Describes the history of Japanese Americans through the story of one family, from their immigration to their internment during World War II. - (Baker & Taylor)
This critically acclaimed and widely used educational resource chronicles the history and experiences of Japanese Americans from immigration to the World War II internment camps. Told through the eyes of a young girl and her grandfather, it shows how those in the camps preserved their dignity, sense of family, and American identity. Included is a collection of historic photographs that detail the Japanese American experience.
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Independent Publishing Group)
Chronicles the history of Japanese Americans from immigration to the World War II internment, as told through the eyes of a young girl and her grandfather. - (NBN)
Kimberly Komatsu was the recipient of the Carter G. Woodson Book Award and is currently a graduate student at San Jose State University. Kaleigh Komatsu is an award-winning documentary producer and children’s book author who has been recognized with the Davey Award and multiple Telly Awards for filmmaking excellence. She is a former curator at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. Kevin Starr is the California State Librarian Emeritus and professor at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Americans and the California Dream. Mitchell T. Maki is the associate dean of the College of Health and Human Services at California State University?Los Angeles. He is the author of Achieving the Impossible Dream. They all live in Los Angeles.
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Independent Publishing Group)
Booklist Reviews
Gr. 5-8. Two fourth-generation Japanese American sisters have forged the memories and stories of their parents and grandparents into an account of the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. It is told in the voice of a young girl named Aiko, who describes the journey of her grandparents from Japan to Wyoming. Then Executive Order 9066 forces the family to leave home, belongings, and work behind and travel to the camp at Manzanar, California. Barbed wire cannot keep out the harsh beauty of the desert or the mountains, nor the solace of Aiko's grandfather's stories. The arresting black-and-white photographs come from both the Komatsu family and historical archives such as the Japanese American National Museum and the Library of Congress. Some images have been manipulated into a collage effect: a family portrait superimposed on a background, for example. The building of narrative from many threads may make this most appropriate for junior-high students, and sometimes the text repetition takes away from the photographs. The book's large format and difficult subject brings to mind Tom Feelings' searing The Middle Passage (1995). ((Reviewed April 1, 2003)) Copyright 2003 Booklist Reviews
Publishers Weekly Reviews
"Many, many years ago, when streets were dirt roads, when wagon wheels turned and buffalo roamed,... my grandfather and grandmother left their home in Japan to come to America," begins In America's Shadow by Kimberly Komatsu and Kaleigh Komatsu. Told from the perspective of a girl, the spare narrative recalls the experience of one Japanese-American family during the early days of the 20th century and their eventual internment during WWII at California's Manzanar Relocation Camp. Period photographs, many from the authors' collection, illustrate the volume and convey the breathtaking landscape and their cozy town of Hanna, Wyo., as well as the bleak transformation brought about by the war. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
