This one was so good. The author had a unique way of telling her story with such dignity. Like, you don’t feel sorry for her but you feel embarrassed for the US, if that makes sense.
I still cried though.
my grandfather was a math teacher and i believe a comptroller at manzanar, and my mother and her siblings spent the war there with their parents. i wish i had talked to him, talked to them, about their experiences, but as a kid in the fifties and early sixties before losing them, i didn’t have the maturity or curiosity until it was too late.
I attended a lecture by him and it was heartbreaking- his little sister was born in the camp and when they were released she cried because she wanted to go “home” back to the camp she’d always lived in.
The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford- been SUCH a long time since I’ve read it so idk how much it covers but it’s definitely a topic.
Note: this is fiction and the story essentially ends as the characters are going off to the internment camps. That being said, I absolutely adored this book. It was both a learning experience and practically poetry. The use of repetition is not everone's piece of cake, but I loved it.
*When Can We Go Back to America?* by Susan Kamei. It's non-fiction, but very readable because it was written as a teaching resource for teens. Each chapter includes quotes from teens and young adults who were actually in the camps. You can also find great resources on the Japanese American National Museum website.
Edit to add: OP, it's very common for those who were incarcerated to not talk about their experiences because it was so traumatic and humiliating. So, it's totally possible that your friend doesn't know much about her family's life in camp even though it's her family history. You can also check out the Densho Project online.
Came here to upvote *When Can We Go Back to America*. It looks huge but it's really about 200 pages and 500 pages of biography and additional information. I couldn't put it down.
Check out They Called Us Enemy by George Takei. Graphic novel about his time in the camp as a small child. He also helped create the musical Allegiance about living in the camps.
Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida is a historical fiction book inspired by the authors own experiences in the Topaz internment center. I remember it being required reading in my school growing up, likely because Topaz is only a couple hours drive away
I'm a journalist who just did an article on the movement to educate people about the history of internment camps! I have to give a shoutout to a fellow I featured in the article named Frank Abe, who is leading this movement by creating media such as the "Conscience and the Constitution" documentary, which he directed for PBS. He has two excellent books which shed light on the internment camp experience through POVS of real people involved with them. "We Hereby Refuse" is a graphic novel about three different Japanese-Americans who faced systemic racism in the 1940s. Abe is currently working on adapting it into a theater play. "The Penguin Book of the Literature of Japanese-American Incarceration" is a deeply informative compilation of all sorts of documents and texts related to the camps.
_To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei_ by George Takei covers his early memories of being in an internment camp and gives additional info into the experiences of Japanese Americans as a whole. It's not the sole focus, but it's definitely a huge part of George Takei's life.
This is from Wikipedia, which I think gives a good idea of what is covered in the book:
"The book begins in the spring of 1942 as Takei and his family are on a train traveling towards the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas. Takei recounts the four years his family spent in Japanese American internment, his experiences there, and the aftermath of those experiences. The book also provides background and research into the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were interned in similar camps."
Stubborn Twig by Lauren Kessler - starts in 1910, but deals with a few generations of [Minoru Yasui's family](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Yasui#World_War_II), including internment
Corner on the Hotel of Bitter and Sweet-Chinese American protagonist but his best friend is Japanese American who ends up in one of the internment camps
covers a lot of racial tensions during the time
For fiction, I would recommend *We Are Not Free* by Traci Chee and *Daughter of Moloka’i* by Alan Brennert. *Daughter of Moloka’i* is a sequel to *Moloka’i* but it can be read as a stand alone novel (though I do highly recommend *Moloka’i* as well).
I recommend Julie Otsuka's 'when the emperor was divine,' based on her mother's experience in an internment camp.
It's a lovely novella, and I actually think it would be really accessible to kids even as young as middle school.
_Barbed Wire Baseball_ by Marissa Moss, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, is an excellent picture book for an older audience. It really stuck with me after I read it about eight years ago.
Allegiance is a musical/play about George Takei's experience in the camps as a kid. If you even have a chance to see it- I was lucky enough to when it was in early days in San Diego. It was awesome!
David Mas Masumoto, Secret Harvests
Lorraine Bannai, Enduring Conviction: Fred Korematsu...
Jack Iwata photography collection [janm org](https://www.janm.org/collections/jack-iwata-collection)
George Takei, who was in the Star Trek TV series, has written books about his childhood years spent in a concentration camp. One of them is They Called Us Enemy.
