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The Moved-Outers

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The captivating story of a Japanese-American family in a World War II internment camp who struggle to retain their dignity and identity as Americans.

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

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About the author

Florence Crannell Means was an American writer for children and young adults.

In 1946, her novel about Japanese internment, The Moved-Outers, won a Newbery Medal honor award and the Children's Book Award (now Josette Frank Award).

(from Wikipedia)

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5 stars
19 (15%)
4 stars
53 (44%)
3 stars
35 (29%)
2 stars
10 (8%)
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2 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
Profile Image for Cheryl.
13k reviews483 followers
February 8, 2017
(Read for Newbery Club in Children's Books group.)

I just couldn't help reading this as historical fiction. After all, I did read Farewell to Manzanar, too, and I've visited the camp myself. Twice, in fact, once when the desert had almost reclaimed it, and once later when it was developed as a park: https://www.nps.gov/manz/index.htm. Sue Ohara was lucky she wasn't there, but in a better camp.

But to think that it was current at the time it was written, and that it didn't win the Newbery Medal... *I* think it's the best and most important book of that year.

Consider the details, the subtleties. As group member Karol points out, consider the class & generational differences among the Japanese themselves, for example. To think that, for some, the barracks offered *more* physical comfort than their former homes. And Kim expresses frustration:

"If I scowl, they say, 'Look at the Jap, mad at being given a soft living, when his own country's freezing prisoners' feet off and starving them to death.' And if I smile, they say, "See the insolent, sneering Jap.' And if I try to hide my feelings, they say, 'There's no safety with folks that can hide their thoughts like that.'"

And the descriptions... I always knew Joshua trees were bizarre looking, but I was never before able to realize that they're "like rheumatic giants carrying petrified feather dusters."

Very good book.
Profile Image for Michelle Stimpson.
456 reviews9 followers
November 4, 2019
I'm sad this book is out of print. It's a great look at what it might have been like for a Japanese American family during the internment. What I liked best about the book is that it didn't treat Japanese Americans as a monolith - it depicts people from all walks of life, all socio-economic statuses, all differing opinions about the government, the war, and what was being done to them.

I noticed that many other reviewers of this book question the loyalty to America that the teenage characters in this book display, but having studied the internment, I found it true to life for many Japanese Americans. They WERE Americans. They loved their country. And even though they were upset and angry about what was being done to them, many of them were anxious to prove their American loyalty. Many young men did so by enlisting in the military. At first, they weren't accepted into the military due to their "enemy alien" designation, but after clearing that designation they could enlist or even be drafted.
Profile Image for Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance.
6,457 reviews336 followers
September 9, 2015
A Newbery Honor book with a copyright date of 1945. Who would have thought it? Means was out writing insightful books for children over fifty years ago, books recognized by ALA as excellent. Yet I don’t remember ever seeing this book before now, not in my library, not on any good book list. Why?

Here’s the plot: A family of Japanese Americans, who attend church and participate in their community, are sent off to detainment camps in the wake of Pearl Harbor. Means is spot on with her portrayals of the teenage son and daughter who react to their detainment with two different feelings and two different actions.

This is a book I had to double check several times; was it really written in 1945? And it makes me want to know more about Means. How did she come to know the culture of this story so well?
Profile Image for Denise Spicer.
Author 18 books70 followers
September 8, 2016
This 1945 Newberry Honor Roll book was one of the first written on the subject of the internment of Japanese American citizens during World War II. Told from the point of view of Sue and Kim Ohara, high school students in small town California, it gives a moving and descriptive version of the emotions and activities of various families that have been relocated to the camps and discusses their struggles and ambitions to be normal American high school and college students.
Profile Image for Jenny.
3,374 reviews39 followers
September 19, 2016
I am impressed that this book was written so soon after WWII. I rather enjoyed this story of Sue and her family after they have been forced to move out of their home and enter an internment camp. I liked how Sue's perspective on the internment was often different than her brother's and their different approaches to making it through the experience. Based on the other books I read about the internment this summer, this felt pretty realistic to me. And very readable.
Profile Image for Danielle.
857 reviews
September 11, 2025
I was absolutely fascinated to find a book about Japanese American incarceration that was written while it was still happening. Yes, it sounds dated, and yes it reads a little too cheery about that pioneer spirit and sacrificing for your country.

But it still confronts all the important issues and has interesting dynamics between different generations and different classes.

