2023 Summer World War II Workshop for K-12 Teachers: Japanese Americans & WWII

Online book is freely available.

Map of sites associated with Japanese Americans during World War II, including Hawaiʻi.

Collection of more than 200 photographs by Ansel Adams of the Mazanar internment camp. All photos available to view online.

Over 300 letters from Japanese American children written to librarian Clara Breed during WWII.

Digitized archive of the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Study, a research project initiated in 1942 at UC Berkeley. It aimed to document and examine the mass internment of Japanese Americans by embedding Nisei social science students recruited from the Berkeley campus into selected internment sites. The Study also documented the resettlement phase in the city of Chicago. The collection is comprised of daily journals, field reports, life histories, and secondary research materials collected and compiled by the research staff.

Includes videos about the Hawaiʻi incarceration of Japanese & Japanese Americans during World War II.

Approximately 1,600 photographs documenting life in Hawaiʻi during WWII. Among the subjects documented are military training, personnel, and facilities; leisure and recreation activities; civilian defense efforts; air raid drills; defense workers; women’s participation in wartime activities; Japanese American soldiers; military and civilian parades, ceremonies, and memorials; returning American prisoners of war; and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Part of the Hawaiʻi War Records Depository.

Selected letters documenting the wartime experiences of 442nd chaplain Hiro Higuchi. Higuchiʻs letters provide insight into the mindset and experiences of the soldiers of the 442nd RCT and the nature of military life in World War II. Also included are letters from Higuchiʻs wife Hisako describing life at home in Pearl City, Oʻahu. She describes the daily activities of family and friends, as well as noteworthy happenings around the island. Her detailed accounts of daily life provide insight into the nature of Hawaiʻi‘s homefront during the war. Part of the Japanese American Veterans Collection.

Photographs documenting Hawaiʻi politics from the Senator Spark M. Matsunaga Papers, the Patricia F. Saiki Papers, the Senator Hiram L. Fong Papers, the Thomas P. Gill Papers, the Senator Daniel K. Inouye papers, and the K. Mark Takai Papers. Part of the Hawaiʻi Congressional Papers Collection.

The Japanese Latin American Internment primary source set, curated by Dr. Leanne Day, contains a focused overview of Senator Daniel K. Inouye's advocacy to bring federal awareness and publicity to the plight of Japanese who were deported from their home countries in Latin America and unlawfully interned in America during World War II. This set includes a timeline of historical events, necessary vocabulary, key primary sources, discussion questions, and recommended further reading. Part of the Hawaiʻi Congressional Papers Collection.