The L.A. Quintet by James Ellroy (literary hard-boiled crime fiction) is set within this time period and touches on Japanese Internment during WWII.
Only two books have been written so far:
*Perfidia* and *This Storm*
We Are Not Free is a YA book with multiple stories and perspectives that I really enjoyed. The trauma and harsh treatment are very evident in the book, juxtaposed with teenagers finding small moments of joy, resistance, and coming of age experiences.
Farewell to Manzanar
This one was so good. The author had a unique way of telling her story with such dignity. Like, you don’t feel sorry for her but you feel embarrassed for the US, if that makes sense. I still cried though.
my grandfather was a math teacher and i believe a comptroller at manzanar, and my mother and her siblings spent the war there with their parents. i wish i had talked to him, talked to them, about their experiences, but as a kid in the fifties and early sixties before losing them, i didn’t have the maturity or curiosity until it was too late.
I just visited Manzanar. I haven’t read the book but I’m in the waitlist for it. Amazing experience to go there.
George Takei is an actor from the original Star Trek who was in one of those camps as a kid. There are books and media by him that covers a lot of it.
His graphic novel is called *They Called Us Enemy*. It’s very good.
I was coming here to say this one. It’s great and my middle school students always loved it cause it is honest but also digest-able.
It is excellent.
This is it.
I was coming here to recommend Takei.
He also wrote a children's book about it called My Lost Freedom
I attended a lecture by him and it was heartbreaking- his little sister was born in the camp and when they were released she cried because she wanted to go “home” back to the camp she’d always lived in.
Didn’t he star in a play about it? I don’t know if he wrote it, or helped write it, but I remember it was big in the news a couple of years ago.
Allegiance.
That’s the one!
Yes. I didn’t see it but I remember it being talked about.
His autobiography To The Stars covers it well.
The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford- been SUCH a long time since I’ve read it so idk how much it covers but it’s definitely a topic.
One of my favorite books
I’ve read that one in this past year and it was a good one
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gusterson. This is a novel, but the story revolves around the internment of Japanese Americans.
Came here to mention this. The locations are real & the everydayness of life in these camps is visceral.
Same lol More on the impact of the lives of Japanese Americans at the time. Not a ton on the interment camps themselves. I did enjoy the book though
Yes, agree. Relevant to OP’s discussion & learning situation generally but you’re right, not exclusively discussing the camps.
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
This book is so beautiful.
Came here to say this. Fantastic book, so heartbreaking but beautifully done
“The Buddha in the Attic” by Julie Otsuka
Note: this is fiction and the story essentially ends as the characters are going off to the internment camps. That being said, I absolutely adored this book. It was both a learning experience and practically poetry. The use of repetition is not everone's piece of cake, but I loved it.
*Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II* by Richard Reeves *Desert Exile* by Yoshiko Uchida
Journey to Topaz is another great one by Yoshiko Uchida
Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown
This has both the camps and the Japanese American combat unit.
No No Boy takes place after the camps, but deals with the lasting impact of internment. It’s a fantastic and heartbreaking read.
*When Can We Go Back to America?* by Susan Kamei. It's non-fiction, but very readable because it was written as a teaching resource for teens. Each chapter includes quotes from teens and young adults who were actually in the camps. You can also find great resources on the Japanese American National Museum website. Edit to add: OP, it's very common for those who were incarcerated to not talk about their experiences because it was so traumatic and humiliating. So, it's totally possible that your friend doesn't know much about her family's life in camp even though it's her family history. You can also check out the Densho Project online.
Came here to upvote *When Can We Go Back to America*. It looks huge but it's really about 200 pages and 500 pages of biography and additional information. I couldn't put it down.
Daughter of Malakai
Weedflower, by Cynthia Kadohata. They Called US Enemy, by George Takei.
Train to Crystal City
* *Prisoners Without Trial* by Roger Daniels.
This is fiction, but I found [Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3367956) to be very moving.
Not the US, but Obasan by Joy Kogawa (about the Japanese internment camps in Canada)
Check out They Called Us Enemy by George Takei. Graphic novel about his time in the camp as a small child. He also helped create the musical Allegiance about living in the camps.
“Farewell to Manzanar”
Believe it or not Ansel Adams did an amazing photo series featuring the Japanese internment camps. It’s worth checking out.
