Adult Non-Fiction

This list of fiction and nonfiction books, compiled by Susan Conlon, MLIS and Kim Dorman, Community Engagement Coordinator, of Princeton Public Library, provides a range of perspectives on the issues raised by the POV documentary Manzanar Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust.

From the majestic peaks of the snow-capped Sierras to the parched valley of Payahuunadü, “the land of flowing water,” ``Manzanar Diverted:” poetically weaves together memories of intergenerational women. Native Americans, Japanese-American WWII incarcerees and environmentalists form an unexpected alliance to defend their land and water from Los Angeles.

ADULT NONFICTION

Bahr Meyers, Diane.The Unquiet Nisei: An Oral History of the Life of Sue Kinetomi Embrey. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
Based on extensive oral histories, The Unquiet Nisei recounts how Sue Kunitomi Embrey emerged from the WRA camp at Manzanar to become a leader of the Japanese American Redress Movement.

Brown, Daniel James. Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II.New York: Viking Press, 2021.
In the days and months after Pearl Harbor, the lives of Japanese Americans across the continent and Hawaii were changed forever. Chronicling the lives of several Japanese Americans who volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Brown also tells the story of these soldiers’ parents, immigrants who were forced to submit to life in concentration camps on U.S. soil. Whether fighting on battlefields or in courtrooms, these were Americans under unprecedented strain, doing what Americans do best—striving, resisting, pushing back, rising up, standing on principle, laying down their lives, and enduring.

Lillquist, Karl. Imprisoned in the Desert: The Geography of World War II-Era, Japanese American Relocation Centers in the Western United States. Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Central Washington University, 2007.
Evacuation of persons of Japanese descent from the U.S. West Coast to inland, arid sites in 1942 contains elements of all aspects of traditional geography, including physical, human, and regional sub-disciplines; however, few geographers have written on the topic. Further, little has been written about the landscapes in which the Japanese Americans were incarcerated, and how the evacuees interacted with the landscapes while they were incarcerated. This book focuses on the geography of each of the eight western U.S. relocation centers–Amache, Gila River, Heart Mountain, Manzanar, Minidoka, Poston, Topaz, and Tule Lake. Common to all in their western U.S. locations was aridity. All were located in arid or semi-arid environments. The Jerome and Rohwer, Arkansas centers were excluded from this study because of their locations well east and in vastly different environments than the remainder of the sites. They were also the shortest-lived centers of the ten.

Miller, Char (editor). Wading Through the Past: Infrastructure, Indigeneity & Western Water Archives.Claremont: The Claremont Colleges Library, 2021.
Wading Through the Past is a collection of essays based on the 2021 Western Water Symposium, sponsored by The Claremont Colleges Library. An assortment of scholars, librarians, and advocates have virtually gathered to discuss the process of digitizing, making accessible, and using the Western Water Archives in the hope that we might better understand and improve our relationship to water. SPECIFICALLY noting “Payahǖǖnadǖ Water Story by Teri Red Ow”l

Omi, George. American Yellow.Sarasota: First Edition Design Publishing, 2016.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Omi family was uprooted from their home in San Francisco and incarcerated approximately 2,000 miles away at the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas. This memoir follows the story of the Omi family’s survival through the war and of their journey back to San Francisco to rebuild their lives in the aftermath.

Rotner Sakamoto, Pamela. Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds.New York: Harper Perennial, 2017.
Alternating between the American and Japanese perspectives, Midnight in Broad Daylight captures the uncertainty and intensity of those charged with the fighting as well as the deteriorating home front of Hiroshima—as never told before in English—and provides a fresh look at the dropping of the first atomic bomb. Intimate and evocative, it is an portrait of a resilient family, an examination of racism and xenophobia, an homage to the tremendous Japanese American contribution to the American war effort, and an invaluable addition to the historical record of this extraordinary time.

Umemoto, Hank. Manzanar to Mount Whitney: The Life and Times of a Lost Hiker.Berkley: Heyday, 2013.
Hank Umemoto was a young teenager when he was incarcerated at Manzanar during World War II. From inside the barracks, he was able to see Mount Whitney, and vowed that he would one day hike the mountain when he was a free man. Umemoto recalls stories from his life as a Japanese American in California both before and after the war, and chronicles his journey admiring Mount Whitney from inside Manzanar to finally reaching its summit decades later.

Yamashita, Karen Tei.Letters To Memory. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press, 2017.
This memoir recollects the Japanese internment using archival materials from the Yamashita family as well as a series of epistolary conversations with composite characters representing a range of academic specialties.