The best books about Japanese American internment and incarceration
Ten award-winning memoirs, novels and histories of Executive Order 9066 and the camps
On February 19, 1942, ten weeks after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Over the following months about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast, roughly two thirds of them American citizens, were forced from their homes into camps. Most stayed for years, and not one was ever found guilty of espionage or sabotage. Nearly every book below has won a major award or helped change how the country remembers the camps. Each description follows the publisher's, and every page count is for the edition we link to.
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Numbered in the order we'd suggest reading them, not ranked best to worst.
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1Farewell to Manzanar
Best for: a first book on the subject, for teenagers or adults.
Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven when her family was sent to Manzanar in California's high desert. She recalls daily life there through a child's eyes: the fear and confusion, and the dignity of people in demeaning circumstances.
Recommended by: Densho · Manzanar Committee · LaGuardia Community College library
Why readers trust it: named by Publishers Weekly in 2001 as one of the best-selling children's books of all time, and widely used in schools (Discover Nikkei), and Curiate's top canon pick for this subject.
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2They Called Us Enemy
Best for: a powerful, fast read for any age.
The Star Trek actor was five when his family was taken to camps in Arkansas and California. This graphic memoir tells of growing up behind barbed wire, his mother's hard choices, and his father's faith in democracy.
Recommended by: Densho · School Library Journal
Why readers trust it: winner of the 2020 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work (Top Shelf) and a 2020 American Book Award (Wikipedia).
See it on Bookshop.orgMore memoirs
3Citizen 13660
Best for: a record drawn at the time.
Okubo was an artist sent to Tanforan and then Topaz. Her roughly 200 drawings with short captions were the first book-length account by someone who lived it, and her dry humour makes the indignities sharper.
Recommended by: Densho · Manzanar Committee
Why readers trust it: described by the Densho Encyclopedia as the earliest first-person, book-length account of the camps (Densho Encyclopedia).
See it on Bookshop.org
4Looking Like the Enemy
Best for: a teenager's view, written with hindsight.
Mary Matsuda was a teenager when her family was taken from their farm on Vashon Island, Washington. Published when she was eighty, the memoir is strongest on the emotional and psychological toll of the camps.
Recommended by: Densho · LaGuardia Community College library
Why readers trust it: a survivor's firsthand account; Gruenewald went on to speak to many schools and community groups about her incarceration (author's site).
See it on Bookshop.orgNovels
5When the Emperor Was Divine
Best for: literary fiction readers.
A short, spare novel. On a sunny day in Berkeley in 1942, a mother sees an evacuation notice and begins to pack; her family is sent to a camp in the Utah desert. Told from five points of view, and Otsuka never names the family, which makes it feel like it could be any of them.
Recommended by: Densho · LaGuardia Community College library
Why readers trust it: winner of the 2003 Alex Award and Asian American Literary Award, and an NEA Big Read selection (National Endowment for the Arts).
See it on Bookshop.org
6No-No Boy
Best for: what happened after the camps.
A young man who answered "no" to both loyalty questions comes home to Seattle after prison, to a community split over what he did. Ignored on release, it is now a classic.
Recommended by: Manzanar Committee · LaGuardia Community College library
Why readers trust it: rediscovered in the 1970s and now a foundational work of Asian American literature (Asian American Writers' Workshop).
See it on Bookshop.org
7Snow Falling on Cedars
Best for: a gripping novel with the incarceration at its core.
A 1954 murder trial on a fictional island in Washington State, north of Puget Sound, where the incarceration of the accused's family hangs over everything. A good bridge for readers who wouldn't pick up history. Worth knowing: Guterson is not Japanese American, and Densho notes that bestsellers like this one mostly tell the story from a non-Japanese American perspective (Densho). For a Japanese American voice, see #5 and #6.
Recommended by: LaGuardia Community College library
Why readers trust it: winner of the 1995 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (Wikipedia).
Book Pulse 8.1/10 · 44 ratings · 81% finish once started
See it on Bookshop.orgHistory
8Infamy
Best for: one readable book covering the whole story.
A narrative history of the incarceration and the people who endured it. Reeves shows how figures usually seen as heroes, including FDR, Earl Warren and Edward R. Murrow, backed it, and follows internees who joined the military or fought their case to the Supreme Court.
Why readers trust it: a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and Los Angeles Times bestseller (Barnes & Noble).
See it on Bookshop.org
9Years of Infamy
Best for: the history that helped win redress.
Weglyn was incarcerated at fifteen, at Gila River in Arizona. Her research in government archives showed officials knew there was no military need for the camps.
Recommended by: Manzanar Committee
Why readers trust it: known as the "Bible of the Redress Movement" (Densho Encyclopedia).
See it on Bookshop.org
10Personal Justice Denied
Best for: the official verdict.
Established by Congress in 1980, the commission heard from more than 750 witnesses and reviewed the government's records on the detention of Japanese Americans and Alaskan Aleuts. It concluded the incarceration was caused by race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership, not military necessity.
Recommended by: Manzanar Committee
Why readers trust it: the unanimous report that formed the basis for the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 (Densho Encyclopedia).
See it on Bookshop.orgBook Pulse is Curiate's 1–10 reader score, built from how readers rate a book, how many shelve it, and how many who start it finish. We show it only where we have enough data, and say how many ratings it rests on.
Go deeper on Curiate
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Frequently asked questions
Should it be called internment or incarceration?
Many historians, survivors and organisations such as Densho prefer "incarceration". Strictly, "internment" is the legal term for detaining enemy citizens in wartime, but most of the people imprisoned were American citizens. "Internment" is still widely used, so this page uses both.
How many Japanese Americans were incarcerated?
About 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, roughly two thirds of them US citizens, were held in camps between 1942 and 1946.
Did the US government apologise?
Yes. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988, signed by President Reagan, formally apologised and paid $20,000 to each surviving person who had been incarcerated.
What is the best book about Japanese internment for students?
Farewell to Manzanar is the most widely taught, and They Called Us Enemy works well for younger and reluctant readers.