WWII Children's Books

Cooper, Michael. Fighting for honor : Japanese Americans and World War II / Michael L. Cooper. New York : Clarion Books, c2000. Ages 10+.

What was it like to be a Japanese American when America and Japan were at war? Some Japanese Americans were forced to live in camps and others fought bravely for America. This book is a good introductory discussion of the experience of Japanese issei and Japanese Americans nisei and sansei who were relocated during WWII. I noticed what looked like a few small spelling or historical errors, but overall a well-balanced non-fiction book with relevant photographs. (Clarion Books, 2000)

Gold, Alison Leslie. A special fate : Chiune Sugihara, hero of the Holocaust / Alison Leslie Gold. New York : Scholastic Press, 2000. Ages 10+.

Against orders, Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, wrote visas that save the lives of European Jews during WWII. A Special Fate Book Report .

Lee, Milly. Nim and the war effort / Milly Lee ; pictures by Yangsook Choi. New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997. Ages 6+.

Nim, her Chinese family, and the war effort. Lee describes growing up as a Chinese American in San Francisco during WWII.

Mochizuki, Ken. Passage to freedom : the Sugihara story / written by Ken Mochizuki ; illustrated by Dom Lee ; afterword by Hiroki Sugihara. New York : Lee & Low Books, c1997. Ages 6-10.

Chiune Sugihara saved thousand of Jews during WWII by giving them visas.

Park, Linda Sue. When my name was Keoko / Linda Sue Park. New York : Clarion Books, c2002. Ages 12+.

Tells of Sun-hee and Tae-yul, Korean children, during the last several years of Korea's occupation by Japan. When My Name Was Keoko Book Report.

Say, Allen. Home of the brave / Allen Say. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Ages 6+.

Say's nightmarish "memory" of the Japanese internment camps during WWII.

Yep, Laurence. Hiroshima : a novella / by Laurence Yep. New York : Scholastic, c1995. Ages 10+.

A brief account of the bombing of Hiroshima focusing on a twelve-year-old girl. Some background material on Pearl Harbor mentions loss of equipment, not loss of life. Detailed information like the number of buildings destroyed and number of people killed in Hiroshima is included, but could include more background information to set historical events into context.