Many teachers are busy creating lessons for the second semester. Some of these lessons may be about World War II war relocation camps. If you are, you will no doubt want to examine  Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family by Yoshiko Uchida. This slender volume is a beautifully written personal history of the author’s Japanese American family.

In the book, the author describes her life as one of 110,000 Japanese American internees, many of whom were American citizens. Following the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan, these individuals were incarcerated in relocation camps. As the daughter of Japanese immigrants, Yoshiko was a twenty-year-old student in her senior year at the University of Berkeley in San Francisco at the time. She describes her existence before the bombing, and daily life in the relocation camp. In the specific case of Yoshiko, her family was incarcerated first in Tanforan, California, and then in Topaz, Utah, for the duration of World War II.

Her purpose in writing Desert Exile is to describe an internment camp experience, and how she felt when she was  imprisoned by her own government simply because she happened to look like the enemy.

As a children’s author, Yoshiko has created a canon of Japanese American literature where none existed before. She is considered the first Nissei writer to devote an entire career to writing for young people about her own cultural heritage. In this role, she has offered important books for young readers of all ethnic backgrounds.

You can read Desert Exile for your own edification. Or you can suggest it as leisure reading for your students. Or you might want to incorporate it in whole or in part in your lesson plans. Any way you go, the book is a great resource. You can find Desert Exile on amazon.com.

This season, when you’re contemplating just the right holiday present to buy for your friends and family, consider gifting copies of Chalkboard Champions and Chalkboard Heroes. Each volume is packed with inspirational stories about remarkable educators in American history, and the historical implications of their pioneering work. These books make great gifts for individuals in the teaching profession and those aspiring to become teachers some day. They are also appealing to history buffs and social scientists.

Among the captivating stories in Chalkboard Champions is the story of Charlotte Forten Grimke, an African American born into freedom who volunteered to teach emancipated slaves as the Civil War raged around her. Read the eyewitness account of the Wounded Knee massacre through the eyes of teacher Elaine Goodale Eastman, and educator Mary Tsukamoto, imprisoned in a WWII Japanese internment camp. Read about Mississippi Freedom Summer teacher Sandra Adickes who, together with her students, defied Jim Crow laws to integrate the Hattiesburg Public Library. Marvel at the pioneering work of Anne Sullivan Macy, the teacher of Helen Keller, the efforts of teacher Clara Comstock to find homes for thousands of Orphan Train riders, and the dedication of Jaime Escalante, the East LA educator who proved to that inner city Latino youths could successfully meet the demands of a rigorous curriculum.

In Chalkboard Heroes, read about dedicated educators who were heroes both inside and outside of the classroom, including WWI veteran Henry Alvin Cameron and Civil War veteran Francis Wayland Parker. Learn about teachers who were social reformers such as Dolores Huerta, Civil Rights activist Robert Parris Moses, suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, and Native American rights advocate Zitkala-Sa, all of whom put themselves at risk to fight for improved conditions for disenfranchised citizens. Discover brave pioneers who took great risks to blaze a trail for others to follow such as Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space; Willa Brown Chappell, the aviatrix who taught Tuskegee airmen to fly; Etta Schureman Jones, the Alaskan teacher who was interned in a POW camp in Japan during WWII; and Olive Mann Isbell, who established the first English school in California while the Mexican american War raged around her.

All these remarkable stories and more can be shared with someone you know this season. Happy holidays to you and yours!