The internment of Japanese Americans is part of the historical backdrop for the Wolf Harbor series. Here are three books that I picked up to supplement academic knowledge I already had. I’m finding that graphic novels and accounts — especially those aimed at teens — fill in the emotional gaps that research papers and scholarly books aren’t designed to address. Reading widely is important! These books helped me create what I hope was a respectful backstory of what the Japanese Americans faced in the internment camps of WWII. (Remember please that Wolf Harbor is fiction. Good fiction, I hope. But fiction — which means I made stuff up — nevertheless.)

Impounded, Photos by Dorothea Lange. Edited by Linda Gordon & Gary Okihiro. (2006) Dorothea Lange is best known for her pictures of the migrant families of the Dustbowl. But she also photographed the impoundment of Japanese-Americans — only to find her work impounded as well. Most of the photographs weren’t allowed to the public until much later. The essays from the two editors are also illuminating, using Lange as a lens to examine the censorship that surrounded the incarceration of Japanese-Americans, based solely on their race.

I’ve always admired Lange’s work. She’s amazing. And these photographs are worth studying — for both content and style. The content will break your heart. They chronicle a story of a people who, in spite of everything, valued their dignity, created homes from nothing, and faced endured the hardships and mistreatment of the camps.

They Called Us Enemy, George Takei. (2020). I was a Star Trek fan from the very beginning, and so of course George Takei is an early hero. And as I’ve aged, and as he’s aged, I’ve found new reasons to admire him for his advocacy on so many fronts. This is a graphic novel that tells the story of his own family as they were forced into an incarceration camp when he was a child.

I’ve become interested in the form of a graphic novel lately — and find them an interesting way to fill in the gaps of my knowledge on a subject in my own writing. Usually aimed at middle school and high school students, they’re worth checking out for us adults too.

I’m ABD (all but dissertation) in multicultural education, so I’ve read scholarly research and historical accounts of the Japanese-American incarceration camps. But a story like this one makes the reader feel the events in a way that facts and historical accounts don’t necessarily do. I think of my research for the books I write as filling in the gaps. And often those gaps are emotional not factual. (You should see the reading list for Newsroom PDX and the diverse students in that book! LOL.)

Displacement, Kiku Hughes. (2020) This one is fiction, a time-travel novel also aimed at teenagers. A Japanese-American girl from the present is transported back to the camps where her mother spent her youth. Some of the reviews of the book criticized it for the science fiction aspects, saying they would have preferred a straight non-fiction narrative. Which is silly, quite frankly. We can tell stories in a variety of ways, and this is one that would work especially well for teens who might not pick up a non-fiction narrative. There is room for both — for a plurality of voices telling stories in a plurality of ways.

I recommend it.

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