Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During World War II, by Martin W. Sandler -- Day 62

In Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During World War II, author Martin W. Sandler opens wide an informative and extremely moving window to a very troubling period in United States history. Soon after Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U.S. government issued orders that thousands upon thousands of Japanese Americans be evacuated from their homes and businesses and held in temporary assembly centers first and then in remote detention centers, mostly on the West Coast. They were held under the suspicion that, due simply to their Japanese heritage, they could not be trusted. There was strong debate at the highest levels regarding this action. The FBI, when assigned to identify any Japanese disloyal to the U.S., testified that “as a group, [they] posed no threat to the nation’s security.” Director Herbert Hoover wrote to the U.S. Attorney General that sentiments for removal were based “primarily upon public and political pressure rather than factual data.” President Roosevelt’s advisers cautioned him that “interning Japanese Americans was both unconstitutional and unnecessary.” Nonetheless, both Issei (Japanese born in Japan) and Nisei (their children born in the United States and thus citizens) were required to leave their homes, possessions and businesses with extreme haste. Families and individuals who had worked hard to establish good lives as professionals, merchants and farmers were understandably bewildered by this action. Interned Japanese conducted themselves with dignity despite having no idea exactly why and for how long they would be held. In a supreme irony, other Japanese Americans joined our armed forces as an indication of their loyalty to the United States; in fact, just when members of the 442^nd Regimental Combat Team (all of Japanese descent) were liberating prisoners at Dachau in Germany, their relatives in the United States were being detained. As the war was ending in 1945, detainees were “handed twenty-five dollars and a train ticket home,” but the effects of imprisonment remained. Sandler provides revealing, authoritative details about all aspects of the internment of Japanese Americans – their lives in the camps, the long-term effect on their personal lives and dignity, the silence on the subject of this period of history in our culture and education for decades, and the eventual acknowledgement of and redress by our government of these enormous wrongs, a process beginning in 1976 and resulting in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. A telling paragraph near the end of Sandler’s book quotes a press release issued by the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) the day after the September 11 bombings: “We urge citizens not to release their anger on innocent American citizens simply because of their ethnic origin, in this case Americans of Arab ancestry. While we deplore yesterday’s acts, we must also protect the rights of citizens. Let us not make the same mistakes as a nation that were made in the hysteria of WWII following the attack at Pearl Harbor.” The impact of this story is profound for any reader, particularly when realizing we face similar challenges to constitutional and human rights today. Ages 12 to adult.

The Turtle of Oman, by Naomi Shihab Nye -- Day 61

Understandably, Aref Al-Amri is having a hard time leaving his home in the Middle East – in Muscat, Oman, a place he loves. His friends are there, his cat, his rock collection, the desert dunes, and the best fresh apricots in the world… Most of all, he will miss his grandfather Sidi. But his parents are leaving for graduate school in Ann Arbor, Michigan; the time has come to pack his suitcase. When his mother asks Sidi to help reluctant Aref pack, his wise grandfather decides to take him on some adventures instead – camping beneath the thousand stars of the desert, sleeping on Sidi’s rooftop, fishing in the Gulf of Oman, visiting the sea turtles’ nesting ground. The bond between grandfather and grandson is gentle and palpable. They take time together to celebrate both the profound and ordinary aspects of what Aref will leave behind, easing his anxiety about moving from one home, and one culture, to another. Sidi slips a rock from each destination into Aref’s suitcase, as a quiet well wishing. The Turtle of Oman is an insightful glimpse at anticipating a move to a new culture under the best of circumstances; readers may also wonder what it might be like to leave under duress. Ages 8-12.

Born of a Palestinian father and an American mother, writer Naomi Shihab Nye knows well what a mix of cultures means to an individual and a family. She has chronicled, in poetry and prose, her experience of being Arab American and the range of feelings inherent in looking deeply at the connective threads and the chasms of one’s heritage. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, her anthology of poems published in 2002 not long after the September 11 tragedies, is a riveting tapestry of life – food, home, landscape, memory, relationship, loss – in the Middle East and in America. Ages 12 up.

Eliza’s Cherry Trees: Japan’s Gift to America, by Andrea Zimmerman, illustrated by Ju-Hong Chen -- Day 60

Eliza’s Cherry Trees: Japan’s Gift to America begins, “Sometimes a person with a good idea can make a big difference.” And indeed Eliza Scidmore did. She was a writer, a world traveler, a lover of natural beauty, and, as recounted in Andrea Zimmerman’s picture book biography, the person responsible for the planting of three thousand cherry trees in our nation’s capital. Eliza grew up in her mother’s boarding house in Washington, D.C., meeting people from all over the world who stayed there; her favorite school subject was geography. She longed to visit distant places, and eventually she did, supporting herself as a writer. She often traveled with her brother, a diplomat in the Far East, and especially loved Japan and its beautiful sakura (flowering cherry trees). After returning home, she spoke with the person in charge of Washington, D.C., parks about planting sakura there, near the water. She was told “no” but did not forget her dream over the next twenty years. Eilza became a correspondent for the National Geographic Society and its first female board member and took photos for the Smithsonian Institution. Always glad to return home to Washington, D.C., she continued to advocate for her cherry tree project with each new park director. Finally, in 1909, she wrote President Taft’s wife, First Lady Helen Taft, who thought it was a wonderful idea. Plans moved forward with the generous support of a Japanese scientist. In March 1912, the banks of the Potomac were planted with the sakura that have become both a joyous aspect of our capital city and an international symbol of peace and friendship. Illustrator Ju-Hong Chen’s illustrations capture perfectly the simple elegance of this story and its sakura. Ages 5 up.