Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference

Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference
by Joanne Oppenheim

Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference
List Price: $22.99
Our Price: $13.88
You Save: $9.11 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Joanne Oppenheim
Afterword: Snowden Becker
Foreword: Elizabeth Kikuchi Yamada
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-02-01
ISBN: 0439569923
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Scholastic Nonfiction

Book Reviews of Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference

Book Review: A 2007 NEWBERY winner? *Dear Miss Breed* has my vote!
Summary: 5 Stars

Can we stand firm for JUSTICE in wartime? HOW CAN WE NOT??

Clara Breed had a passion for children. She could not be silent when witnessing unjust actions taken by our government following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). In the Foreword for this 2006 book, Elizabeth Kikuchi Yamada wrote "I am appalled I did not realize that I was a prisoner of my own government." (Read her moving poem on page 265).

The first children's librarian in San Diego, Miss Breed had become well-acquainted and friends with many children of first generation immigrants from Japan. As a child I learned from a sermon the Japanese numbers *ichi* - *ni* - *san* - *shi* - *go* ~~ On page 17 the author explains that "sei" is translated "generation" and is the key to the words *issei* - *nisei* - *sansei* - *yonsei*. ALL persons of Japanese ancestry in America are called "Nikkei" - - *kei* meaning thread or lineage.

When families were forced to leave for internment camps (the U.S. govt. says "internment" is not the correct title), the librarian's compassion was not 'switched off'. The children must have hung on desperately to their parents' stoic optimism to get them through the shock of being so ill-treated by the nation in which they were born, and other cruel ironies. Joanne Oppenheim's research and story-telling turned up pictures and letters of those young people & gathered them into a book well worth its "heft"!

It is easy to believe that Joanne Oppenheim was *destined* to tell this story. While 'tracking down' members of her own graduating class in upstate New York, she used her detecting skills to locate Ellen Yukawa who had been a classmate in 1945-1946 after release from internment. This is a poignant story in itself. Involvement in the extensive research in finding Miss Breed's other young friends seemed inevitable for Oppenheim.

It is disheartening to read that persons who later gained significant prominence (i.e., Chief Justice Earl Warren & cartoonist-author "Dr. Seuss") allowed their prejudices to surface publicly. (See the cartoon on page 40). Racism dictated laws which fed the greed of many who bought up confiscated land. Politicians who foisted their prejudices on the public deliberately fed the wildfires of Fear. This happened despite the efforts of *First Lady* Eleanor Roosevelt, and many respected clergy & Quakers.

Reviewer mcHAIKU deeply respects Clara Breed for being a positive influence in the lives of children who suffered greatly from the traumas of that war. Readers must ensure that Joanne Oppenheim's work stays visible in libraries and classrooms to remind teachers & students that all of us must be careful to respect the victims of any conflict.

*Believing that JUSTICE must be our standard, we shall act with compassion.*




Summary of Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference

A chronicle of the incredible correspondence between California librarian Clara Breed and young Japanese American internees during World War II.

In the early 1940's, Clara Breed was the children's librarian at the San Diego Public Library. But she was also friend to dozens of Japanese American children and teens when war broke out in December of 1941. The story of what happened to these American citizens is movingly told through letters that her young friends wrote to Miss Breed during their internment. This remarkable librarian and humanitarian served as a lifeline to these imprisoned young people, and was brave enough to speak out against a shameful chapter in American history.

Japanese Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Japanese Books
In the Shade of Spring Leaves: Life and Writings of Higuchi Ichiyo, a Woman of Letters in Meiji Japan ImageIn the Shade of Spring Leaves: Life and Writings of Higuchi Ichiyo, a Woman of Letters in Meiji Japan
by Robert Lyons Danly
Yale University Press; Published: 1981-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $171.50
Six Lives, Six Deaths: Portraits from Modern Japan ImageSix Lives, Six Deaths: Portraits from Modern Japan
by Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, Michael R. Reich, Kato Shuichi
Yale University Press; Published: 1979-09-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops: $19.00
Paul Horiuchi: East and West (Samuel and Althea Stroum Book) ImagePaul Horiuchi: East and West (Samuel and Althea Stroum Book)
by Barbara Johns
University of Washington Press; Published: 2008-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.38
Price in other shops: $29.95
Nisei Memories: My Parents Talk about the War Years (Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies) ImageNisei Memories: My Parents Talk about the War Years (Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies)
by Paul Howard Takemoto
University of Washington Press; Published: 2006-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.49
Price in other shops: $22.50
The Great Age of Japanese Buddhist Sculpture, Ad 600-1300 ImageThe Great Age of Japanese Buddhist Sculpture, Ad 600-1300
by Kyotaro Nishikawa, Emily J. Sano
Univ of Washington Pr; Published: 1983-01; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops: $29.95
'b' Company Image'b' Company
by Raymond Cooper
Dobson; Published: 1979-02; Hardcover; Book
In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun: The Autobiography of a Japanese Feminist (Weatherhead Books on Asia) ImageIn the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun: The Autobiography of a Japanese Feminist (Weatherhead Books on Asia)
by Hiratsuka Raicho
Columbia University Press; Published: 2010-03-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.41
Price in other shops: $26.50
Modern Japanese Diaries ImageModern Japanese Diaries
by Donald Keene
Columbia University Press; Published: 1999-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops: $37.50
God's Samurai: Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor ImageGod's Samurai: Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor
by Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein, Katherine V. Dillon
Brassey's Inc; Published: 1992-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops: $16.95
Mishima's Sword: Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend ImageMishima's Sword: Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend
by Christopher Ross
HarperPerennial; Published: 2006-11-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
So Far from the Sea ImageSo Far from the Sea
by Eve Bunting
Sandpiper; Published: 2009-06-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.21
Price in other shops: $7.99
Baseball Saved Us ImageBaseball Saved Us
by Ken Mochizuki
Spring Arbor/Ingram; Lee & Low Books; Published: 1995-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.40
Price in other shops: $8.95
Unfinished Business - The Japanese-American Internment Cases ImageUnfinished Business - The Japanese-American Internment Cases
New Video; Release date: 2005-12-26; DVD
Best price: $10.29
Price in other shops: $19.95
Weedflower ImageWeedflower
by Cynthia Kadohata
Atheneum Books for Young Readers; Published: 2009-01-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.97
Price in other shops: $5.99
Asian Americans: An Interpretive History (Immigrant Heritage of America Series) ImageAsian Americans: An Interpretive History (Immigrant Heritage of America Series)
by Sucheng Chan
Twayne Publishers; Published: 1991-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.99
Price in other shops: $29.00
Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People ImageAsian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People
by Helen Zia
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2001-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: $17.00
Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment ImageImpounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2008-02-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.02
Price in other shops: $18.95
The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students (Bccb Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award (Awards)) ImageThe Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students (Bccb Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award (Awards))
by Suzanne Jurmain
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children; Published: 2005-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops: $19.00
Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience ImageOnly What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience
Heyday Books; Published: 2000-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.98
Price in other shops: $21.95
Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps ImageLooking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps
by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald
NewSage Press; Published: 2005-03-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.51
Price in other shops: $15.00