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24 May 2007

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

Written by Joanne F. Oppenheim

Dear Miss Breed is a book about a San Diego Librarian, Clara Breed and how she stayed in touch with a group of Japanese children and teenagers during the years following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Oppenheim pieced together all the letters that were sent to Miss Breed while the “children” were interned at Poston, Arizona. Though, very little of what Miss Breed sent to the children survived, this book does include articles or excerpts of what Miss Breed wrote for various news or magazine organizations. In addition, throughout the book Oppenheim sprinkles testimony from the 1981 congressional hearings of the commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, photos, political cartoons, quotes and letters from people at the time, such as Eleanor Roosevelt. This book is an in depth snapshot of what United States was like during this time for a group of children whose only crime was being Americans with the Wrong Ancestors.