Thursday, February 19, 2015

Journey Home by Yoshiko Uchido

I added Journey Home to my library queue while looking for historical fiction set in California. I haven't read a lot about Japanese internment camps so I decided to check out Journey Home. While definitely for the middle grade set, Journey Home gives a good glimpse into the lives of Japanese families when they returned home from the camps.

Twelve year old Yuki and her family have moved to Salt Lake City after living in an internment camp in Topaz, Utah. Yuki longs to return to Berkley, California where she was living before the camps. But the government is keeping Japanese from moving to the West Coast, so her and her family wait. Also Yuki's brother, Ken, is fighting the war in Europe. Yuki wants him to return home. Finally, Yuki and her family are allowed to return to California but they old home has been rented to another family. Yuki finds that coming home isn't what she thought.

Even though this is written for a younger audience, I still thought that it brought up some serious topics in a good way. Yuki and her family experience discrimination and deal with people who want them to leave. When Yuki's brother returns from the war, he experiences grief and loss which his family aren't able to help him with. Yuki learns how to adapt to the changes and learn to make a new home. I'd recommend this one to a middle grader. But I still enjoyed reading it. I've never read a book about when Japanese returned from the internment camps so it was educational for me, Others who shared their thoughts on Journey Home: Svetlana's Reads and Views and The Blithering Bookster.
This was my third read for the Historical Reading Challenge.

2 comments:

  1. I've never read this one, or actually anything that takes place at a Japanese internment camp, but it's definitely something I'd like to do. While it isn't fiction since it's a memoir, I have heard great things about Farewell to Manzanar, and I think that's probably where I'd wind up starting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've read a lot of WWII fiction, but not much related to internment camps. I'll have to add this to my list.

    ReplyDelete

Shiny! I love comments.