Worth reading if this part of US history interests you.
Profile Image for Christina Packard.
782 reviews10 followers
May 6, 2016
An interesting read. I was surprised at how accepting the family seemed to be at having to give up most all of what they had to be moved on. I found the interment camps seemed to not be bad places and that one could buy what one needed. I need to do some research, but I can't believe those in the camp that they had such good attitudes of where they were and could have and how they had to live.
Profile Image for Amber Scaife.
1,637 reviews18 followers
July 22, 2019
Follows the story of a Japanese-American family who are forced to move into a detention camp during WWII.
Not a terrible treatment of the subject, but the insistent patriotism of the main characters, despite all they go through, is a little grating and rings a little false.
6,222 reviews41 followers
January 25, 2016
This is one of the earliest if not the earliest fiction book about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It's also a very comprehensive book about what happened. The story centers on two families where there is a sort of Romeo and Juliet thing going, with the fathers of the two families do not get along.

Sue Ohara is the main female character, 18 years old. Their family live in California and end up being moved out, first to the Santa Anita Assembly Center and later to the Amache Internment Camp.

The story covers Pearl Harbor, how the FBI arrested people and held them without charge, how the attitude of some of the people who knew the family changed after Pearl Harbor, the process of moving out and all that entailed, the journey to Santa Anita and the horse stalls that awaited them as a new 'home,' the development of that center and then the moving out to Amache and how that went.

It also covers the varying attitudes of people in the camps, the Zoot Suiters and how some of the younger ones in the camps got into trouble. It even covers a shooting of one of the camp people who was out on a work detail. All of these things covered in the book are real things that happened to real people.

One interesting thing it does is go into the origin of people, such as those born in Scotland and Germany who settled here, and how they were known simply as Americans, vs. the people of Japanese descent who, even if born here, were still known as Japanese-Americans rather than just Americans.

The book also talks briefly about the development of anti-Japanese prejudice on the West Coast long before the war ever began. It even includes some of the more outrageous newspaper claims about the camps, such as the claim that the Japanese Americans were getting better food than other Americans.

