003 :
Color of the sea : a novel / John Hamamura. New York : Anchor Books, 2007. 321pp. MSU Children's and Young Adult Collection PS3608.A549436 C65 2007 : aised in Japan and Hawaii, Sam Hamada has been trained in the ways of the samurai. After graduation Sam strikes out for California and falls in love for the first time, with a beautiful young woman named Keiko. But then the Japanese attack Peal Harbor, igniting the war and making Sam, Keiko, and their families enemies of the state. Drafted into the U.S. Army, sent on a secret mission, Sam's very identity both puts his life at risk and gives him the strength he needs to survive. Taking us from the lush Hawaiian Islands of the 1930s to the wartime world of madness in Hiroshima, Color of the Sea is the unforgettable story of one Japanese boy's coming-of-age.
Dear Miss Breed : true stories of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II and a librarian who made a difference / by Joanne Oppenheim ; foreward by Elizabeth Kikuchi Yamada ; afterword by Snowden Becker. New York : Scholastic, 2006. 287pp. D769.8.A6 O67 2006 : A chronicle of the incredible correspondence between California librarian Clara Breed and young Japanese American internees during World War II. In the early 1940's, Clara Breed was the children's librarian at the San Diego Public Library. But she was also friend to dozens of Japanese American children and teens when war broke out in December of 1941. The story of what happened to these American citizens is movingly told through letters that her young friends wrote to Miss Breed during their internment. This remarkable librarian and humanitarian served as a lifeline to these imprisoned young people, and was brave enough to speak out against a shameful chapter in American history.
A fence away from freedom : Japanese Americans and World War II / Ellen Levine. New York : G.P. Putnam's, [1995], ©1995. 260pp. D769.8.A6 L45 1995 : A series of interviews with Japanese Americans, who were placed in internment camps during World War II merely because they had Japanese ancestry, reveals how they lost businesses, homes, and personal possessions.
Fighting for honor : Japanese Americans and World War II / Michael L. Cooper. New York : Clarion Books, [2000], ©2000. 118pp. D769.8.A6 C66 2000 : A stirring account of Japanese Americans in World War II, based mainly on diaries, autobiographies, and the military records of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was known as the Purple Heart Battalion because of its bravery. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, all people on the West Coast of Japanese heritage, whether resident aliens or citizens, were forced to move into internment camps. But 1,200 young men from the camps, along with 10,000 other GIs of Japanese heritage, became some of the most decorated soldiers in the war as part of the 442nd. Author Michel L. Cooper tells of the remarkable bravery of these Nisei soldiers, whose heroism in battles in Europe contrasted with the prejudice that Japanese Americans faced at home. Chronology, end notes, suggestions for further research, index.
How did this happen here? : Japanese internment camps / Leni Donlan. Chicago, Ill. : Raintree, [2008], ©2008. 32pp. D769.8.A6 D65 2008 : Learn what happened after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Why were all Japanese Americans forced to leave their homes and move into far away camps? How long would they have to live in those awful places? What happened to their businesses and belongings when they were released? How could American citizens be treated so unfairly?
Imprisoned : the betrayal of Japanese Americans during World War II / by Martin W. Sandler. New York : Walker Books For Young Readers, an imprint of Bloomsbury, 2013. 176pp. MSU Children's and Young Adult Collection D769.8.A6 S26 2013 : 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. Culling information from extensive, previously unpublished interviews and oral histories with Japanese American survivors of internment camps, Martin W. Sandler gives an in-depth account of their lives before, during their imprisonment, and after their release. Bringing readers inside life in the internment camps and explaining how a country that is built on the ideals of freedom for all could have such a dark mark on its history, this in-depth look at a troubling period of American history sheds light on the prejudices in today's world and provides the historical context we need to prevent similar abuses of power.
The Japanese American internment : an interactive history adventure / by Rachael Hanel. Mankato, Minn. : Capstone Press, [2008], ©2008. 112pp. D769.8.A6 H35 2008 : Describes the events surrounding the internment of Japanese Americans in relocation centers during World War II. The reader's choices reveal the historical details from the perspective of Japanese internees and Caucasians.
The Japanese American internment : civil liberties denied / by Michael Burgan. Minneapolis : Compass Point Books, 2007. 96pp. D769.8.A6 B84 2007 : On December 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, bringing the United States into World War II. U.S. leaders feared that Japanese Americans would betray the United States to help Japan. The federal government moved Japanese people from their homes in the United States into special camps called relocation centers. Many internees felt that their fundamental rights as U.S. citizens had been denied. Other Americans agreed, and the government's actions during wartime are still being debated today.
Voices from the camps : internment of Japanese Americans during World War II / Larry Dane Brimner. New York : F. Watts, [1994], ©1994. 110pp. D769.8.A6 B73 1994 : 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,
When justice failed : the Fred Korematsu story / by Steven A. Chin ; Alex Haley, general editor ; illustrations by David Tamura. Austin, Tex. : Raintree Steck-Vaughn, [1993], ©1993. 105pp. D769.8.A6 C4 1993 : The story behind Korematsu v. United States.
Sign posted notifying people of Japanese descent to report for relocation
Hayward, California, May 8, 1942. Two children of the Mochida family who, with their parents, are awaiting evacuation bus. The youngster on the right holds a sandwich given her by one of a group of women who were present from a local church. The family unit is kept intact during evacuation and at War Relocation Authority centers where evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed for the duration. (Photo by Dorothea Lange).
A homemade planter and a doily beside a service portrait, a prayer, and a letter home. One of the few ways to earn permission to leave the camps was to enter military service..
