BOOKS ABOUT WORLD WAR II

Books on the Japanese American Experience during World War II

  • Alinder, Jasmine. Moving Images: Photography and the Japanese American Incarceration. University of Illinois Press, 2009.
  • Austin, Allen W. From Concentration Camp to Campus: Japanese American Students and World War II. University of Illinois Press, 2014.
  • Brown, Daniel James. Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II. Viking, 2021.
  • Cahan, Richard and Michael Williams. Un–American—The Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II: Images by Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and Other Government Photographers. CityFiles Press, 2016.
  • Castelnuovo, Shirley. Soldiers of Conscience: Japanese American Military Resistance in World War II. Praeger, 2008.
  • Chang, Gordon H. ed. Morning Glory, Evening Shadow: Yamato Ichihashi and His Internment Writings, 1942-1945. Stanford University Press, 1997.
  • Clark, Bonnie J. Finding Solace in the Soil: An Archeology of Gardens and Gardeners at Amache. University of Colorado, 2020.
  • Conrat, Maisie & Richard. Executive Order 9066: The Internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans. Asian American Studies Center University of California Los Angeles, 1992.
  • Daniels, Roger. Concentration Camps U.S.A.: Japanese Americans and World War II. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1972.,
    ____________. Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II. Hill and Wang, Rev. ed., 2004.
  • deNevers, Klancy Clark. The Colonel and the Pacifist. The University of Utah Press, 2004.
  • Drinnon, Richard. Keeper of Concentration Camps. University of California Press, 1989.
  • Dusselier, Jane E. Artifacts of Loss: Crafting Survival in Japanese American Concentration Camps. Rutgers University Press, 2008.
  • Eaton, Beauty Behind Barbed Wire: The Arts of the Japanese in Our War Relocation Camps. Harper and Bros. Publishers, 1952.
  • Fischer, Anne Reeplong, Exile of a Race. F. & T. Publishers (new ed.), 1987.
  • Gesensway, Deborah and Mindy Roseman. Beyond Words: Images from America’s Concentration Camps. Cornell University Press, 1987.
  • Girdner, Andre and Anne Loftis. The Great Betrayal. MacMillan, 1969.
  • Gordon, Linda and Gary Y. Okihiro, eds. Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment. W. W. Norton, 2006.
  • Gruenewald, Mary Matsuda. Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps. NewSage Press; illus. ed., 2005.
  • Harth, Erica, ed. Last Witnesses: Reflections on the Wartime Internment of Japanese Americans. Palgrave, 2001.
  • Hatayama, Leslie T. Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and the Passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Stanford University Press, 1993.
  • Havey, Lily Yuriko Nakai. Gasa Gasa Girl Goes to Camp: A Nisei Youth behind a World War II Fence. University of Utah Press, 2014.
  • Henderson, Bruce. Bridge to the Sun: The Secret Role of the Japanese Americans Who Fought in the Pacific in World War II. Knopf, 2022.
  • Higa, Karen. The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps, 1942 – 1945. University of California Los Angeles, 1992.
  • Hirasuna, Delphine. The Art of Gaman. Ten Speed Press, 2005.
    ____________. All That Remains: The Legacy of the World War II Japanese American Internment Camps. Blanchette Press, 2016.
  • Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar. Clarion Books; Reprint Edition, 2017.
  • Howard, John. Concentration Camps on the Home Front: Japanese Americans in the House of Jim Crow. The University of Chicago Press, 2008.
  • Ichinokuchi, Tad and Daniel Aiso. John Aiso and the M. I. S.: Japanese American Soldiers in the Military Intelligence Service. WWII Military Intelligence Service, 1988.
  • Ichioka, Yuji, ed. Views From Within: The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study. Asian American Studies Center University of California Los Angeles, 1989.
  • Inada, Lawson F. Legends From Camp. Coffee House Press, 1992.
    ____________. Drawing the Line. Coffee House Press, 1997.
    ____________. ed. Only What We Could Carry. Heyday Books, 2000.
  • Inouye, Karen M. The Long Afterlife of Nikkei Wartime Incarceration. Stanford University Press, 2018.
  • Japanese American Citizens League. A Lesson in American History: The Japanese American Experience. JACL Curriculum and Resource Guide, 5th Edition, 2011.
  • Kessler, Lauren. Stubborn Twig: Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family. Oregon State University Press, 2005.
  • Kitagaki, Paul Jr. Behind Barbed Wire: Searching for Japanese Americans Incarcerated During World War II. CityFiles Press, 2019.
  • Kogawa, Joy. Obasan. David R. Godine, 1981.
  • Lim, Deborah K. The Lim Report: A Research Report of Japanese Americans in American Concentration Camps During World War II. Morris Publishing, 2002.
  • Lyon, Cherstin M. Prisons and Patriots: Japanese American Wartime Citizenship, Civil Disobedience, and Historical Memory. Temple University Press, 2012.
  • Masaoka, Mike. They Call Me Moses Masaoka: An American Saga. William Morrow and Co., 1987.
  • McGaugh, Scott. Honor Before Glory: The Epic World War II Story of the Japanese American GIs Who Rescued the Lost Battalion. DaCapo Press, illus. ed., 2016.
  • Mirikitani, Janice, ed. AYUMI: A Japanese American Anthology. Japanese American Anthology Committee, 1980.
  • Modell, John, ed. The Kikuchi Diary: Chronicle From an American Concentration Camp. University of Illinois Press, 1973.
  • Muller, Eric. Free to Die for their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II. University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
    ____________. American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II. University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
    ____________. Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II. University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
    ____________. Lawyer, Jailer, Ally, Foe: Complicity and Conscience in America’s World War II Concentration Camps. University of North Carolina Press, 2023.
  • Ng, Wendy. Japanese American Internment During World War II: A History and Reference Guide. Greenwood; illus. ed., 2001.
  • Odo, Franklin. No Sword to Bury: Japanese Americans in Hawai’i During World War II. University of California Press, 2004.
  • Okada, John. No-No Boy. University of Washington Press; Reprint edition, 2014.
  • Okihiro, Gary and Joan Myers. Whispered Silences: Japanese Americans and World War II. University of Washington Press, 1996.
    ____________. Storied Lives: Japanese American Students and World War II. University of Washington Press, 1999.
    ____________ Y., ed. Encyclopedia of Japanese American Internment. Greenwood, illus. ed., 2013.
  • Omura, James Matsumoto and Arthur A. Hanson. Nisei Naysayer: The Memoir of Militant Japanese American Journalist Jimmie Omura. Stanford University Press, 2018.
  • Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982.
  • Rawitsch, Mark Howland. The House on Lemon Street: Japanese Pioneers and the American Dream. University of Colorado Press, 2012.
  • Robinson, Greg. By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans. Harvard University Press, 2001.
    ____________. A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America. Columbia University Press, 2009.
    ____________. After Camp: Portraits of Midcentury Japanese American Life and Politics. University of California Press, 2012.
  • Sakamoto, Pamela Rotner. Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds. Harper, 2016.
  • Sterner, C. Douglas. Go For Broke: The Nisei Warriors of World War II who Conquered Germany, Japan and American Bigotry. American Legacy Historical Press; Illus. ed., 2015.
  • Suzuki, John. American Grit: From a Japanese American Concentration Camp Rises an American War Hero. Finding Better, 2023.
  • Tanaka, Chester. Go For Broke: A Pictorial History of the Japanese American 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Turner Printing Company, 1982.
  • Tateishi, John. And Justice For All: An Oral History of the Japanese American Detention Camps. University of Washington Press, 1984.
    ____________. Redress: The Inside Story of the Successful Campaign for Japanese American Reparations. Heyday, 2020.
  • Thomas, Dorothy Swain and Richard S. Nishimoto. The Spoilage: Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement. University of California Press, 1946.
    ____________, Charles Kikuchi and James Sakoda. The Salvage: Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement. University of California Press, 1952.
  • Weglyn, Michi. Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps. Morrow Quill Paperbacks, 1976.
  • Williams, Duncan Ryuken. American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 2020.
  • Wollenberg, Charles. Rebel Lawyer: Wayne Collins and the Defense of Japanese American Rights. Heyday Books, 2018.
  • Wyatt, Barbara, ed. Japanese Americans in World War II—A Historic Landmarks Theme Study. National Parks Service U.S. Department of the Interior, 2012.

