disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

Gosh, this was incredibly powerful and I am so glad I read it. This historical fictional book has 14 Nisei (first-generation Americans whose parents were born in Japan) kids' narratives who share their perspective of the community climate post-Pearl Harbor and as 100k Japanese Americans are forcibly displaced  from their homes into camps.

Their experiences range from covering topics like parent-child dynamics, ruminating on their futures, the push-and-pull between being Japanese AND American, the surveys they were given to either fight for the U.S. Army or to prepare to be sent "back to Japan" if they do not claim "loyalty" to the country they are now living in and/or were born in, and how they try to find reprieve amidst such high racial tensions. I am astounded by the inhumanity with which these folks were treated, but I'm not surprised because as a U.S.ian, I recognize we have put so many groups of people through so much horror and heartache. It's deplorable.

Though I typically have trouble following so many POVs, I didn't have that issue with this collection of interconnected stories. I felt the love, care and connection that was weaved throughout all of these narratives, and thoroughly enjoyed the references to other kids in each POV. Like any found/chosen family, they of course have their inner dynamics and closer groups at play, whether it's envy, admiration, romance, protection, or gratitude. However, what stood out to me most was how genuinely and deeply they cared for each other. Though they endured so much forced change, they tied the SF Bay Area to this group of kids, to this specific family. This is probably not a surprise but I loved Twitchy, and couldn't help but feel so pulled to his story.

His ending wrecked me. I sobbed when he saw his fellow friends die in battle, and since he was just a kid, he began to fear for his own mortality. That moment sobered him up like no other, and it was devastating.

I actually used to work at Tanforan Mall in San Bruno, California, (this detention center is noted in the book) and can you believe that I never knew it was where all of these families were forcibly displaced and detained? It sends chills down my spine, realizing how much time I had spent in a place where people were murdered, separated from their families, and had their entire lives uprooted simply because of their ancestry. "The Tanforan Assembly Center served as the unjust detention center for nearly 8,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II in 1942. We want to ensure their stories are remembered and that this injustice is never repeated against any peoples." You can learn more about it here: https://www.tanforanmemorial.org/history

These kids and this story will stay with me forever and I am so grateful to Traci Chee for continuing to write important stories about the challenges that kids have gone through, past and present. TC is a goddamn gift. 

I found a few parts a bit slow, but really appreciated how Chee makes you feel like you know the characters.

Mini-Spoiler: I found myself crying when one of the characters dies because of the way Chee writes about the reactions and emotions of the other characters.

I wanted to know more about where all of the characters “ended up” but I think that’s part of the beauty—the openness of it.