Suggested Reading

Many books are available on almost every aspect of the internment experience. The listing of resources below does not presume endorsement by the National Park Service. This is intended to be a inclusive list; the content of some books, when compared, contradict each other. The many perspectives on this subject should be considered as one develops his or her understanding of the treatment of Japanese Americans and their immigrant parents before, during and after World War II.

In addition to this list, please find information on books about the internment of Germans, Italians, and Japanese from Latin America.

Manzanar National Historic Site Related Reading List

Author, Book	Elem	Mid	High	Ref.
Armor, John and Peter Wright. Manzanar: Photographs by Ansel Adams. (1988) – Ansel Adams photographs of Manzanar from 1943 with commentary by John Hersey.		X	X	X
Asahina, Robert. Just Americans: How Japanese Americans Won A War at Home and Abroad. (2006) – focuses on the combat units, 100th and 442nd, with details on behind the scenes politics.			X	X
Asakawa, Gil. Being Japanese American: A JA Sourcebook for Nikkei, Hapa…& Their Friends. (2004) – provides background on history and culture plus discussion about current topics.		X	X	X
Baker, Lillian. American and Japanese Relocation in WWII: Fact, Fiction, and Fallacy. (1992) – argues the internment was necessary for public safety and national security.			X	X
Baker, Lillian. The Japaning of America. (1991) – questions the wisdom of redress.			X	X
Benti, Wynne, editor. Born Free and Equal: The Story of Japanese Americans. (2001) – based on the book published by U.S. Camera in 1944 with photographs and text by Ansel Adams.				X
Bunting, Eve. So Far From The Sea. (1998) – a young girl and her family visit Manzanar (illustrations are beautiful but historically inaccurate in depicting the camp's security features).	X
Burton, Jeff. Confinement and Ethnicity. (2002) – overview of each of the different facilities that held Japanese Americans during WWII. Available online at www.nps.gov/manz.			X	X
Change, Gordon, ed. Morning Glory, Evening Shadow: Yamato Ichihashi and His Internment Writings, 1942-1945. (1997) – a comprehensive biography and first person account.			X	X
Christgau, John. Enemies: World War II Alien Internment. (2001) - stories of internees held at Ft. Lincoln, ND, a Department of Justice internment camp.			X	X
Chuman, Frank F. The Bamboo People: The Law and Japanese Americans. (1981) – history of laws pertaining to and fought against by Japanese Americans.			X	X
Conrat, Richard and Maisie. Executive Order 9066: The Internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans. (1992) – a visual history of the internment camps with a short introduction.	X	X	X	X
Cooper, Michael. Remembering Manzanar. (2002) – utilizes primary sources to share the Manzanar experience at a level appropriate for children.	X	X
Daniels, Roger, et al. Japanese Americans from Relocation to Redress. (1991) – extensive account of Japanese American experience from the evacuation order to redress and reparations.				X
Daniels, Roger. The Politics of Prejudice: The Anti-Japanese Movement in California and the Struggle for Japanese Exclusion. (1999) – explores politics from late 19th century to 1924 leading to the World War II internment of Japanese Americans.				X
Daniels, Roger. Prisoners without Trial. (1993) – a short overview of the internment of Japanese Americans.			X	X
Dempster, Brian Komei, ed. From Our Side of the Fence: Growing Up in America's Concentration Camps. (2001) – recollections of eleven former internees about their experiences as youth in internment camps.			X
Denenburg, Barry. Journal of Ben Uchida. (1999) – a fictional account of a young boy's experience at an internment camp during World War II.	X
DiStasi, Lawrence, ed. Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment During World War II. (2001) – reveals an unknown experience during World War II of interned Italian Americans.			X	X
Drinnon, Richard. Keeper of the Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Myer and American Racism. (1987) – explores institutional racism through the career of Dillon S. Myer.			X	X
Easton, Allen H. Beauty Behind Barbed Wire: The Arts of the Japanese in Our War Relocation Camps. (1952) – black and white photographs and narrative explore arts and crafts made behind barbed wire.			X	X
Ehrlich, Gretel. Heart Mountain. (1989) – a novel about the Wyoming internment camp as seen through the eyes of nearby residents and portrays the varied population in the camp.			X	X
