First published 2015
The Yamada family receives the devastating news that they must abandon their home and report to Terminal Island for processing before internment. Kenji Yamada watches his father's fishing business crumble as Executive Order 9066 strips away everything they built in California. His sister Mari struggles to finish her final semester of college while their mother Hanako quietly burns family photographs and letters that might be seen as evidence of disloyalty. The family joins thousands of other Japanese Americans crowded into the hastily constructed barracks, where privacy disappears and dignity becomes a daily battle. Kenji must decide whether to prove his patriotism by enlisting in the military or resist a government that has branded him an enemy. The family discovers that survival means more than enduring the physical hardships of camp life.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, world-war-ii
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-secrets, fish-out-of-water
Setting: California, Terminal Island
Period: World War II
287 pages · Paperback · Angel City Press
Content warnings: racism