Introduction

In 1941, Mary Matsuda Gruenewald was a teenage girl who, like other Americans, reacted with horror to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Yet soon she and her family were among 110,000 innocent people imprisoned by the U.S. government because of their Japanese ancestry. In this eloquent memoir, she describes both the day-to-day and the dramatic turning points of this profound injustice: what is was like to face an indefinite sentence in crowded, primitive camps; the struggle for survival and dignity; and the strength gained from learning what she was capable of and could do to sustain her family. It is at once a coming-of-age story with interest for young readers, an engaging narrative on a topic still not widely known, and a timely warning for the present era of terrorism. Complete with period photos, the book also brings readers up to the present, including the author's celebration of the National Japanese American Memorial dedication in 2000.

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Excerpt

Prologue

One sunny day my brother, Yoneichi, and I sat on a log floating in front of our home at Shawnee Beach on Vashon Island, Washington. I was four years old and he was six.

That day in 1929 as we peacefully rode the gentle tide of Puget Sound we could not know about the impending tsunami of World War II. Thirteen years later a wave of anti-Japanese prejudice swept across the United States and forced my family to leave our secure island home and succumb to the will of a hostile and turbulent world at war. Little did I know the political storms and social upheavals that would beset my family, tear us away from our home, and confine us in internment camps simply because we looked like the enemy. ... view entire excerpt...

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