December 2021 and January 2022

Ongoing · Olson Library

Book giveaway 

We have given away all our copies of We Hereby Refuse to NMU students! Thanks to those of you who picked one up. If you'd like to buy a copy, check out the Chin Music Press website or any number of online retailers. 

January 17 · 12:30pm · The Lodge

MLK gathering and book giveaway

Join NMU community members in honoring Martin Luther King's legacy and pick up a copy of We Hereby Refuse (while supplies last)! Note: the MLK Legacy March will begin at 12pm at the Forest Roberts Theatre and lunch and service projects will begin at 1pm at the Lodge.

February and March 2022

February 18 · 1pm · Virtual Event

"Let's Talk Books at NMU"

Join NMU English Department Head, Lynn Domina, in conversation with Gail Y. Okawa, author of Remembering our Grandfathers' Exile: US Imprisonment of Hawai'i's Japanese in World War II. Watch the recording here!

February 24 · 6pm · Virtual Event

Book Chat with Lesley Larkin and Grace Gronowski 

Join an English professor and senior English Education major in an informal discussion of We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration. Emphasis will be on how to teach the book. Join the conversation here!

March 17 · 7pm · Virtual Keynote

“We Hereby Refuse: Resistance, Resilience, and Remembrance,” Tamiko Nimura

Listen to one of the coauthors of We Hereby Refuse discuss Japanese American incarceration during WWII, the resisters described in the book, and her own connection to their stories. This event is co-sponsored by the NMU English Department's Visiting Writers Program. Watch recording here!

March 30 · 6pm · Jamrich 1322

Book Chat with Gender and Sexuality Studies

Join three graduate students affiliated with the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program--Jaime Van Enkevort (Education), Emma Drever (Interdisciplinary Studies), and Allison Peters (Creative Writing)--in an informal discussion of We Hereby Refuse. Refreshments will be provided!

April 2022

April 5 · 7pm · Jamrich 1317

(Re)Learning to Read (Graphic) Novels

Join three NMU Faculty--Jon Sherman (German), Anna Zimmer (German), and Catherine Oliver (Library and Instructional Design)--in a lively and informative discussion of graphic novels, effective teaching practices, and the Lydia M. Olson Library's graphic novel collection. Refreshments will be provided!

April 20 · 6pm · Mead Auditorium (The Science Building 2701 + virtual option)

Lecture by Vince Schleitwiler, University of Washington 

Learn more about Japanese American incarceration, post-WWII Japanese American communities, and Asian American arts and culture from a professor of Asian American studies and cutting-edge public scholar. This event is co-sponsored by the English Department Visiting Scholar Program. Watch the recording here!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND READING

More from Tamiko Nimura

More from Vincent Schleitwiler

More on the resisters in We Hereby Refuse

 

RESOURCES ON JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION

Digital Archives and Exhibits

Nonfiction Books

  • The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, Delphine Hirasuna.
  • Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment, eds. Linda Gordon and Gary Y. Okihiro.
  • The Japanese American Cases: The Rule of Law in Time of War, Roger Daniels.
  • Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience, ed. Lawson Fusao Inada.
  • Mazanar: Historic Research Study/Special History Study, National Park Service.
  • Nikkei Baseball: Japanese American Players from Immigration and Internment to the Major Leagues, Samuel O. Regalado.
  • Relocating Authority, Mira Shimabukuro. 
  • Strange Fruit of the Black Pacific: Imperialism’s Racial Justice and Its Fugitives, Vince Schleitwiler.
  • Tule Lake Revisited: A Brief History and Guide to the Tule Lake Concentration Camp Site, Barbara Takei and Judy Tachibana.
  • A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America, Greg Robinson.

Memoirs

  • Citizen 13660, Miné Okubo.
  • Desert Exile, Yoshiko Uchida.
  • Displacement, Kiko Hughes.
  • Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston.
  • An Internment Odyssey: Haisho Tenten, Suikei Furuya, trans. Tatsumi Hayashi.
  • Gasa Gasa Girl Goes to Camp: A Nisei Youth Behind a World War II Fence, Lily Yuriko Nakai Havey.
  • Kiyo’s Story: A Japanese-American Family’s Quest for the American Dream, Kiyo Sato.
  • Life Behind Barbed Wire: The WWII Internment Memoirs of a Hawai’i Issei, Yasutaro Soga, trans. Kihei Hirai.
  • The Little Exile, Jeanette S. Arakawa.
  • Looking Like the Enemy, Mary Matsuda Gruenewald.
  • Looking after Minidoka, Neil Nakadate.
  • Manzanar to Mt. Whitney: The Life and Times of a Lost Hiker, Hank Umemoto.
  • Nisei Daughter, Monica Sone.
  • Nisei Naysayer: The Memoir of Militant Japanese American Journalist Jimmie Omura, James Matsumoto Omura, ed. Arthur A. Hansen.
  • Swimming in the American: A Memoir and Selected Writings, Hiroshi Kashiwagi.
  • They Called Us Enemy, George Takei.
  • Tule Lake: An Issei Memoir, Noburu Shirai, trans. Ray Hosoda.
  • Karen Tei Yamashita, Letters to Memory.

Fiction

  • 21st Century Manzanar, Perry Miyake.
  • Clark and Division, Naomi Hirahara. 
  • Color of Sea, John Hamamura.
  • Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire, David Mura.
  • Fox Drum Bebop, Gene Oishi.
  • Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford.
  • The Issei Prisoners of the San Pedro Internment Center, Stanley N. Kanzaki.
  • The Legend of Fire Horse Woman, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston.
  • No-No Boy, John Okada.
  • Obasan, Joy Kogawa.
  • Southland, Nina Revoyr.
  • What the Scarecrow Said, Stewart David Ikeda.
  • When the Emperor Was Divine, Julie Otsuka.
  • Why She Left Us, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto.

Documentary Films

  • An American Contradiction, Vanessa Yuille.
  • And Then They Came for Us, Abby Ginzberg and Ken Schneider.
  • Conscience and the Constitution, Frank Abe.
  • History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, Rea Tajiri. 
  • Korematsu and Civil Liberties, Robe Imbriano.
  • Manzanar: Never Again, National Park Service.
  • Meeting at Tule Lake, Scott T. Tsuchitani.
  • Pilgrimage, Tadashi Nakamura.
  • Prisoners and Patriots: The Untold Story of Japanese Internment in Santa Fe, Neil Simon.
  • Rabbit in the Moon, Emiko Omori. 
  • Resistance at Tule Lake, Konrad Aderer. 
  • Shiro Kashino: An American Hero, Shannon Gee, Randy Eng, Lawrence Matsuda.