On top of all this, the book is very readable and very well done as a book on that level.
Profile Image for Katherine.
235 reviews2 followers
July 25, 2011
Although this book does struggle with the injustice of the Japanese-American internment, I question the accuracy of the overall impression the book gives of the internment conditions and the level of loss people experienced. Notably, this book was published in 1946, four years after Pearl Harbor was attacked and one year after the end of WWII.
Profile Image for Melissa.
771 reviews5 followers
August 23, 2019
5 stars. I finished reading one of the Newbery books I've most anticipated "The Moved Outers" by Florence Cranall Means. While it didn't disappoint, I'm still in digestion mode. The book was published in 1946 and was an Honor Book in 1947 - which may be the most remarkable thing about it. Why? Because it's the story of an American family (kids Tad, Amy, Susie, Kim) living in CA .It begins 5 Dec 1941 and covers a bit more than a year in their lives as they go from proud Americans to being the enemy and being placed in first a holding facility (the horse stalls at Santa Anita) and then the internment camp Amache in CO..... All because they're the children of nisei and the bear the names Tadeo, Emiko, Sumiko, and Kimio. Relevance for today? Hell. Yes I finished reading one of the Newbery books I've most anticipated "The Moved Outers" by Florence Cranall Means. While it didn't disappoint, I'm still in digestion mode. The book was published in 1946 and was an Honor Book in 1947 - which may be the most remarkable thing about it. Why? Because it's the story of an American family (kids Tad, Amy, Susie, Kim) living in CA .It begins 5 Dec 1941 and covers a bit more than a year in their lives as they go from proud Americans to being the enemy and being placed in first a holding facility (the horse stalls at Santa Anita) and then the internment camp Amache in CO..... All because they're the children of nisei and the bear the names Tadeo, Emiko, Sumiko, and Kimio. Relevance for today? Hell. Yes. Reason for digestion: Means is not of Japanese descent and I want to read George Takei's graphic novel and also Farewell to Manzanar. I read this for my 2019 Reading Challenge and my Newbery Challenge (Honor Book 1947).
ETA: I finished Manzanar a few days after reading this. Means' book holds up and is especially strong given the time in which it was written (Manzanar dates from the early 1970s). Differences: (1) the age of the central character (Houston was 10 when she was interned, Sumiko was 17-19) which made the experience somewhat different - interestingly both came from white areas prior to internment, (2) the effect the internment had on the fathers - Houston's father was a broken man, Means' fictionalized father was merely aged, and 3) post-internment Houston's family spread across the US with the CA contingents supported by her mother, and Means' fictionalized family (which also spread) seemed to be able to mostly pick back up from where it had been due to community/church support.
Profile Image for Gina Johnson.
680 reviews25 followers
April 22, 2021
I actually felt like this book was more of a 3 or 3.5 but I bumped it up because I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t read it right after reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet I would have thought it was better and enjoyed it more. It just can’t compare. The Moved-Outers is about a Japanese American family who’s father is “detained” while they are interred at a “camp”. I felt like it did a good job of depicting both the very best thoughts and sentiments Japanese Americans could have had about the events as well as how badly it impacted others. The main character is an 18 year old girl, but her 17 year old brother as well as a 20 (ish) year old male friend are also very prominent in the story. There is a bit of romance but not any sensationalized ways...it’s all very matter of fact, or talking about how she had had a crush on a boy for a long time. I’m probably going to add this to my 12 year old’s stack of free read books for next year when she’s in this time period.
Profile Image for Jen.
1,863 reviews7 followers
December 20, 2023
This was a story of Japanese internment, written in 1945, before they had closed. Many of the negative reviews question the authenticity, as this was written by a white woman and the conditions of the camp don't seem bad enough. The author's grandson commented on one review, though, and told how his grandmother actually lived near this camp and visited frequently, getting to know the stories and the people. She made a career of bringing the stories of marginalized people to light. While it would be best for these to be Own Voices stories, and we have those now about this shameful part of our history, this was 1945, and Means did what she could. This was written with the style of many YA paperbacks of the time, so a little too sweet and a little too pat and a little clunky feeling, but very readable. I appreciated how it went from the calm before Pearl Harbor through the internment.
Profile Image for Delia Kerr-Dennhardt.
80 reviews
November 9, 2023
“The Moved Outers” offers a resonant look at the life of a family of Japanese-Americans from California who are interred by the US government following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The relationships between family members, neighbors, and friends shift in response to the events of WWII. Throughout, ideals of democracy and the American dream are challenged and sought after. This is a recommended reading for anyone seeking to learn more about this time in history, or who wants to learn about the human impact of discriminatory policies through historical fiction. “The Moved Outers” is an excellent book for adults and children alike.
541 reviews4 followers
July 22, 2025
A comment on one Goodreads reviews was written by Jeremy Hull, a grandson of Florence Means. He describes the research Means did spending time at the internment camp at Lamar, so I'm sure that her book is based on very real people she met there. I am impressed that the book includes the influence that the Christian church has on the Japanese, before and during their internment. Sadly today, Christians are rarely put in a good light in literature (and maybe that's deserved in some ways), but then, as it should be now, Christians are shone to be light and kind to everyone. In the lives of the Ohara family, this meant a lot.
Profile Image for Chloe.
246 reviews8 followers
July 16, 2025
Written in 1945 about the Japanese Internment Camps. I don't know, it seemed kind of relevant? So happy I read this. Loved, loved, loved the story of this family handling such an awful situation with grace and hope. Great YA story too, didn't feel that aged/dated aside from some mild phrases/values. Means excels at showing how empathy matters, not just telling the reader to care.
Profile Image for Chris.
109 reviews2 followers
December 20, 2017
Ah, the Newbery Honor books of my youth. I remember this one well, as it was an early exposure to injustice in America.
818 reviews6 followers
April 18, 2020
A bit flat, but a good historical look at the internment of the Japanese for a YA audience.
639 reviews14 followers
September 17, 2024
156 p. Read for Kid Lit
Story of Sue and her Japanese American family during WWII when they were evacuated to camps.
Profile Image for Maxine D'India Aeschleman.
693 reviews3 followers
April 22, 2023
This book is out of print and hard to find. It is about a family and their experience living in a Japanese Internment camp during WWII. Because it was written so close to the time of the internment it candy coats the event a bit. A much better fictional read with incredible character development is We Are Not Free by Traci Chee. I was able to relate to the characters a lot more in her book.
Profile Image for Thomas Bell.
1,903 reviews18 followers
March 6, 2015
Well, it was a book.

This is actually the earliest book I have read dealing with WWII, and it was first published in 1945. The book is about a Japanese-American family being forced off of their homes and into barbed-wired relocation camps.

A few things: First, yes; they mentioned some of the bad things of the camps, but the author seemed to try to excuse them in some way now and then, and she tried to make it seem like many of the Japanese were glad to be there. I highly doubt very many were.

Second, the author was trying to describe the feelings of small-town people in the West, but the feel she gave sure seemed like big-East-Coast-city talking to me. I don't think very many people living in small California dump towns really cared that much about keeping up with the latest NYC fashions.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the author really didn't relate AT ALL to the people she was trying to write about. However, this is a story that needed to be told, and props to her for telling it so soon.

Also, the language was kind of (HORRIBLY) flowery. They could have just said, for example, that their dog sat down but instead threw about 20 adjectives and adverbs describing exactly how he did, thereby making a paragraph of it. The first about 3 chapters were this way. Then it got a little more readable as I was finally able to see past all of that into what the story was actually about.
Profile Image for Jessica.
5,035 reviews4 followers
September 9, 2023
Sue and her family are relocated from their home to a temporary relocation camp and then a more permanent camp in Colorado after Pearl Harbor. They are of Japanese decent, but they are American citizens. Written in the forties, this realistic fiction book talks about life in the relocation camps following Sue, Jiro, Kim, and Tomi. They still go to school and graduate, and they are allowed to go to college or work or join the military.

