Skip Navigation

For Further Exploration

Japanese Canadian National Museum Traveling Education Kits

“Journeys I” is an education kit for the intermediate grades and “Journeys II” for the secondary grades. They provide tangible evidence of events for students to “handle”. They include study prints and archival materials (photographs, documents, letters, registration cards, posters), literary works, a model of an internment shack, videos, reference books for teachers, and some household items.

The materials are a valuable resource for teachers of Language Arts, Literature Circles, Social Studies and those interested in the promotion of social responsibility and global citizenship. They can be used in celebration of the growth and development of human rights, anti-racism, multiculturalism and citizenship in Canada.

“Journeys” can be booked by contacting the Japanese Canadian National Museum (see right sidebar).

Japanese Canadian National Museum Class Visit Programme

Student tours are designed to be experiential. They combine a visit to an exhibition of some aspects of Japanese Canadian history, a viewing of a video on the internment and exile from a child’s perspective, a talk by a survivor of an internment camp, a taste of Japanese food and a small group tutorial on craft-making. The programme can be adapted in consultation with teachers to meet the particular needs of a class. The tours can be booked by contacting the Japanese Canadian National Museum (see right sidebar).

Picture Books

  • Bunting, Eve
    So Far From the Sea. Illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet. Clarion Books, New York, 1988.
  • Coerr, Eleanor
    Sadako. Illustrated by Ed Young.
    G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1993.
  • Mochizuki, Ken
    Baseball Saved Us.
    Lee and Low, USA, 1993.
  • Say, Allen
    Grandfather's Journey.
    Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1993.
  • Trottier, Maxine
    Flags. Illustrated by Paul Morrin.
    Stoddard Kids, Toronto, 1999.
  • Tunell, Michael O. & Chilcoat, George W.
    The Children of Topaz.
    Holiday House, New York, 1996.

Intermediate Books/Novels:

  • Garrigue, Sheila
    The Eternal Spring of Mr. Ito.
    Maxwell Macmillan, Ontario, 1985.
  • Kogawa, Joy
    Naomi's Road.
    Stoddard Kids, Toronto, 1986.
  • Takashima, Shizuye
    A Child in Prison Camp.
    Tundra Books, Toronto, 1971.
  • Walters, Eric
    Caged Eagles.
    Orca Book Publishers, Victoria, 2000.
  • Walters, Eric
    Paul Kariya: Hockey Magician.
    Minneapolis, 1998.
  • Watada, Terry
    Seeing the Invisible: The Story of Irene Uchida - Canadian Scientist.
    Toronto, 1998.
  • Yesaki, Mitsuo
    Watari-Dori (Birds of Passage).
    Peninsula Publishing Company, Vancouver, 2004.

