Japanese Incarceration - In Librarian-speak, what is now being referred to as the "Japanese Incarceration" of World War II is called "Japanese Americans: Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945". That's how you would search for the topic in a library catalog. This shameful period in American history has been highlighted in local museums , especially the Washington State History Museum and the Museum of History and Industry.

At the Museum of History and Industry, I saw interviews with people who had been evacuated/relocated/incarcerated. One of them was my art teacher at Franklin High School, Frank Fujii.  Of course, he never talked about his experiences in class. Neither did Mr Hirabayashi, my fourth grade teacher and brother of Gordon Hirabayashi about whom you can read in A principled stand : the story of Hirabayashi v. United States. (You can also see part of his hand-written draft of a letter he wrote on why he refused to register for evacuation at the top of this article.) In fact, no one talked about it. A friend of mine who volunteers with Densho says:

"You ask about the absence of discussion when we were in school--almost all our Japanese American classmates had parents, grandparents, relatives who were forcibly removed first to "Camp Harmony", the Puyallup fairgrounds & then to Minidoka in Idaho. This was not talked about in most homes. Many felt it was important to show how "American" we were--blend in, don't complain, do well in school , etc. One cultural trait is to hold it in--not share how horrible life was. Also, for many, it was the kind of experience that only brought up depressing memories and who wants to talk about that." She went on to talk about the work that Densho is doing: "Densho has a fabulous website: www.densho.org . It provides tons of online resources--thousands of hours of interviews with Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during WWII. Plus there are many primary source documents, filmstrips, videos, cartoons, photographs. All are free. There's even an online course for teachers that's free too.  Densho asks, "How can we be at our best during times of fear? It is our conviction and hope that an informed citizenry, aware of the human costs and consequences of the violation of the rights of the few, will be better equipped to protect the civil rights of all." 

But now, she says, "the interviews seemed to open the floodgates of shared experiences", and people are talking and writing. Here are some books from Plymouth Library that I know you will find interesting:

• The Hood River Issei : an oral history of Japanese settlers in Oregon's Hood River Valley / Tamura, Linda, 979.5 TAM 
  
• Impounded : Dorothea Lange and the censored images of Japanese American internment / Lange, Dorothea. 940.53089 LAN 
  
• Lone heart mountain. Ishigo, Estelle. 940.54 ISH 
  
• Patriotism, perseverance, posterity : the story of the National Japanese American Memorial. 940.54 PAT 
  
• A principled stand : the story of Hirabayashi v. United States / Hirabayashi, Gordon K. 341.67 HIR 
• We hereby refuse: Japanese American resistance to wartime incarceration/Abe, Frank
• Coming home from camp and other poems/ Kaneko, Lonny, 811.54 KAN
• Nisei daughter / Sone, Monica Itoi, B SON
• Cho's story: From the eyes of a Nisei son/ Shimizu, Choichi, B SHI
• John Okada : the life and rediscovered work of the author of No-no boy / B OKA 
• No-no boy / Okada, John. F OKA
• Snow falling on cedars / Guterson, David. F GUT 
• Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet : a novel / Ford, Jamie. F FOR

• The Minidoka Story: what happened to Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II/ Ichikawa, Sat, J 940.54 ICH
• The invisible thread : [an autobiography] / Uchida, Yoshiko. J B UCH
• The journal of Ben Uchida, citizen 13559, Mirror Lake Internment Camp / Denenberg, Barry. J F DEN 
• Kira-kira / Kadohata, Cynthia. J F KAD
  
• Thin wood walls / Patneaude, David. J F PAT 
• The fences between us : the diary of Piper Davis / Larson, Kirby. J F LAR
• So far from the sea / Bunting, Eve, E BUN
• Grandfather's journey / Say, Allen. E SAY 
  
• Heroes / Mochizuki, Ken, E MOC
• Baseball saved us / Mochizuki, Ken, E MOC 
• The bracelet / Uchida, Yoshiko. E UCH