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When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka

This guide was originally created in conjunction with King County's Big Reads title for winter 2020. It now stands as a reference resource for anyone interested in the book and Japanese internment.

Films & Videos

Beyond Barbed Wire: Untold Stories of American Courage by Steve Rosen (director)
Call Number: 940.5404 B573 2001

Media Collection--2nd Floor
Day of Independence: A Short Film on the Japanese American Internment by Chris Tashima (director)
Call Number: 791.4372 D2747 2010

Media Collection--2nd Floor
Honor & Sacrifice: The Roy Matsumoto Story by Lucy Ostrander (director)
Call Number: 940.547273 H774 2013

Media Collection--2nd Floor
Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu story by Eric Paul Fournier (director)
Call Number: 940.5472 O31 2007

Media Collection--2nd Floor
Rabbit in the Moon by Emiko Omori (director)
Call Number: 940.547273 R113 2004

Media Collection--2nd Floor
Remembering Manzanar by U.S. National Park Service
Call Number: 940.547273 M296 2004

Media Collection--2nd Floor
Time of Fear by Sue Williams (director)
Call Number: 940.547273 T583 2005

Media Collection--2nd Floor

Online Resources

JACL: The Power of Words
Japanese Americans Citizens League's the Power of Words is an educational campaign to understand language euphemisms used to describe the Japanese American World War II experience and the preferred terminology that more accurately describes the dire realities of the experience.
The Heart Mountain Projects
Composed by Big Read 2020 panelist Sarah Mattox, the wartime journals of Kara Matsushita Kondo inspired the Heart Mountain Opera and Suite. Kondo and her family were incarcerated as Japanese-Americans at Wyoming's Heart Mountain internment camp.