Citizen 13660

Evocative and emotionally-expressive illustrations, each paired with a caption that show life in a US internment camp where Miné Okubo was forced to live during World War II. The war begins while Okubo is pursuing an arts fellowship in Paris, and she manages to get home to her family and dying mother. The US declares war on Japan in December, and by February, people of Japanese descent are asked to "voluntarily evacuate" to camps. In March, it becomes mandatory. Okubo shows the struggle of settling into the camp, which was in near-ruins, from dealing with communal toilets to keeping busy to growing food. Though the camp was only open for a year, residents were required to take classes on how to get along in the outside world before they were permitted to leave. Published in 1946, Citizen 13660 was the first graphic novel ever published; it took the work of a Japanese-American woman artist to elevate the form to a new level.