Embrey, Sue Kunitomi. The Lost Years, 1942- 1946. (1972) – an overview of the events that led to the evacuation, life in the ten relocation centers, and resettlement.			X	X
Embrey, Sue Kunitomi. Manzanar Martyr: An Interview with Harry Y. Ueno. (1986) – an in-depth view into the experiences and life of a former Manzanar internee.				X
Fillebrown, Tom, Sierra College. Standing Guard. (2002) – a collection of photographs and oral history narratives from Japanese American residents of Placer County.			X	X
Fox, Stephen. America's Invisible Gulag: A Biography of German American Internment and Exclusion in World War II. (2002) - explores the internment of German "enemy aliens" through a combination of internee interviews and Justice and War Department files.			X	X
Fox, Stephen. Fear Itself: Inside the FBI Roundup of German Americans during World War II. (2005) – tells the inside story of German American internment and exclusion.			X	X
Friedman, Max Paul. Nazis and Good Neighbors: The United States Campaign Against the Germans of Latin America in World War II. (2005) – investigates the failure of western democracy in wartime.			X	X
Fugita, Stephen and Marilyn Fernandez. Altered Lives, Enduring Community: Japanese Americans Remember Their World War II Incarceration. (2004) – explores the long term effects of incarceration on Japanese American families and communities.				X
Fugita, Stephen and David J. O'Brien. Japanese American Ethnicity: The Persistence of Community. (1994) – explores how Japanese Americans have retained their ethnicity while being involved in mainstream American society.			X	X
Garrett, Jesse A. and Ronald C. Larson, ed. Camp and Community: Manzanar and the Owens Valley. (1977) – compilation of twenty interviews with Owens Valley residents documenting the impact Manzanar had on its surrounding communities.				X
Gesenway, Deborah and Mindy Roseman compilers. Beyond Words: Images from America's Concentration Camps. (1987) – a collection of previously unpublished works by internment camp artists. Includes descriptive biographical sketches of artists.			X	X
Gruenewald, Mary Matsuda. Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps. (2005) - a memoir about coming of age during the turbulent years of World War II.		X	X	X
Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars. (1995) – a 1940s tale of a relationship between a Caucasian man and a Japanese American woman in Washington. Vivid internment camp descriptions and exploration of fear, prejudice, etc.			X
Hamanaka, Sheila. The Journey. (1990) – Paintings and text by the author depict the Japanese experience in 20th century America via her 8' x 25' mural of the struggle of Japanese immigrants in the early 1900s, the WWII internment, and the work done to see that reparations were paid to former internees.	X			X
Hansen, Arthur. Voices Long Silent: An Oral Inquiry into the Japanese American Evacuation. (1970) – this volume includes essays, oral histories, and a bibliography.			X	X
Higa, Karen. The View From Within. (1992) – features art from the relocation centers.			X	X
Higashide, Seiichi, et al. Adios to Tears: The Memoirs of a Japanese-Peruvian Internee in U.S. Concentration Camps. (2000) - a very personal story of a man whose life spanned three countries and his role in the effort to obtain redress.				X
Hirahara, Naomi and Gwenn M. Jensen. Silent Scars of Healing Hands: Oral Histories of Japanese American Doctors in World War II Detention Camps. (2004) – an in-depth and personal view into healthcare in the internment camps.			X	X
Hirasuna, Delphine, Kit Hinrichs and Terry Heffeman. Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1945. (2005) – color photographs and well-researched narrative bring to life the arts and crafts created by Japanese American internees.	X	X	X	X
Hohri, William. Repairing America: Account of the Movement for Japanese American Redress. (1988) – a first-person account of the Redress movement, written by the leader of the National Council for Japanese American Redress.				X
Hongo, Florence M. and Miyo Burton. Japanese American Journey: The Story of a People. (1988) – short history of Japanese Americans, camp experiences and four biographies.		X
Hongo, Garrett. Under Western Eyes: Personal Essays from Asian Americans. (1985) – a collection of memories that focus around family and language.			X	X
Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. The Japanese American Family Album. (1998) – captures the broad experience of Japanese Americans focusing on oral histories and family documents.	X	X	X	X
Hosokawa, Bill. Nisei: The Quiet Americans. (2002) – revised edition; originally published in 1969 this book traces experiences of Japanese immigrants in the West and their children, the Nisei.			X	X
Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar. (1973) – a first-person account of the author's experience of her family's removal from the West Coast, three years at Manzanar, and growing up after the war.		X	X
Inada, Lawson Fusao. Legends from Camp. (1992) – selection of poetry based on Inada's experiences at the Fresno Assembly Center in California, and War Relocation Centers in Colorado and Arkansas.			X
Inada, Lawson Fusao. Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience. (2000) – an anthology of experiences brought to public consciousness through narrative, drawings, photographs and poetry.		X	X	X
Iritani, Frank and Joanne. Ten Visits. (1999) – brief accounts of what remained (in 1999) of each of the ten camps. Includes maps, directions, and color photos.				X
Ishigo, Estelle. Lone Heart Mountain. (1972) – autobiography of a Caucasian woman who relocated with her Japanese American husband to Heart Mountain War Relocation Center in Wyoming. Descriptive line drawings by the author. This story is depicted in Steven Okazaki's film, Days of Waiting (see Audio Visual section).		X	X
Ishizuka, Karen. Lost and Found: Reclaiming the Japanese American Incarceration. (2006) – introduction by Roger Daniels; aims to educate the public conscious about this experience and allow Japanese Americans to reclaim their history.			X	X
Irons, Peter. Justice Delayed. (1990) – documents the reopening of WWII Japanese American internment legal cases brought before the Supreme Court.				X
Irons, Peter. Justice at War: The Story of Japanese American Internment Cases. (1993) – discusses the debates before the issue of the internment order, the legal cases that arose, and responses afterward.				X
James, Thomas. Exile Within: The Schooling of Japanese Americans from 1942-1945. (1987) – tells the experience of school children learning of democracy while interned.			X	X
Japanese American National Museum. Los Angeles's Boyle Heights. (2005) – a history of a multi-ethnic neighborhood with a large Japanese American population.		X	X	X
Kadohata, Cynthia. Weedflower. (2006) – based on the author's family experience, it is a story of a young girl and her extended family interned at Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona.	X	X
Kikuchi, Charles. The Kikuchi Diary. (1973) – a first-person account by a U.C. Berkeley graduate student who was sent to Tanforan Assembly Center and lived in a horse stall.			X	X
Knaefler, Tomi Kaizawa. Our House Divided: Seven Japanese American Families in WWII. (1991) – stories of seven Hawaiian families, focusing on inter-generational conflicts.			X
Kogawa, Joy. Itsuka. (1992) – a novel about the struggle of Japanese Canadians to receive compensation for their World War II internment.		X	X
Kogawa, Joy. Naomi's Road. (1986) – a Japanese Canadian woman reflects on her WWII experience in a Canadian internment camp.	X	X
Kogawa, Joy. Obasan. (1981) – a moving account of one family's Canadian internment experience and their efforts to secure redress.		X	X
Krammer, Arnold. Undue Process: The Untold Story of America's German Alien Internees. (1997) – details America's treatment of German aliens during WWII.				X
Lange, Dorothea. Eds. Linda Gordon and Gary Y. Okihiro. Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment. (2006) – social history and Japanese American internment explored through censored images of the renown photographer.			X	X
Lee-Tai, Amy and Felicia Hoshino. A Place Where Sunflowers Grow. (2006) – in English and Japanese; based on the author's family background and takes place in the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah.	X
Life Magazine. March 1942, pg 81-82. "How to Tell Japs from the Chinese." – a example of propaganda used to discriminate against Japanese Americans.			X	X
Lowery, Barbara. 39 Months at Tule Lake. (2004) – using her father's (a staff member's) diary the author weaves together the events that took place at the internment camp from March 1943 to 1946.			X	X
Lowman, David. Magic. (2001) – describes recruitment of Japanese (citizens and aliens) to provide information to Japan. Lowman digresses on a general history of the MAGIC code, and into a bitter critique of the 1988 decision of Redress.				X
Martin, Ralph G. Boy from Nebraska. (1946) – biography of Sgt. Ben Kuroki, a farm boy who struggled to be inducted into the Army Air Corps and compiled a heroic record in the Europeans and Pacific theaters of war.		X	X
Miyakawa, Edward. Tule Lake. (2006) – originally published in 1979; a novel about Tule Lake War Relocation Center which became Tule Lake Segregation Center.			X	X