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Life in a WWII Japanese American Internment Camp

Read On
  Read more about the internment of Japanese Americans in these books, or visit our complete bibliography.  
  Baseball Saved Us book cover.  
  So Far From the Sea, Eva Bunting  
  The Eternal Spring of Mr. Ito, Shelia Garrigue  
  A Carp for Kimoko, Virginia Kroll  
  A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II, Ellen Levine  
  Baseball Saved Us, Ken Mochizuki  
  The Children of Topaz: The Story of a Japanese-American Internment Camp, Michael O. Tunnel and George W. Chilcoat  
  The Bracelet, Toshiko Uchida  
 

During World War II, the United States was at war with Japan. By an executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, all Americans of Japanese descent living in military exclusion zones on the West Coast were forced to leave their homes and move to internment camps.
 
Since the end of the war, the Japanese American community has loaned a
Photo of pledging allegiance.

Students pledging allegiance to the American flag in April 1942.
click to view larger image view larger
large collection of objects to the National Museum of American History. These artifacts, which relate to the experiences of Americans of Japanese descent during the war, are shown in the exhibition A More Perfect Union.
 
Baseball Saved Us is a story about a young American boy of Japanese descent named Shorty who is forced to leave his home and move to an army prison camp for the duration of the war. You can learn more about the Japanese American experience during World War II by reading Baseball Saved Us, exploring A More Perfect Union online, and by trying out the activities below.
 
Read more about life in the internment camps
Try It Out! Learn more through the following activities. These PDF files require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html) to view.
Photo of the corner of a suitcase.   Leaving Things Behind
What would you take with you if you were forced to move to an internment camp? Answer questions and draw pictures of your most precious belongings.

download PDF activity [256k]
Photo of a fish kite design.   Make Your Own Fish Kite
Follow these ten simple steps and create your own Japanese kite in the shape of a fish.

download PDF activity [56k]
Baseball Saved Us book cover.   Read Baseball Saved Us
Find out more about Baseball Saved Us, its author Ken Mochizuki, and its illustrator Dom Lee.

download PDF activity [58k]
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