Sometimes I read a book and ask myself, How did I miss that book when it first came out? I just finished The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka. It begins with the Japanese “picture brides” on the ship sailing to America to meet their new husbands and follows them and other Japanese immigrants through their lives in California. Their relationships with their husbands, their Americanized children, their Anglo neighbors–all are covered in a style of writing that is close to poetry.
The second last chapter on the beginning of World War II, the fear in the Japanese community, the rumors, the round-ups, the abandonment of pets and friends and farms and homes and businesses–the loss of everything that resulted from years of toil and sweat. It was hard to even comprehend. And it was impossible to read and not reflect on the same thing happening today across America.
I recommend the book with this “trigger warning.” It is among the saddest and most wrenching books I have ever read.
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