Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata

Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata is set in the United States, just before and right after the bombing of Pearle Harbor. Sumiko and her brother, Tak Tak, lost their parents in a car accident several years before. Since then, they have been living with their aunt and uncle in California, working on their family run flower farm - their specialty? Kusabana, or weedflower. When Pearle Harbor was bombed, all of the Japanese people were suspected of being spies for Japan and were rounded up and sent to different internment camps around the United States. Sumiko's uncle and grandfather were seen as leaders of their community and were sent to North Dakota. The rest of the family, Sumiko and her brother, their aunt and two cousins, were sent to Poston, Arizona. This internment camp was on an Indian Reservation. It was hot, dusty, and hostile - like nothing Sumiko had ever experienced before. Everyone in the camp tried to make the best out of the situation by trying to work, planting gardens, starting a school, and even developing sports teams! The work was hard and paid very little. Sumiko met an Indian boy named Frank who was interested in the ways her cousins irrigated their little flower farm back in California, and wanted to learn more about it. She arranged the meeting. Eventually, the Japanese people were asked to relocate again, this time to places outside of camps so they could contribute to the workforce within the United States. They were also asked to sign up to fight in the war on the side of the US. Anyone who refused to agree that they were loyal to the US and not Japan, was sent to a "segregation" camp. Sumiko's older cousins both went to the military, and her aunt decided to move everyone else to Chicago to look for work. Sumiko hated this decision, because she finally felt like she belonged somewhere.

This was a really good book. I learned a lot about the history of both the Native Americans who lived on the reservation in Poston, Arizona, as well as the history of the Japanese people who were living in the US during WWII. The author, Cynthia Kadohata's father was a prisoner at the camp in Poston. His experiences contributed to those described in the story.


Iowan to Receive her Dream Degree
The above link is to a news story out of Ames, Iowa about a woman whose husband worked with my dad for many years. It is about her story and experience living in the Japanese Internment Camp in Arizona.