By author Yoshiko Uchida

Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida tells the authors account, through a young Japanese- American girl, of the post- Pearl Harbor bombing of 1941. Journey to Topaz first begins in the city of Berkeley, California. Yuki Sakane, age eleven, and her family are separated after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Yuki’s father, an intelligent Japanese man who is believed to have information regarding the attack, is taken from his family of four. He is sent to a POW camp in Montana to be questioned. Yuki and her mother, along with her brother and several other Japanese neighbors are sent to camps themselves upon order of the United States government. They are forced to sell their most valuable belongings and leave friends and neighbors. At the first camp, the remaining Sakanes are forced to live in a horse stall. Later, they are moved to Topaz, Utah, where although conditions are not much better, they live and struggle to regain their freedom as Japanese - Americans.

As Journey to Topaz continues, the Sakanes face challenges unimaginable to most. Without privacy, warm water, enough food, and even the death of a new friend, the family strives to reunite with their father/ husband. Eventually, they are brought back together and from the camp of Topaz.

Journey to Topaz is a well written account of the events Japanese- Americans faced at the hand of the United States government and the story of a young girl who questions whether she is Japanese or American. Although I believe it ended abruptly and left me asking many questions, I would recommend this book to those who are interested in Japanese- American culture and history.

Other books by Yoshiko Uchida: A Jar of Dreams and Desert Exile.