After winning a major grant from the New Hampshire Humanities, Wiggin Memorial Library – and nine other NH libraries – will be hosting events and book clubs related to an important but often overlooked part of our history: the Japanese American internment of World War II. Just months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which stripped Japanese Americans of their civil rights and led to the wrongful incarceration of some 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent.

To raise awareness of this “Bitter Injustice" and to help combat ongoing anti-Asian racism, 10 local public libraries, 2 high schools, and the Wright Museum of World War II will host a series of events across the state. The keynote events will feature appearances by best-selling author Jamie Ford, who was awarded the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature, and NH resident Dr. David Sakura, who was sent to Camp Minidoka as a young boy. 

The titles you can choose from are:

• The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet Jamie Ford (Historical fiction)
• Facing the Mountain Daniel James Brown (Non-fiction)
• They Called Us Enemy George Takei (Graphic ‘comic-book style’ memoir)
• Baseball Saved Us Ken Mochizuki (Award-winning children's picture book)

Here in Stratham, the library’s two book clubs will be reading “Facing the Mountain” by Brown, who is best known for "The Boys in the Boat”. We will talk about the book in both our in-person (May 19th) and Zoom book club (May 20th) meetings. 

Register here if you would like to attend our in-person discussion in the library's meeting room.

The library will have a limited number of copies of "Facing the Mountain" both to give away and to loan. All the Bitter Injustice titles are available to download from our digital collections. You may also prefer to support your favorite bookseller. Note: Jamie Ford will sign your copy of "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" at his in-person appearances!

This project is made possible with support from New Hampshire Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

For more information about the program of events, please visit https://bitterinjustice.wordpress.com/