Welcome to Litsy!

Over the long holiday weekend, my husband and I decided to drive to California and visit Manzanar. This was one of the ten Japanese relocation camps in the US during WWII. I was profoundly moved by this place and I picked up a couple of books to help me understand what happened there. Both “Farewell to Manzanar” and “Only What We Could Carry” give firsthand accounts from the people who were unjustly taken to these camps at that time.

Farewell to Manzanar explores a family's time in a Japanesse encampment during WWII. I think the author does a good job ecolaing her life pre and post Pearl Harbor and her reintegration after WWII ended and the camps were closed.

This is a book I got from a fellow #BookCrosser. The author tells her own story of being a seven-year-old child when she and her #Japanese American family were sent to an internment camp at the onset of World War II. I find this book an upsetting but necessary read.

"...the events of September 11, 2001, made it clear that this readiness to overreact along ethnic lines is still with us, and close to the surface. We can never afford to forget what happened at Manzanar and the other wartime camps. Those events remind us that this lesson must be learned and learned and learned again."

The rise in anti-Asian violence during the pandemic has only served to underscore this constant need to relearn this lesson.

I've owned this book for several years but finally read it when it came up in the booklist for my son's homeschool curriculum this month. It's an excellent look at not only the prejudice that led to (and wasn't assuaged by) the internments, but also how these imprisonments altered family dynamics, put lives and careers on hold, and had lasting effects on the ways especially Nisei internees viewed themselves in relation to their country of birth.

#JulyJourneys #desert

It might be a different choice for a #desert prompt but I was impacted so much by this book from first reading it in middle school to many rereads over the years that I picked it. Manzanar a WWII Internment Camp was in a desert basin, Owens Valley, in California & descriptions of the desert heat & cold & punishing winds these families faced stayed with me. Someday I do want to take a journey there to see it myself.

At the age of seven, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, along with her family and thousands of other Japanese Americans, was forcibly removed from her home and sent to Manzanar, the first of the permanent internment camps to open during World War II. Houston tells a complex story of Manzanar as both prison and community, both the end of life as she knew it and the beginning of a life that would forever be shaped by her experiences there.🏮#mayreads2021

#7Books7Days #Day2 @tpixie

My junior high history teacher recommended this book based on my interest in WW2 (an interest that holds strong today in my reading choices). I was moved, dismayed, angered & fascinated by Jeanne‘s story of her family‘s time in the Manzanar Internment camp. I read & reread it in my teens, buying my own copy through scholastic & then a few years ago read it on my Kindle & bought a used copy from the library bookstore.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read this one in 2 sittings and loved it. Couldn‘t believe I hadn‘t picked it up sooner! Going into my classroom on Monday #teachhardhistory

A good mystery based on the relocation of Japanese-Americans during WWII and a son who goes missing. It's suspected that he's working with Imperial Japan but there is a web that needs to be untangled before anyone can be redeemed. My only issue was with the English speaking Japanese and the bad dialog used as broken English.
Book is not in the Litsy database but can be found on Amazon.

Jeanne and her family were sent to Manzanar. A few years later her brother was drafted and Jeanne and her parents were left with nothing to start their life anew. A look at what US policy cost these families.

A man arrested and sent to Fort Lincoln in North Dakota. He was arrested due to rumor and fear. He was Japanese. Pearl Harbor had just happened. This book and the book about Miss Breed, the librarian, should be required reading.

Best read: The Quiet Game
Funniest read: Breakup
Liked better than I thought I would: Farewell to Manzanar
Not recommending: A Long Way Down

#Junewrapup #Readingresolutions @Jess7

My heart breaks at today‘s current events with the immigration and boarder issues. Our country has had constant battles with racism, including against the Native Americans( since the beginning), African Americans (slavery - current), Americans of Middle Eastern background (since 9/11), and as this book is a reminder of, Japanese Americans. I am ashamed of how they were treated, and how FDR‘s decision was based solely on fear and had no grounds..➡️

From that day on, part of me yearned to be invisible.... They wouldn‘t see me, they would see the slant eyed face, the Oriental. This is what accounts for the entire evacuation. ➡️ You cannot deport 110,000 people unless you have stopped seeing them as individuals... for such a thing to happen , there has to be a kind of acquiescence on the part of the victims, some submerged belief that this treatment is deserved, or at least allowable...”⬅️

Chloe checking out my book before her nap. This was a horrible chapter in America's history and my choice for #WarMemoir for the #LitsyReadingChallenge This will also be the #LetterF for #LitsyAtoZ

More library holds that I picked up yesterday. Oh man, what‘ve I gotten myself into. 🙈 Even though I got a bit carried away at the libraries, I‘m looking forward to the challenge of getting through most of these in 3-weeks. Woot.

