Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Children of the Relocation Camps
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 7 to 9
Lerner, 2000 ISBN: 1575053500
Barely a few hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the lives of Japanese Americans on the west coast of the United States began to change. It began with the arrest of numerous men who were considered a threat to American security. Then it was decided that all the Japanese Americans should be interned in secure locations for the duration of the war. The Japanese Americans were given very little time to sell their businesses and homes, to pack, and to get ready for the ordeal that lay ahead of them.
Just a few months after the government made this decision, hundreds of Japanese American families were put on trains and buses and were sent to temporary assembly centers. For there they were sent to permanent relocation centers, many of which were in inhospitable parts of the country.
Full of period photos, this well written title from the “Picture the American Past” series will help children to understand what it was like to be a Japanese American child during World War II. The pictures give readers poignant images of the lives of these children, and quotes throughout the book bring their stories to life.
