Executive Order 9066: Personal Narratives and Memoirs

By turns tragic and humorous, Okubo’s drawings and witty text document life in the Japanese internment camps in this early precursor to the graphic memoir.

Yoshiko Uchida grew up in Berkeley and was a student at Cal in the spring of 1942. This is her personal account of her family’s life before the war and during their internment.

Looking back as an adult, Havey recounts her youth growing up in Southern California and her dreams of climbing the Hollywood sign. When she was 10, she thought her family was going camping. In actuality, they were evacuated to Santa Anita racetrack where they lived in a horse stall before being transferred to the Amache Relocation Center in Colorado.

Collection of photographs of the Japanese American evacuation that have strength both as images and as historical documents.

Catalog to the exhibit held at the UCLA Wight Art Gallery in 1992 to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the Japanese American Internment.

Paintings, drawings, and sketches document life in the internment camps. The creators share their memories in the accompanying interviews.

This anthology of letters, diaries, poetry, sketches, cartoons, photographs, and newspaper editorials reflect the devastating impact of the internment on Japanese Americans.

Sent to Heart Mountain in Wyoming with his family, sixteen-year-old Stanley Hayami began keeping a diary in November 1942. In many ways, his diary is like that of any teenager, full of hopes and dreams and concerns about grades and the future. The drawings and sketches he added to the diary show his artistic talents. Hayami’s diary is in the permanent collection of the Japanese American National Museum.

Numerous archival photographs enhance the little known story of the Japanese fishing community on Terminal Island. With the issuance of Executive Order 9066, the residents had 48 hours to evacuate. Their homes and the community were subsequently destroyed.

Bruckman Rare Book Friends Award, 2016.

Most people know Santa Anita racetrack as the site of the Breeder’s Cup and other prestigious races, but few know that Santa Anita was one of the racetracks and fairgrounds pressed into service as temporary assembly centers while inland relocation camps were constructed. Author Lehman shares details of daily life in the Santa Anita center. Behind barbed wire, the Assembly Centers were in essence small cities (over 18,000 lived at Santa Anita), with barber shops, bank branches, newspapers, sports activities and art classes.