Japanese Reading Ladders - Picture Books for Adults
Level 3
ひろしまのピカ Hiroshima no pika by Call Number: UMass and Smith Tadoku Level 3ISBN: 4338022019Publication Date: 小峰書店, 1980
おとなになれなかった弟たちに Otona ni narenakatta otototachi ni by Call Number: Smith Tadoku Level 3ISBN: 4039632001Publication Date: 偕成社, 1983This is a picture book of the author’s memories of the death of his little brother to malnutrition and starvation just before the end of the war.
まちんと Machinto by Call Number: Smith Tadoku Level 3ISBN: 4034380101Publication Date: 偕成社, 1983A girl dies in the bombing of Hiroshima. She turns into a bird and you can still hear her call sometimes.
わたしが外人だったころ Watashi ga gaijin datta koro by Call Number: Smith Tadoku Level 3ISBN: 4834081680Publication Date: 福音館書店, 2015Shunsuke Tsurumi spent his teens and college years living in America in the late 1930s and into the 1940s. He returned to Japan in 1942, and was promptly sent into the army. In this book he relates his wartime experiences and his thoughts on being a foreigner in both countries.
Level 4
紅玉 Kōgyoku by Call Number: UMass Tadoku Level 4 PBISBN: 4406032118Publication Date: 新日本出版社, 2005Picture book story about a Japanese family’s encounter with Chinese prisoners of war who had escaped from forced labor in the coal mines of Hokkaido.
金のひしゃく Kin no hishaku by Call Number: UMass Tadoku Level 4 PBISBN: 4902220040Publication Date: 中国残留孤児援護基金, 2004Picture book explaining what life was like for the Japanese children who were abandoned or orphaned in China at the end of the War.