I just reread Hitler Youth last week, and it's really hard to say, "Oh, this was so terrible," after reading about the Holocaust, which really was an abomination. Was it okay that they were all relocated from their homes and businesses and friends and schools? No. But they were still treated like human beings instead of put in gas chambers and killed. What I really appreciated about this book was the positive attitude of many of the characters. When Jiro talked about how they can't change what happened to them, but they can ask, "Where do we go from here?" that really resonated with me. Because you will be wronged in life, and a lot of the time things can't be made right or the person who wronged you won't apologize. But if you hold on to that grudge and anger, it will eat you from the inside out, and your life will be an unhappy one. You have to find a way to accept that what happened won't change and forgive and move on and make the best of bad situations. And that's what the characters in this book did.
Profile Image for Shelley.
1,431 reviews
September 10, 2012
A couple unorganized thoughts and prompts for deeper thinking from a pretty boring book.
-This book was written in 1946 and there is no mistake that it is a children's book. I can imagine my young self reading it as a school assignment, just like I did with Anne Frank. However, whether through the lens of an adult or true comparison with other children's books, I found the writing to be uninteresting and simplistic, except for where the syntax totally confused me and forced me to re-read a sentence.
-I intend to research Ms Means and the true conditions of the Japanese internment camps. I wonder if this is a true depiction of conditions or a whitewashed version, either to make the topic socially acceptable in the 1946 climate, or for the delicate minds of children.
-While the conditions sound "unpleasant", the characters have a very positive attitude, even the rebellious ones. There are no true black sheep in this family whose frustration turns dark. It's weird to me that even the main character has many "anti-Japanese" attitudes, but I suppose that's natural, given that her ancestry is the cause of her problems. I just wonder how much of that is tranferred to the kids the book is trying to educated.
-Interesting topic for classroom discussion: why was this an acceptable solution in 1941, and how did the US avoid such a solution in 2001?
Profile Image for Jill.
411 reviews22 followers
September 25, 2013
Not bad, but I don't understand why a lot of people list this as one of their favorite Newbery Honor books...and by favorite I mean in the top 75 since there are so many...I wouldn't knock others down the list for it. It did, however, help fill in the gaps in my knowledge of the internment of Japanese-Americans.

"We're really the newest pioneers...We, the evacuees, the moved-outers. We're American patriots, loving our country with our hearts broken. And those who must can be pioneers behind barbed wire, but those who can must go out and pioneer in the wide world."

"Too much is bottled up--worries, resentments, sorrows. And there isn't anything constructive for most of the people to do. Just marking time. You put it another way, and these young folks are uprooted trees. If you get them back into good ground quickly enough, they may go on making normal growth. But we aren't getting them back quickly. Yes, you see it in their not wanting to work at jobs they don't like. It's as if they were saying, 'Well, you brought me here, I guess you can look out for me whether I work or not.' It's logical enough, but it isn't healthy."
1,382 reviews13 followers
June 16, 2011
I thought I would read this since it is about Japanese Americans during WWI and I read The Corner of Bitter and Sweet. The Moved-Outers, written in 1945, tells of Sue Ohara, who thinks herself as an American and does not want to be Japanized. The book describes how her father was taken away, how her family had to leave their home and be placed in a horse track and then into barracks in Colorado. The family experiences hatred and discrimation just because of their Japanese heritage. White Americans were outraged and resentful that they were going without many things and "The Japs" were being fed so well and had such "wonderful" housing. Forgiveness is a tremendous act. What horrible times it was during this war. The whole book can be described in this quote from page 149:
"We're really the newest pioneers," Sue said in a hushed voice. "We, the evacuees, the moved-outers. We're American patriots, loving our country with our hearts broken. And those who must can be pioneers behind barbed wrie, but those who can must go out and pioneer in the wide world."

156 pages
Profile Image for Mara.
227 reviews
Read
November 13, 2011
Includes many details of internment-camp life, but I found myself wondering how the author knew these or if she made them up. The message that Japanese-Americans were still patriotic Americans - darn it! - comes through loud and clear, but the condemnations of older Japanese people's clothing and manner seem just as racist as the idea of putting people in camps because of their ancestry.
Profile Image for Mckinley.
10k reviews83 followers
January 11, 2015
It bit forced at the start. Doesn't go into much thought/emotion.

See: Heart Mountain by G. Ehrlich, Tallgrass by S. Dallas, When the Emperor Was Divine by J. Otsuka and Buddha in the Attic, Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews

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