Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

Non-fiction that reads as fiction. A page-turner with characters that come to life. An evocative description of what it's like to be from two places, not fully belonging in either. So ironic that after so much unfair treatment, Harry becomes the quintessential American success story, and that it's the U.S. Army that recognizes and rewards his talents.
Notes: I knew of the internment camps but did not realize that they were managed as prisons, with barbed wire and guards; nor that the housing show more and latrines were so primitive, open to the elements, full of blowing sand, and cold. OTOH I also did not realize that the discrimination against Japanese-Americans was so bad at the time that on some level it was a relief to have a place to live and food to eat, especially for the oldest and youngest. show less

This book is remarkable both for the story and for the details the author was able to bring to it. She spent several years interviewing, reading, digging, to put together the extraordinary story of one family with ties to both Japan and the United States, and how its members negotiated the entry into and survival through World War II.

The main character here is Harry Fukuhara, a second-generation immigrant from Japan (nisei), born in the U.S. to parents determined to make their children's show more lives better than their own. Harry grows to a young teen in Auburn, Washington, in many ways a typical teen. Except that because of his racial heritage, he is often shut off from opportunities offered to most Americans.

Harry's sister Mary and brother Victor had been living in Japan, in hopes that they can make better lives by learning Japanese ways, when their parents bring them over to the U.S. They are practically strangers to the American siblings, Harry, Frank, and Pierce. Mary is resentful of the lack of attention given to her and feels like she was neglected, "thrown away", when she was left to live with Kinu's sister in Japan, in Hiroshima. She finds the U.S., in spite of prejudices, more to her liking.

Their parents are subjected to even greater discrimination, which only increases as war comes closer. Ultimately, first-generation Japanese immigrants are barred from owning land and taking part in other activities, and Harry's father, who worked hard and provided a good income, gradually saw it all fall away. When he died, Harry's mother, Kinu, had to make decisions. She manages to persuade Harry to join the family in moving back to Japen, with the promise that he can leave if he doesn't like it. Mary refuses to go.

Harry and his younger brothers enter school in Japan and are discriminated against there in part because of their American roots. Harry manages to find his way but can only think of returning to his home in Auburn. After he graduates, he does sail for America while Japan is preparing for war. The mobilization in Japan claims his brothers as soldiers ultimately, while Harry, after working at anything he is allowed to do in the U.S., is rounded up with his neighbors and brought to an internment camp, and then another. It is while surviving in the Gila camp in Arizona that he has a chance to enlist as a translator and interrogator. His Japanese is excellent, as is his English, and he is the perfect candidate for reading documents obtained from the Japanese and for interrogating the rare Japanese prisoner of war. His work and that of his fellow translators is invaluable in the war effort, and Harry is kept busy moving from country to country.

Thus the family is on two sides of the war, militarily. And then the bomb that devastates Hiroshima leaves some members deeply damaged, ill, starving. Harry wants nothing more than to see his family again. Attired in his American uniform, he seeks them out.

The story gives us insight into the lives of first-generation Japanese immigrants in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, into the world of not fitting in for the second generation - both in the U.S. and in Japan, and into the powerful bonds that can overcome so much. It gives us another story of the Japanese internment camps in the U.S. and of the other laws that destroyed so many lives.

I found it easy to read, absorbing, at times remarkable. And in the end, surprisingly a story of hope. show less

For much of this book, I liked it much more than my rating may indicate. The first third to one half is quite intriguing, centering upon a family which, I would argue, is inappropriately labeled "Japanese American." The members are composed of persons who never lived in America nor became American citizens, those who lived in America only part of their lives and were never citizens, those who lived part of their lives in America that were citizens, and those that lived part of their lives in show more America who were citizens and lost their citizenship. [If I travel to Ethiopia and stay there several years without ever becoming a citizen, I would not consider myself an Ethiopian American (nor an American Ethiopian.)] That issue aside, the book is quite good at pointing out the intricacies of families with Japanese heritage living in America, starting before the Great Depression, and the differences that confronted the various members, into and out of World War II, plus the issues they faced when living in Japan. The internment camps for Americans with Japanese heritage after the attack on Pearl Harbor are well known for folks well versed in modern American history, but is it as well known that first generation Japanese immigrants were not only forbidden (before Pearl Harbor) from owning real estate property, they were also prohibited from using their own funds to buy such property for their American citizen offspring who could otherwise legally own property? As discrimination against Japanese Americans was rampant in America, it was just as pervasive, if somewhat differently manifested, for those who ended up living in Japan. The insights offered by the author are well narrated. Unfortunately, after the story line has atomic bombs dropped on Japan and some of the personal side of the devastation is brought out -- I recommend different books for understanding the full impact of that -- the narrative starts to degrade considerably, too often resorting to very general comments about key family members. Someone did well at. Someone got promoted. Someone made lots of money. Someone got more education. Nothing is said about why or how they did well or made money. They just did. What had been a not so unique family representing intricate social and economic dynamics in the not so distant past, becomes little more than the reader going through a family photo album with a third person who doesn't really know many meaningful tales to tell about the photo subjects. All in all, I still recommend the book. show less

A very moving family narrative across not just physical distance but emotional. Sakamoto works mainly with two of the brothers but all the of family has a voice in this book. She does not down play anything from the American cruelty to the Japanese bulling of the American born sons.Sakamoto tells the story in a very reader friendly way. She is not just interviewing or reading journals, she brings the story and the people in it to life. She helps American readers to understand the mindset of show more this family and their cultures. How much Harry wars with himself about what he is doing to help the war. Frank so caught in an impossible place but with hope that it will get better. Sakamoto does a wonderful job with this family and tells a very important, moving story.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I was given this book by HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review. show less