A Place Where Sunflowers Grow by Amy Lee-Tai, illustrated by Felicia Hoshino [in Bloomsbury Review]
01 Nov, by in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Japanese American, Repost
In the barren Japanese American internment camp, young Mari finds solace in her art, her friends, her family … and the joy of discovering nine tiny green stems that finally blossom with promises of a beautiful...
A few cheesy, overwritten scenes aside, this is one stunning debut novel that will make you weak in the knees. Sam Hamada, U.S.-born but raised in Japan, arrives at age 9 in Hawai‘i in 1930 to...
Clara Breed, a children’s librarian at the San Diego Public Library, proved to be a staunch supporter and enduring friend to a group of young Japanese American students who were forced to leave their homes and...
With their loved ones incarcerated behind barbed wire in internment camps, the segregated, all-Japanese American 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team, led by Korean American Col. Young Oak Kim who recently passed away, became the most decorated...
An important compilation of essays, published posthumously, by longtime activist and Asian American Studies pioneer Ichioka. While numerous volumes focusing on the Japanese American internment already exist, Ichioka’s writings examine the specific period between the two...
After Pearl Harbor is bombed, every little thing changes for 12-year-old Sumiko, who lives on her aunt and uncle’s flower farm in California with her brother and cousins. Even though she’s an American, Sumiko and her...
The return in a new paperback edition of the second of a resonating historical trilogy that follows the young life of Adam Pelko. In A Boy at War, Adam is a high school student who experiences...
Thrilling collection of four recent plays from one of my favorite playwrights: Sisters Matsumoto, The Wind Cries Mary, Ballad of Yachiyo, and Under the Rainbow which combines two playlets, Natalie Wood...
The Best Wake-Up Call of All: Cynthia Kadohata's Kira-Kira Wins 2005 Newbery
Calls coming in at 4:26 a.m. don’t usually make people jump up and down and scream for joy. But Cynthia Kadohata, still half-asleep in her...
This is one of those perfectly sized, well-designed books that add that something extra to an already enlightening reading experience. Perhaps the most powerful section of Uyehara’s slim volume is...
Based on the true story of Alice Sumida, a Japanese American woman who, with her husband Mark, established the country's largest gladiola flower bulb farm. Forced from their home post-9066 that sanctioned...
Silent No More: The Varsity Victory Volunteers of World War II
Write what you know best” is the advice that writers probably hear most often. Franklin Odo, activist, academic, and museum curator extraordinaire, does exactly that. His latest title, No Sword...
A multifaceted look at the lasting effects of what has become an iconic event – the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor – which has been brought back to...
Looking Back at a Family's Internment: Julie Otsuka's novel debuts in paperback
OK, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Julie Otsuka's 
Extremely timely title, especially with impending war upon us, that offers “an overview of the tangible remains currently left at the sites of the Japanese American internment during World War II.” Includes...
The U.S. government’s need for scapegoats takes a chilling twist in Miyake’s effective debut novel, in which Executive Order 9066 is reinstated and the concentration camps are reopened. This time, the country’s...
“It is easy to understand why Japanese Americans want to know what happened in this war relocation camp,” Cooper writes. “But why is it important for other Americans to remember Manzanar?” Cooper necessarily questions....