Recommended for Young Readers

  • Abe, Frank and Tamiko Nimura. We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration. Wing Luke Museum in partnership with Chin Music Press Inc., 2021. (Graphic novel; Young Adult)
  • Garcia, Rick. A Stowaway at Manzanar: Inspired by the True Story of Ralph Lazo. Tall Palms Publishing, 2023. (Children)
  • Goldstone, Lawrence. Days of Infamy: How a Century of Bigotry Led to Japanese American Internment. Scholastic Focus, 2022. (Young Adult)
  • Grady, Cynthia and Amiko Hirao. Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind. Charlesbridge; Reprint ed., 2019. (Children)
  • Guerrier-Pierre, Ruth. Pearl Harbor & Japanese American Internment: Books for Children and Teens. New York Public Library, 2023. (https://www.nypl.org/blog/2020/12/07/pearl-harbor-kids-books)
  • Hayashi, Stacey T. Journey of Heroes: The Story of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team. 442 Comic Book LLC, 2012. (Graphic novel; Children/Young Adult)
  • Hughes, Dean. Four-Four-Two. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2016. (Children)
  • Marrin, Albert. Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience During World War II. Knopf Books for Young Readers; illus. ed., 2016. (Children/Young Adult)
  • Mochizuki, Ken and Dom Lee. Baseball Saved Us. Lee & Low Books; illustrated edition, 2018. (Picture book; Children)
    ____________. and Kiku Hughes (illus.). Those Who Helped Us: Assisting Japanese Americans During the War. Chin Music Press Inc., 2022. (Graphic novel; Young Adult)
  • Oppenheim, Joanne. Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference. Scholastic Nonfiction, 2006. (Children/Young Adult)
  • Partridge, Elizabeth and Lauren Tamaki. Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams’s Photographs Reveal About the Japanese American Incarceration. Chronicle Books LLC, 2022. (Children)
  • Say, Allen. Home of the Brave. HMH Books for Young Readers, 2002. (Children)
  • Shigekawa, Marlene and Isao Kikuchi. Bluejay in the Desert. Polychrome Pub. Corp., 1993. (Picture Book; Children)
  • Stanley, Jerry. I am an American: A True Story of Japanese American Internment. Scholastic Inc. Crown Publishers, 1998. (Children)
  • Takei, George, Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott. They Called Us Enemy. Top Shelf Productions, 2019. (Graphic novel; Young Adult)
  • Tokuda-Hall, Maggie. Love in the Library. Candlewick, 2022. (Picture book; Children)
  • Yamasaki, Katie. Fish for Jimmy: Inspired by One Family’s Experience in a Japanese American Internment Camp. Holiday House; illustrated ed., 2019. (Picture book; Children)
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