#oishinbo #japaneselit #japanesehistory #japan #wwii #libraryhaul

#septembowie #LookBackInAnger Six non-fiction books that (in addition to making me sad & frustrated & at least tear😢up if not full on cry😭) made me angry when I read them & make me look back in anger at how the people in them were treated due to things like race, ethnicity, & gender. It's even more frustrating that although the history in these books happened decades ago, this type of treatment, bigotry & discrimination still happens today. 😤😡

This was a fascinating account of a young girl's experience in a WWII internment camp. The bulk of the narrative felt like short vignettes--I would have liked more reflection as she told about the camp itself--but this may be due to her age during that time (7-10). The last section provides more commentary on what the experience meant to her & the repercussions the camps had for her family. Now I want to learn more about this part of our history.

"One of the amazing things about America is the way it can both undermine you and keep you believing in your own possibilities, pumping you with hope."

This is my weekend read, for my library book club on Monday. Upcoming are two book discussions back to back--Ella Enchanted on Sunday night and Farewell to Manzanar on Monday night. Makes for a fantastic weekend!

I could have sworn I'd read this before, when I was in 5th or 6th grade, but I remember absolutely none of it so far! Don't know if I can count it as a re-read. 😏

So last night at the beginning of the library book discussion, I was talking about finishing The Sympathizer and being in the middle of The Shadow Land, and how I was really done with reading about communist labor camps for a while. Then they announced next month's book.

Well, it's not a communist labor camp, but... 😂

American-born Japanese whose ancestors from Japan settled on the west coast of US starting around late 1800s, were in 1942 now forced to leave (lose) their homes, their modest businesses, their schools, their heirlooms and possessions, their traditions. As if they were a threat to US success in WWII

A good look at a part of American history that many Americans may not know about, the internment camps that housed the Japanese Americans during World War II. This book is VERY important to read to not only see what life was like in the camps, but to also see how much it affected the people years after they had left. I highly recommend you read this book and others like this.

"The record does not disclose a single case of Japanese disloyalty or sabotage during the whole war"

Since I can't sleep, I think I'll start reading this one while I take a break from the vampires 😁

Okay, I think I went a little crazy with book buying 😅 But they were all bought at a discounted price!!! 😁

#todayinsj FDR signs Executive Order 9066

[now reading]

Sometimes a story jumps out of history & hits you at the right time. This is one such book. Given the world we live in right now & what's happened in the US in a few short weeks, it's more important than ever that we remember what happens when we unnecessarily fear those we deem outsiders. No one deserves to be treated the way this country treated Japanese Americans during WWII. I hope we can all learn from this dark chapter in American history.

And this just happened! I hit 100 books this year! It's still not as many as last year, but it's more than previous years! 🙌

Reading this as an adult was such a different perspective. This should be required reading at age 30, not just in schools. Heartbreaking, but so important, especially now. If you're feeling despondent post-election, please read this. It's vital that we all are informed and involved so this never happens again.

So I think whoever wrote this back cover blurb maybe needed to re-read the book... top image is from the back cover, the next 2 are from the actual text. #nitpicky

This is my #wanttoreadindecember for #seasonsreadings2016 I've already started Farewell to Manzanar, I've got the two KAs and the Tessa Dare waiting for me from the library, and I'm going to go out and buy Big Little Lies after I saw the preview for the HBO show! I might do Jeeves on Serial Reader! Can't wait for a productive month of reading! Cheers!

And now time for something more serious. I saw this on my cousin's Goodreads tbr shelf, and it inspired me to pick up a copy. I think it's going to be important now 😡😭 and clearly I'm #smad about it. I originally read this in 8th grade and I think I'll get more out of it as an adult, I'm pretty sure in 8th grade we were all just horrified by it and couldn't go much deeper into it all.

Four months ago, this was my #firsteverlitsypost. Since then, I've read so many more books than I usually find time for, added an impossible number of books to my to-read list, and felt a happy connection with a wonderful online community. Thank you for being you, Litsy! Stay gold! 🙌🏾❤️📚

#recommendsday I first read this short but powerful memoir in Jr high & I've read it multiple times as it stuck in my mind & heart. At age 7, the author & her family were taken to the Manzanar internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor (120,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned in the US). The book describes life in & after their imprisonment. Published in 1973, this compelling true story resonates in today's climate of racial bias/fears.

I went to the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo today to visit the Kubo exhibit and as a bonus, they had an awesome book selection! I highly recommend this museum if you're ever in LA. A sad but important and poignant part of American history that we should all be aware of. (Kubo will be gone after next week though. Sorry 😟)

"And my feeling, at eleven, went something like this: you are going to be invisible anyway, so why not completely disappear."

A tiny slip of a book that reveals a slice of history often glossed over, while exposing truths still relevant today. When is the last time you saw an Asian male as the lead in a Hollywood romantic comedy?