Category: book review
View Other Categories
15 Books About Japanese American WWII Incarceration For Readers Of All Ages
Looking for some summer reading for the students—and learners of any age—in your life? Densho Content Director Brian Niiya recommends some graphic novels and youth-friendly books with plotlines related to…
In Conversation: Artist and Author Katie Yamasaki
Artist and children’s book author Katie Yamasaki has traveled around the world creating murals and stories that explore issues of identity and social justice. Her latest book, Shapes, Lines, and…
Two Books That Shine New Light on the Nisei Experience in Japan
I’ve always thought of myself as a somewhat atypical Sansei in various ways, chief among them, that one of my Nisei parents—my mother in this case—was a bit more “Japanesy”…
The Japanese American History Books Your Little One Needs in Their Library
Given the many books on the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II aimed at teenage audiences, it is a bit surprising that there are relatively…
Book Review: Beyond the Betrayal
Yoshito “Yosh” Kuromiya is best known as one of the sixty-three men from Heart Mountain convicted in 1944 for refusing to report for induction in the largest mass trial in…
Japanese American Literature Traces Changing Relationships between Nikkei and African Americans Over Time
Co-authored by Brian Niiya and Greg Robinson In our many combined years of doing research on Japanese American history and literature, we each noted a striking fact with regard to…
Nine Nikkei Women Writers You Need to be Reading Right Now
We asked writers, teachers, artists, and activists to help curate a special Women’s History Month reading list featuring books by Nikkei women authors. They came up with a phenomenal list…
Book Review: Kenjiro Nomura, American Modernist
Densho Content Director Brian Niiya reviews Kenjiro Nomura, American Modernist: An Issei Artist’s Journey, a beautifully illustrated exhibition companion book and biography that completes Barbara Johns’ invaluable trilogy on major…
Book Review: The Eagles of Heart Mountain
Densho Content Director Brian Niiya reviews The Eagles of Heart Mountain by Bradford Pearson, an entertaining and well-researched popular history of the incarceration told through the story of a group…
Dive into These YA Books on the Wartime Incarceration of Japanese Americans
In recent decades, many new books on the wartime experience of Japanese Americans have filled the shelves of bookstores and libraries. Of this ever-growing new crop of titles, many are…
Read These “Camp” Memoirs for a First-Person Look at Japanese American WWII Incarceration
When we think of Japanese American memoirs of the concentration camp experience, most of us think of a handful of older classic titles first: Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston’s…
A new book claims WWII incarceration wasn’t about racism. It’s wrong.
Guest post by Eric Muller, Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Cambridge University Press recently published Roger W. Lotchin’s Japanese American Relocation in World…
A Fresh Look at an Old Classic
John Okada: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy Edited by Frank Abe, Greg Robinson, and Floyd Cheung John Okada’s No-No Boy is a legendary and…
Twelve Novels by Japanese American Authors Centered on WWII Incarceration
When we think about literary works that incorporate the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans, most of us probably think of either one of the bestsellers by non-Japanese authors (e.g. Snow…
Five Bestsellers with Japanese American Incarceration Plot Lines
Did you know that at least five novels with Japanese American incarceration plot lines have made national best-seller lists in the past twenty or so years? Densho Content Director Brian…
Book Review: Honor Before Glory
The world is seemingly filled with media about the exploits of the Nisei soldiers during World War II. While it is certainly true that there are still many out there…
Book Review: The Little Exile
Perhaps because there are so many oral history accounts of Japanese Americans imprisoned in American concentration camps during World War II (including many hundreds on our website), it’s always seemed…
Book Review: “Relocating Authority” with the Written Word
Densho Content Director Brian Niiya reviews Relocating Authority: Japanese Americans Writing to Redress Mass Incarceration by Mira Shimabukuro (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2015). Join the author and Densho Director Tom Ikeda…
Japanese American Women’s Lives in the Camps and Beyond
Citizen 13660, Farewell to Manzanar, and Nisei Daughter, are perhaps the most widely known accounts of wartime incarceration by women, but there are many less widely known works that also…
Book Review: New Takes on the Japanese American Experience in WWII-Era Hawaii
Given the drama of mass forced removal and incarceration, it is no surprise that scholars have paid much more attention to the story of Japanese Americans on the continental U.S….
“Uprooting Community”: New Book Examines the WWII Mass Incarceration of Japanese Mexicans
In her new book, Uprooting Community, Selfa A. Chew examines the lived experience of Japanese Mexicans in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands during World War II. Chew illuminates U.S.-backed efforts of the Mexican government to…
Book Review: Allegiance
Allegiance: A Novel by Kermit Roosevelt (Simon & Schuster, 2015) Book review by Brian Niiya, Densho Content Director Kermit Roosevelt’s Allegiance is an engaging historical mystery novel set during World…
Book Review: The Sun Gods
The Sun Gods by Jay Rubin (Chin Music Press, $15.00) Book review by Brian Niiya, Densho Content Director Set largely in Seattle, Japanese literary scholar and translator Jay Rubin’s The Sun Gods…
Eight Essential Japanese American History Books for Young Readers
Jan Kamiya, a young adult librarian in the Hawaii State Public Library System and regular contributor to the Densho Encyclopedia, recommends eight essential books about Japanese American WWII incarceration that…