Japanese Canadian History Books

  • Adachi, Ken
    The Enemy that Never Was
    McClelland and Steward, Toronto, 1976.
  • Adachi, Pat
    Asahi: A Legend in Baseball,
    Coronex Printing and Publishing, Etobicoke, 1992.
  • Ashworth, Mary
    The Forces Which Shaped Them: a history of the education of minority group children in British Columbia
    New Star Books, Vancouver, 1979
  • Broadfoot, Barry
    Years of Sorrow, Years of Shame
    Doubleda Canada Limited, Toronto, 1977
  • Ito, Roy
    We Went to War
    Wings Canada, Ottawa, 1984
  • Japanese Canadian Centennial Project
    A Dream of Riches: The Japanese Canadian 1877 - 1977
    Japanese Canadian Centennial Project, Vancouver, 1978
  • Kitagawa, Muriel
    Miki, Roy, ed.
    This is my Own - Letters to Wes and Other Writings on Japanese Canadians, 1941-1948
    Talonbooks, Vancouver, 1985
  • Knight, Rolf
    A Man of Our Times. The life-history of a Japanese-Canadian fisherman
    New Star Books, 1976
    available for free download from here
  • Kogawa, Joy
    Obasan
    Penguin Books, Markham, Ontario, 1983
  • Kogawa, Joy
    Naomi's Road
    Toronto, Oxford U. Press, 1986
  • Roy, Miki & Kobayashi, Cassandra
    Justice in Our Time - The Japanese Canadian Redress Settlement
    Talon Books, NAJC, Winnipeg, 1991
  • Moritsugu, Frank and the Ghost Town Teachers' Historical Society
    Teaching in Canadian Exile: a history of the schools
    for Japanese Canadian children in B.C. detention
    camps during the Second World War.
    Ghost Town Teachers' Historical Society, Toronto, 2001
    Remembrances of teachers and students from the camps.
  • Nakano, Takeo
    Within the Barbed Wire Fence
    University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1980
  • Oiwa, Keibo, ed.
    Stone Voices: Wartime Writings of Japanese Canadian Issei
    Vehicule Press, Montreal. 1991
  • Shibata, Yuko
    The Forgotten History of Japanese Canadians
    New Sun Books, Vancouver, 1977
  • Sunahara, Ann
    The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War
    Lorimer, Toronto, 1981
  • Takeshi, John
    And Justice For All
    Random House Inc., Toronto, 1984
  • Takata, Toyo
    Nikkei Legacy: The Story of Japanese Canadians from Settlement to Today
    New Canada Publications, Toronto, 1983
  • Takashima, Shizue
    A Child in Prison Camp
    Tundra Books, Toronto, 1971
  • Ward, W. Peter
    White Canada Forever
    McGill-Queens University Press, 1978 & 1990
  • Yesaki, Mitsuo
    STEVESTON Cannery Row
    Peninsula Publishing Company, 1998
  • Yesaki, Mitsuo
    SUTEBUSUTON: A Japanese Village on the British Columbia Coast
    Peninsula Publishing Company, 2003

Teacher References

  • The Holocaust - Social Responsibility and Global Citizenship.
    Ministry of Education, Province of BC, 2000.
  • Teaching Human Rights: Valuing Dignity, Equity and Diversity.
    BC Teachers’ Federation, 1995.
  • Francis, Daniel, Ed.
    Encyclopedia of B.C.
    Harbour Publishing, 2000.
  • Paul, Richard; Binker, A.J.A.; Martin, Douglas;Vetrano, Chris; Kreklan, Heidi
    Critical Thinking Handbook: 6th - 9th Grades.
    Centre for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique,
    Sonoma State University, 1989.
  • Yesaki, Mitsuo
    Salmon Canning on the Fraser River in the 1890s
    Peninsula Publishing Company, 2000.

Films

  • Moving Images Distributors
    Mrs. Murakami - Family Album (24 min.)
    Enters the lives of the Murakami family of Salt Spring Island and gives, first hand, the drama of a chilling history of internment.
  • National Association of Japanese Canadians,Jesse Nishihata Productions
    How Redress Was Won (29 min. 40 sec.) 1988.
    Includes signing of the Redress Agreement between the National Association of Japanese Canadians and the Government of Canada - September 22, 1988.
  • National Film Board of Canada
    Enemy Alien (26 min. 49 sec.) 1975. Black and white.
    Tells of Japanese Canadians' long, frustrating struggle for acceptance as Canadians.
  • National Film Board of Canada
    Minoru: Memory of Exile (18 min. 45 sec.) 1992. Colour.
    A Japanese Canadian film-maker tells the story of his Canadian-born father. Suitable for younger viewers.
  • National Film Board of Canada
    Obachan's Garden (94 minutes) 2001. Colour.
    An intensely personal reflection of Japanese-Canadian history and a testament to one woman's incredible endurance and spirit.
  • National Film Board of Canada
    Of Japanese Descent
  • National Film Board of Canada
    Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story (51 minutes) 2003.
    The story of the championship Japanese Canadian baseball team.
  • National Film Board of Canada
    The War Between Us

Web Sites

Audio Tapes

  • CBC Wednesday Night radio, ca. 1960
    The Story of the Japanese Canadians - The Enemy That Never Was (60 minutes)
  • CBC radio, 23 May 1987
    The War We Fought on the West Coast
  • CBC Vancouver Almanac 25 May 1987
    Phone-In on Redress
  • CBC radio, Ideas 26 April 1988
    Wasteland Gardens: the Japanese Canadian Internment in Canada Part I
  • CBC radio, Ideas 3 May 1988
    Wasteland Gardens: the Japanese Canadian Internment in Canada Part II