Yoshiko Uchida - Journey to Topaz

This story is a telling tale of a part of American History that we do not hear much about: the Japanese prison camps that Japanese-Americans, largely from California, were kept in after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the US entered World War II. The aspect of this book that I liked and did not like at the same time is the in-depth manner in which Uchida draws the reader into the characters in the story.

As soon as I began reading and realized where the plot was going, I immediately made connections with two other World War II pieces, The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen and The Diary of Anne Frank. I was saddened and overwhelmed at the reality that the same situations, though not as severe, were happening in our country. One puzzling aspect of war has always been wondering if we are on the right side. Everyone thinks they are on the right side and fighting for what they believe in, so how do we know we are right?
Not to be too deep or anything, but I really wondered about our country and its treatment of the Japanese-Americans, and I was perplexed as to how I have gotten to be 37 years old and basically knew nothing of this before reading this book. The further along I progressed in the book, the more and more angry I became. Uchida writes in such a gentle and matter of fact way, but the topic of imprisonment is awful. The verbiage used is awful - euphemisms abound.

One body of information about Uchida herself is found here:

"Yoshiko Uchida almost single-handedly created a body of Japanese-American literature for children, where none existed before. As the first Nissei writer to devote an entire career to writing for young people about her own rich cultural heritage, she expanded the range of children's reading, with important results for young readers of all ethnic backgrounds.
Uchida was born in Alameda, California, on 24 November 1921, the second daughter of Takashi ("Dwight") and Iku Umegaki Uchida. Dwight Uchida immigrated to the United States from Japan in 1903 and worked for the San Francisco offices of Mitsui and Company, where he eventually became a manager. His daughter remembered him as a cheerful man with gregarious habits and a love of gardening. Iku Umegaki, the eldest daughter of a prefectural governor of Japan, immigrated to the United States in 1916 to marry Dwight Uchida. Both were graduates of Doshisha University, one of the early Christian universities of Japan, where relationships between students and teachers were exceptionally close; following the advice of two professors at Doshisha, Dwight and Iku began a year-long correspondence that culminated in their marriage."
https://ecourses.wku.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_38274_1%26url%3d

The complete list of Uchida's work is here:

Source:
http://www.librarything.com/author/uchidayoshiko&all=1

A Jar of Dreams
The Bracelet
Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation
Journey Home (Aladdin Books)
Picture Bride: A Novel
Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family
The Invisible Thread: An Autobiography
Wise Old Woman, The: Retold by Yoshiko Uchida
The Best Bad Thing (Aladdin Historical Fiction)
The magic listening cap; more folk tales from Japan
The Dancing Kettle
THE SEA OF GOLD, AND OTHER TALES FROM JAPAN
Takao and Grandfather's Sword (The Literature Experience 1993 Series)
Samurai of Gold Hill
The happiest ending
The Magic Purse
The Two Foolish Cats
Rokubei and the Thousand Rice Bowls
Sea of Gold
We do not work alone: The thoughts of Kanjiro Kawai
The forever Christmas tree
Makoto, the smallest boy
Sumi's special happening
Sumi's prize
Picture Bride and Related Readings (Literature Connections)
The Wise Old Women
In-Between Miya
The Terrible Leak (Creative Short Stories Series)
The promised year
MIK AND THE PROWLER
The Rooster Who Understood Japanese
Wise Old Woman
Sumi & the Goat & The Tokyo Express
Magic Listening Cap: More Folk Tales from Japan
Hisako's mysteries