On February 19th, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, thus starting one of the most shameful periods in American history. The order forced the relocation of all individuals that posed a suspected “threat to national security” during World War II to internment camps, and in turn prompted the incarceration of hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans across the country. Eighty years later, in 2022, President Joe Biden declared February 19th as the National Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration During World War II, to ensure that America both learns from, as well as never forgets, its past mistakes.

Today, with the current political climate leaving American immigrant rights more vulnerable than ever, it is crucial for us to reckon with the atrocities that the United States is capable of — especially in regards to oppressive practices that focus on immigration status, ancestry, race, and ethnicity. To remember those impacted by Executive Order 9066 and reflect on the struggles that were subsequently endured, I have compiled a list of books that depict the experiences of people directly impacted by the internment of Japanese Americans. From well-known classics such as John Okada’s No-No Boy, to lesser known, but just as essential reads such as Brynn Saito’s Under a Future Sky, here are seven books that present readers with nuanced, illuminating depictions of what it was like to live through this explicit, federally-imposed discrimination and internment.

Citizen 13660 by Miné Okubo

Miné Okuba was one of over one hundred thousand Japanese descendants in America that were forced into “protective custody” faced after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This graphic memoir, both written and illustrated by Okubo, showcases the challenges that he and other Japanese Americans were confronted with. First published in 1946, this book is recognized as the first real look into what occurred in Japanese internment camps, and depicts Okubo’s experiences in relocation centers in California and Utah — specifically in the Tanforan Assembly Center, and the Topaz War Relocation Center. 

No-No Boy by John Okada

Taking place after Ichiro Yamada spends two years in a Japanese internment camp, and two more years in prison for refusing military service, No-No Boy depicts the struggles of Japanese Americans following this dark time in America’s history. Through what Ruth Ozeki calls an “obsessive, tormented” voice, author John Okada obfuscates the distance between the omniscient narrator and the voice of Ichiro. Okada’s one and only novel provides a sobering portrait of a no-no boy, and has since been recognized as one of literature’s most powerful testaments to the Asian American experience. 

The Afterlife is Letting Go by Brandon Shimoda

Written by PEN Open Book Award recipient Brandon Shimoda, this collection of essays reflects on the afterlife of the U.S. government’s forced mass incarceration of Japanese descendants during World War II. Pulling from personal and familial history, years of research, and visits to memorials and incarceration sites, Shimoda’s unsparing precision in The Afterlife is Letting Go showcases the infinite connections between the treatment of Japanese Americans, and of other forms of oppression enacted throughout the United States’ history.

Under a Future Sky by Brynn Saito

During World War II, Saito’s paternal grandparents were both forced into an internment camp in the Arizona desert — the place where, despite their struggles, brought them together and to eventually start a life together. In her poetry collection Under a Future Sky, Brynn Saito enacts a dialogue between the past and the present, communicating with family and friends as she honors the “riverstream of ancestors” that made her life possible. Through her lyrical, epistolary poems, Saito captures rage, confusion, and love in order to confront the hard truths of her family’s intergenerational trauma.

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott

When George Takei was only four years old, soldiers knocked on his family home’s door, held the family at gunpoint, and ordered them to leave. Long before George Takei had become known for his role as Hikaru Suku in the Star Trek franchise, he and his parents were forced to move from their home and into concentration camps. They Called Us Enemy captures the beloved actor and queer rights advocate’s childhood experiences that followed Executive Order 9066. Written with co-authors Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, and illustrated by artist Harmony Becker, this stunning graphic memoir considers what it means to be an American, and who gets to decide who is or isn’t.

Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm by David Mas Masumoto

In his memoir Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm, author David Mas Masumoto writes of his experience discovering a lost aunt who had been separated from his family for seventy years, when Japanese Americans across the United States were forced into internment camps in 1942. Haunted by the past and motivated to learn more about his family’s identity, Masumoto asks how both shame and resilience brought his family to continue living in America against all odds. Featured throughout the book are illustrations by Patricia Miye Wakida, helping to further historicize an under-documented period of American history.

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

Through unsentimental prose and an unfaltering voice, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction winner Julie Otsuka depicts a Japanese family’s experience with internment during World War II in When the Emperor Was Divine. A mesmerizing, unsparing account of the terrors that thousands of Japanese Americans went through during a shameful time in American history, this debut novel is an early display of Otsuka’s ability to balance hard truths with beautiful language. Told from five different perspectives, When the Emperor Was Divine explores loyalty, identity, and oppression through measured delicacy and breathtaking restraint.