BookPikks

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Sumiko and her family are forced to abandon their thriving flower business, and are sent to live in an internment camp on an Indian reservation in the Southwest.  In the dry desert sand, Sumiko feels lost.  It is only when she plants a garden and makes a friend that hope for the future grows again.

Joe Hanada’s family is forced into an internment camp during World War II. They are separated from Joe’s father and from their friends, home, town and most of their belongings. In spite of the hardships, Joe still loves America, and simply longs for the freedom to go home.

It was interesting to read this fictional account of a Japanese family, after reading In Defense of Internment, by Michelle Malkin last year. While this book ignores the valid war-time reasons for internment, Malkin didn’t address the human suffering of the thousands of innocents who were interred. Both books do, however, bring to light the failures of our government to protect the rights of citizens and the security of our country. Hindsight is 20-20.