Japanese-American relations have been the object of considerable study from the 1850s, when Commodore Matthew Perry used gunboat diplomacy to break the seclusion of an island nation. Japan and American Children's Books: A Journey explores this relationship from a unique perspective, examining representations of Japan's history and culture in American children's literature from the early nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first. Sybille A. Jagusch traces depictions of Japan from their first appearances in early European children's books to their emergence in the pages of those published in the United States. A carefully curated collection of text excerpts and images reveals evolving American perceptions of Japan and Japanese people over the course of more than two centuries. Drawn from rare and often long-forgotten children's books in the collections of the Library of Congress, the early excerpts express assumptions and stereotypes held by western writers and illustrators whose work was meant to share insight into the cultures and practices of a people about whom they knew little. They include passages from the illustrated journal of a boy who accompanied Commodore Perry on his first voyage to Japan; selections from romanticized late nineteenth-century travelogues--some penned by writers who had never visited Japan; and excerpts from stories featured in St. Nicholas, the influential American children's magazine that was published from the early 1870s to the 1940s. Later samples reveal the waxing and waning relationship between the two countries amid the evolution of the children's publishing genre, which met the complexities and strains of a rapidly changing world with increasingly sophisticated and stylized accounts that laid bare the grim realities of war, racism, and annihilation: the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the nuclear holocaust of Hiroshima, and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The book's final chapters highlight the unique contributions of Japanese American authors and illustrators in recounting their personal experiences and those of their families. A journey through the fits and starts of cultural awakening, this carefully curated sampler underscores the challenges of trying to understand and portray people from another culture. It also showcases the talent of more than a century of children's book writers and illustrators, many of whose work has languished without recognition until now.

For generations, children’s books provided American readers with their first impressions of Japan. Seemingly authoritative, and full of fascinating details about daily life in a distant land, these publications often presented a mixture of facts, stereotypes, and complete fabrications. This volume takes readers on a journey through nearly 200 years of American children’s books depicting Japanese culture, starting with the illustrated journal of a boy who accompanied Commodore Matthew Perry on his historic voyage in the 1850s. Along the way, it traces the important role that representations of Japan played in the evolution of children’s literature, including the early works of Edward Stratemeyer, who went on to create such iconic characters as Nancy Drew. It also considers how American children’s books about Japan have gradually become more realistic with more Japanese-American authors entering the field, and with texts grappling with such serious subjects as internment camps and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Drawing from the Library of Congress’s massive collection, Sybille A. Jagusch presents long passages from many different types of Japanese-themed children’s books and periodicals—including travelogues, histories, rare picture books, folktale collections, and boys’ adventure stories—to give readers a fascinating look at these striking texts. Published by Rutgers University Press, in association with the Library of Congress.

It's 1941 and ten-year-old Norman Mineta is a carefree fourth grader in San Jose, California, who loves baseball, hot dogs, and Cub Scouts. But when Japanese forces attack Pearl Harbor, Norm's world is turned upside down. Corecipient of The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award A Horn Book Best Book of the Year One by one, things that he and his Japanese American family took for granted are taken away. In a matter of months they, along with everyone else of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast, are forced by the government to move to internment camps, leaving everything they have known behind. At the Heart Mountain internment camp in Wyoming, Norm and his family live in one room in a tar paper barracks with no running water. There are lines for the communal bathroom, lines for the mess hall, and they live behind barbed wire and under the scrutiny of armed guards in watchtowers. Meticulously researched and informed by extensive interviews with Mineta himself, Enemy Child sheds light on a little-known subject of American history. Andrea Warren covers the history of early Asian immigration to the United States and provides historical context on the U.S. government's decision to imprison Japanese Americans alongside a deeply personal account of the sobering effects of that policy. Warren takes readers from sunny California to an isolated wartime prison camp and finally to the halls of Congress to tell the true story of a boy who rose from "enemy child" to a distinguished American statesman. Mineta was the first Asian mayor of a major city (San Jose) and was elected ten times to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he worked tirelessly to pass legislation, including the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. He also served as Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of Transportation. He has had requests by other authors to write his biography, but this is the first time he has said yes because he wanted young readers to know the story of America's internment camps. Enemy Child includes more than ninety photos, many provided by Norm himself, chronicling his family history and his life. Extensive backmatter includes an Afterword, bibliography, research notes, and multimedia recommendations for further information on this important topic. A California Reading Association Eureka! Nonfiction Gold Award Winner Winner of the Society of Midland Authors Award’s Children’s Reading Round Table Award for Children’s Nonfiction A Capitol Choices Noteworthy Title A Junior Library Guild Selection A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year A Bank Street Best Book of the Year - Outstanding Merit

ING_08 Review quote

The first in a wonderfully imaginative series about two girls that is marked by revealing and lyrical small details.

A lively introduction to the world of Japanese children draws on interviews with seven youngsters from Hiroshima and Kyoto to describe their education, sports, families, and many other activities, both traditional and modern.

Mark Jones examines the making of a new child's world in Japan between 1890 and 1930 and focuses on the institutions, groups, and individuals that reshaped both the idea of childhood and the daily life of children. Family reformers, scientific child experts, magazine editors, well-educated mothers, and other prewar urban elites constructed a model of childhood--having one's own room, devoting time to homework, reading children's literature, playing with toys--that ultimately became the norm for young Japanese in subsequent decades. This book also places the story of modern childhood within a broader social context--the emergence of a middle class in early twentieth century Japan. The ideal of making the child into a "superior student" (yutosei) appealed to the family seeking upward mobility and to the nation-state that needed disciplined, educated workers able to further Japan's capitalist and imperialist growth. This view of the middle class as a child-centered, educationally obsessed, socially aspiring stratum survived World War II and prospered into the years beyond.