Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family
I am a history buff. I’m so much of one that I’m actually going back to school to get a bachelors in history (I hope to have this completed in the next year or so). I read about the past for fun. To me, the past explains who we are, how far we’ve come and gives a bit of direction for the future if in no other way than through hints. History is a powerful story because it defines who we are and what we can accomplish. To me, it is not “dry” subject matter but it truly lives. When I read about people’s struggles and triumphs in the past I am inspired and spurred on to live my life in a more driven, focused and enthusiastic manner. Given my predisposed disposition, I knew this book, describing the life of Japanese immigrants who came to American to find a home, was going to be amazing. It was!
This book details the story of one family, the Yasui family, who are headed by Masuo Yasuia, a man who traveled to America from Japan back in 1903. He came to America to build a better life for himself and his future family. Eventually settling in Mt. Hood, Oregon, he grew to be a successful businessman and leader in the Japanese community. The story takes us from the years of toil and struggle, describes the family and the general unease of the Mt. Hood community towards these “foreigners” and brings us up to World War II. Before reading this book I knew that the bombing on Pearl Harbor caused Americans to “freak out” (so to speak) and that there was quite a bit of racial profiling wherein Japanese-Americans were concerned. I knew that there were camps in which Japanese-Americans were detained on fear of their being spies for their former country. I did not know the extent of this imprisonment, some of which rather resembled Nazi war camps for Jews. The pictures that author Lauren Kessler painted to describe what the Japanese-Americans went through, and the shame that they felt brought tears to my eyes. I felt this book. It was impossible not to.
I could make this review really, really long. Really long. This book prompted a lot of thoughts and forced me to re-examine my own heart and mind. I’m GLAD to know this part of American history and to learn more about the people who have helped to build this great country of ours and who have shaped and molded it from infancy to the present. It’s just astounding to think of what some people have suffered for the sake of a dream.
This is a great book, not because I agreed with every single point (I think Kessler was a bit judgemental in some of her own accusations against people unlike herself which is sort of ironic, considering.) but because it forced thought and evaluation and prompted appreciation for the past. Not just the Japanese-American past. But MY past. Because, as Americans, we share a history and this is another piece of it.
Carrie comes by her book obsession honestly, having descended from a long line of bibliophiles. She blogs about books regularly at Reading to Know.
I stumbled this post!! I am going to have to get this book now!!!
Also, congrats on going to school to achieve your BA! 🙂
I’m reading this book right now for the Oregon Reads celebration of Oregon’s 150th birthday. I will come back and read your review after I finish the book.
Thanks for the book info. I was just reading a terrific book about a similar topic and would love to read more. Here is the book that I just finished. It was tremendous!
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0345505336, Hardcover)
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.
This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Ranier Academy, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.
Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.
Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.
This sounds very interesting, Carrie.
Congratulations on going back to get your BS (or BA?) in history. My undergraduate degree is in education, with concentrations in history and English. In fact, I primarily taught history when I taught high school. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten much of what I knew then. History is fascinating.
This definitely looks like a book I would enjoy. It’s going on my list. Thanks, Carrie!
My bachelor’s is in history, so I know what you’re talking about! My thesis class was actually on Japanese/American relations from WWII on, so this is totally right up my alley!
Thanks so much for your comments/ kind words about my book. I am so pleased it’s being widely read in Oregon as part of the 150th birthday/ Oregon Reads program. The book is really about the promise and the perils of America, of becoming American — a story that will never lose its relevance.
his book sounds like an absolute must read for me. Thank you for the review!
This is one of the most interesting aspects of American history to me, so this book sounds really good.
As another commenter mentioned, you’d probably really enjoy Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet as well.
This sounds interesting, even though I admit to completely NOT being a history buff. But, it’s good to expand one’s reading horizons, right?
What an excellent review. Although I’m not necessarily a history buff, I do like to read the occasional history book. I’m adding this to my wish list. Thanks.
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I live in hood river oregon. I go to school at mid valley in odell. one of the teachers there is ms.kim (ms.yasui) and this book tells about her great grandfather
here is her page http://www.hoodriver.k12.or.us/16992082216392363/site/default.asp
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