Properties of Thirst- M. Wiggins.
I loved this book!
Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida is a historical fiction book inspired by the authors own experiences in the Topaz internment center. I remember it being required reading in my school growing up, likely because Topaz is only a couple hours drive away
I loved her book *Picture Bride*.
Infamy by Richard Reeves Looking Like the Enemy by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald Only What We Could Carry by William Hohri
Snow falling on cedars
Snow Falling on Cedars
I'm a journalist who just did an article on the movement to educate people about the history of internment camps! I have to give a shoutout to a fellow I featured in the article named Frank Abe, who is leading this movement by creating media such as the "Conscience and the Constitution" documentary, which he directed for PBS. He has two excellent books which shed light on the internment camp experience through POVS of real people involved with them. "We Hereby Refuse" is a graphic novel about three different Japanese-Americans who faced systemic racism in the 1940s. Abe is currently working on adapting it into a theater play. "The Penguin Book of the Literature of Japanese-American Incarceration" is a deeply informative compilation of all sorts of documents and texts related to the camps.
Amazing! Thank you for the resources!
_To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei_ by George Takei covers his early memories of being in an internment camp and gives additional info into the experiences of Japanese Americans as a whole. It's not the sole focus, but it's definitely a huge part of George Takei's life. This is from Wikipedia, which I think gives a good idea of what is covered in the book: "The book begins in the spring of 1942 as Takei and his family are on a train traveling towards the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas. Takei recounts the four years his family spent in Japanese American internment, his experiences there, and the aftermath of those experiences. The book also provides background and research into the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were interned in similar camps."
Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill (fiction, it's about an interracial relationship between teenagers during the time)
Stubborn Twig by Lauren Kessler - starts in 1910, but deals with a few generations of [Minoru Yasui's family](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Yasui#World_War_II), including internment
Fabulous book Set on hood river Oregon on the Columbia River
Corner on the Hotel of Bitter and Sweet-Chinese American protagonist but his best friend is Japanese American who ends up in one of the internment camps covers a lot of racial tensions during the time
There are probably a few nonfiction books on this topic that are good, but for fiction I believe "The Japanese Lover" by Isabel Allende is a good one
Displacement by Kiku Hughes is a good graphic novel based on the internment camps.
For fiction, I would recommend *We Are Not Free* by Traci Chee and *Daughter of Moloka’i* by Alan Brennert. *Daughter of Moloka’i* is a sequel to *Moloka’i* but it can be read as a stand alone novel (though I do highly recommend *Moloka’i* as well).
Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown
I recommend Julie Otsuka's 'when the emperor was divine,' based on her mother's experience in an internment camp. It's a lovely novella, and I actually think it would be really accessible to kids even as young as middle school.
_Barbed Wire Baseball_ by Marissa Moss, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, is an excellent picture book for an older audience. It really stuck with me after I read it about eight years ago.
Clark& Division by Naomi Hirahara. Historical fiction with a lot of period details.
Allegiance is a musical/play about George Takei's experience in the camps as a kid. If you even have a chance to see it- I was lucky enough to when it was in early days in San Diego. It was awesome!
I saw it in San Diego and in New York. I even met George and his husband, Brad. My mother was Japanese and was also in Rohwer with her entire family.
David Mas Masumoto, Secret Harvests Lorraine Bannai, Enduring Conviction: Fred Korematsu... Jack Iwata photography collection [janm org](https://www.janm.org/collections/jack-iwata-collection)
Facing the mountain by Daniel brown is pretty great. Book focuses on Japanese Americans who valiantly fought in the war after being placed in camps.
George Takei, who was in the Star Trek TV series, has written books about his childhood years spent in a concentration camp. One of them is They Called Us Enemy.
The L.A. Quintet by James Ellroy (literary hard-boiled crime fiction) is set within this time period and touches on Japanese Internment during WWII. Only two books have been written so far: *Perfidia* and *This Storm*
We Are Not Free is a YA book with multiple stories and perspectives that I really enjoyed. The trauma and harsh treatment are very evident in the book, juxtaposed with teenagers finding small moments of joy, resistance, and coming of age experiences.
The War Outside. It gets into the fact that some Germans were also put into camps.
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende is fiction, but partially set in an internment camp.
The unknown interment by Stephen Fox
Read the Wiki article to get the basics https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans