Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp

In this close look at the first relocation camp built for Japanese evacuees living on the West Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, social historian Michael Cooper makes extensive use of the actual words—from diaries, journals, memoirs, and news accounts—of the people who were held behind barbed wire in the high California desert. Many were American citizens who felt betrayed by their country. They had to leave their jobs, their homes, and their friends and go live in crowded barracks, eat in noisy mess halls, and do without supplies or books for work or schooling. They showed remarkable bravery and resilience as they tried to lead normal lives, starting their own schools, playing baseball, attending Saturday night dances, and publishing their own newspaper. Archival photographs, some by Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, augment the informative text. Manzanar is now a National Historic Site and hosts an annual pilgrimage that is attended by former internees, their families, and friends. Endnotes, Internet resources, index.

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Uses firsthand accounts, oral histories, and essays from school newspapers and yearbooks to tell the story of the Japanese Americans who were sent to live in government-run internments camps during World War II.

Michael L. Cooper has written books on various aspects of American history for young adults, including a companion book, Fighting for Honor: Japanese Americans and World War II, which was named a 2002 Best Book for Young Adults.

In this incisive companion to Fighting for Honor: Japanese Americans and World War II, Cooper examines life in the Manzanar relocation camp in eastern California, where more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were exiled between March 1942 and November 1945. Framing his account with chapters describing his 2001 visit to the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, which attracts former residents and their descendants to the site, the author conveys the lasting effects of and strong sentiments still associated with the government's WWII confinement of American citizens, an act he deems "one of the most serious mistakes in our nation's history." Cooper draws from primary sources, including the records of the War Relocation Authority and microfilm copies of the Manzanar Free Press, a biweekly newspaper published in the camp, to compose a clear portrait of residents' living conditions and daily routines. The inclusion of quotes from those who lived at Manzanar gives the book a sense of immediacy as well as a sharp emotional edge. Reinforcing the bitter irony of this experience are such pointed comments as that of a then 12-year-old boy, who asks, "What's the use of studying American history when we're behind barbed wire?" Carefully selected photos (including some by Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams) balance government-sanctioned and unofficial pictures of life in the camp. Visuals and text resolutely portray a painful chapter in America's past. Ages 9-12. (Nov.)

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Gr 5-8-This account of life in the World War II relocation center is framed by introductory and concluding chapters about the author's participation in the 2001 Manzanar Pilgrimage. Although covering some of the same historical information as Daniel Davis's Behind Barbed Wire (Dutton, 1982; o.p.) and Ellen Levine's A Fence Away from Freedom (Putnam, 1995), this book has some unique features. It includes quotations taken from the Manzanar Free Press, published by the evacuees under the scrutiny of camp officials, and a chapter about the photographers whose work accompanies the text on almost every page. They include Dorothea Lange; Ansel Adams; and Toyo Miyatake, a professional photographer from Los Angeles who smuggled film and a camera lens into the camp. This book is intended for a younger audience than Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston's autobiographical Farewell to Manzanar (Bantam, 1983). It will complement Jerry Stanley's I Am an American (Crown, 1994), which focuses on the experiences of specific Manzanar evacuees. It is especially suited to readers who already know a bit about the subject from Eve Bunting's picture book So Far from the Sea (Clarion, 1998) or Ken Mochizuki's Baseball Saved Us (Lee & Low, 1993) and want to learn more.-Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

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An account of the forced encampment of all people of Japanese ancestry in the western U.S. after the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941. Through painfully honest first-person accounts, records of the War Relocation Authority, microfilm copies of the camp newspaper, and archival photos, readers will learn of the daily life and routines of camp residents. For the purpose of independent study, this book would be appropriate for 9th and 10th grade students. It will also support struggling readers in upper grade levels. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.