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

Joanne Oppenheim (Author), Snowden Becker (Afterword), Elizabeth Kikuchi Yamada (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2006

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.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up–Through letters and recollections, Oppenheim relates the story of a group of young people who were interned during World War II. Breed had come to know many Japanese Americans through her work as the childrens librarian at the San Diego Public Library. When the young people were sent to camps in 1942, she began sending letters and care packages of books, candy, and other treats to her children. She also wrote articles for Library Journal and The Horn Book that articulated their plight. In return, the recipients expressed their gratitude in letters. While their lives were marked by deprivation and uncertainty, their letters reveal an unquenchable optimism. Their story, along with that of Miss Breed, is both remarkable and inspiring, and Oppenheim has done a fine job of assembling these poignant eyewitness accounts. Unfortunately, she muddles her assessment, ladling on a variety of unnecessary details and her own anecdotal experiences. Theres a lack of clarity and focus, and though this is a welcome addition to this topic, its appeal will be limited to those familiar with it. Readers seeking a concise, overall perspective would fare better with Michael L. Coopers Fighting for Honor: Japanese Americans and World War II (2000) and Remembering Manzanar: Life In a Japanese Relocation Camp (2002, both Clarion).–Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 7-10. Like Michael O. Tunnell's The Children of Topaz (1996), this passionately written history bears witness to the World War II injustices endured by Japanese Americans, from a vantage point of particular relevance to young people. In a poignant introduction, seasoned children's writer Oppenheim explains how her hunt for a former classmate, a Japanese American, serendipitously led her to an Internet profile of San Diego children's librarian Clara Breed, and to a collection of letters written to Breed by her incarcerated Japanese patrons--grateful, illuminating responses to Breed's faithful missives and care packages containing books and other gifts. Although the letters (and interviews with their grown-up authors) form the narrative's bedrock, Oppenheim weaves them into a broader account, amplified by photos, archival materials (including a startlingly racist cartoon by Dr. Seuss), and moving quotations from the later reparation hearings: "I was just 10 years old when I became a 'squint-eyed yellow-bellied Jap.'" Along with the basic facts, Oppenheim urges readers to critically interpret primary sources and identify "governmental doublespeak"; the words "incarceration" or "concentration" are consciously employed here as correctives for softpedaling terminology like "internment" and "relocation." Unclear references in the children's letters are not always annotated, and the recurring discussion of professional concerns facing Breed (whose own letters to the camps have been lost) often seems to cater too obviously to Oppenheim's adult readers. But the aggregate deserves commendation for its sheer quantity of accessible, exhaustively researched information about a troubling period, more resonant now than ever, when American ideals were compromised by fear and unfortunate racial assumptions. Eight pages of unusually readable, wide-ranging endnotes and an exhaustive bibliography conclude, evidence of Oppenheim's all-consuming research process. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Nonfiction; 1st edition (February 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439569923
• ISBN-13: 978-0439569927
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #442,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Asian American

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read!, April 4, 2006

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference (Hardcover)

After Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941 Americans of Japanese ancestry (Nikkei) were considered high security risks and were publicly labeled the enemy. FBI agents quickly imprisoned dozens of Issei (first-generation Japanese Americans). In a few months, the remaining Issei and Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) were sent to relocation camps. They could only bring what they could carry and were given one week to store, sell or abandon their possession. Valuables were sold for a fraction of their value.

Dear Miss Breed is a tribute to Clara Breed, the children's librarian at the San Diego Public Library. When Breed learned that the Japanese-American families were going to be interned, she worried about what would happen to the children and teens. She went to the railway station to say good-bye and gave each a postcard addressed to her, urging them write to her. This gave them a way to stay connected with the outside world. Breed sent back letters, books and gifts and provided them hope and faith during their incarceration.

Oppenheim wrote Dear Miss Breed when she looked online for a childhood Japanese-American friend and learned her friend had been interned--and how Miss Breed was a lifeline during the war years. Oppenheim uses personal letters, political cartoons and recent oral histories to tell about life in the Santa Ana and Poston internment camps. The conditions were pretty horrible: communal showers and toilets that offered little privacy; being surrounded by barbed wire and being watched by armed soldiers in a guard tower. They remember long lines for laundry; the bland communal meals; and the racism and hatred that the Nisei encountered when they temporarily left the camps to work.

My own grandparents were sent to a relocation camp and still do not talk about those events. A passage from the book explains why: "The pain, trauma, stress of the incarceration experience was so overwhelming we used the psychological defense mechanism of repression, denial, and rationalization to keep us from facing the truth...that America was being racist and unfair.... On the surface we do not look like former concentration camp victims, but we are still vulnerable. Our scars are permanent and deep." (p.224)

Armchair Interviews says: This book what that life was like and how Clara Breed fought injustice through acts of kindness--and what terrible things can happen when fear and racism dictate laws.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 2007 NEWBERY winner? *Dear Miss Breed* has my vote!, July 27, 2006

By 

mcHaiku "nmi" (Brown County INDIANA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference (Hardcover)

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.*

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Book about an Amazing Woman, March 13, 2006

By 

Richard R. (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference (Hardcover)

What happens when America forgets her ideals and operates on fear, greed, and bigotry? In 1942, 120,000 Americans were put into prison camps just because the "looked like" the enemy. Joanne Oppenheim's fascinating account of the incarceration uses a unique perspective to give relevance to this stain on American history: the letters of the children who lived it.

It turns out that Clara Breed, the children's librarian of San Diego, had entered into a correspondence with her young, incarcerated patrons and those letters are at the heart of this amazing read. The letters and books she sent to the children (and their informative responses) are at the heart of this documentary history, along with articles, photographs, cartoons, oral histories, and a wealth of other primary materials lovingly integrated by the author.

Beyond a mere "history", the book is the story of how one person can make a difference - to history and to the lives of others.