Dandelion Through the Crack [Hardcover]

Kiyo Sato (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 27, 2007

Dandelion Through the Crack: The Sato Family Quest for the American Dream tells of a real Japanese-American family, formed both by ancestry and by the American way of life. We see mother, father, and children, and their challenges over seven decades. There are the extraordinary times of the Depression, wartime emergency, internment in the Poston "relocation" camp in the Arizona desert, oppressive prejudice, and the struggle to recover from near-total loss. But there are also many simple, almost-pastoral moments. The wise fables of the author's father -- tales of his old and new homelands and his haiku poetry -- are interwoven throughout. This is Kiyo Sato's first-person account of the family's struggles and triumphs. The result is a work of literary grace, emotional power, and historical and social importance.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kiyo Sato was born in Sacramento, California, in 1923, to Shinji and Tomomi Sato, immigrants from Japan. Her parents established a thriving family farm on a few acres, producing some of the finest strawberries, table grapes, and walnuts in the region. The family attended a local church, and Kiyo and her brothers and sisters went to school at a nearby one-room schoolhouse. Later, she attended Sacramento High School. The family was sent to the Poston internment camp, in Arizona, in May 1942. Kiyo received a B.S. from Hillsdale College and a Master's in Nursing from Western Reserve University. Ms Sato rose to the rank of Captain in the USAF Nurse Corps, and is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Nisei Post 8985, in Sacramento. She and other post members have given hundreds of talks about their experiences during WWII, the Internment, and civil liberties. During her career as a public health nurse, a school nurse, and a nurse in private practice, Kiyo developed the award-winning Blackbird Vision Screening System for detecting eye problems in young children. She lives in Folsom, California, with her husband, retired USAF Lt. Col. Mal Nunneley.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Willow Valley Press; 1st edition (August 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976269716
• ISBN-13: 978-0976269717
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #346,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An extraordinary book for all readers, August 30, 2007

By 

Kenneth Umbach (California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dandelion Through the Crack (Hardcover)

Kiyo Sato's Dandelion Through the crack is, in one sense, "an Internment memoir," one of several published over the years. It is valuable as that. But it is so much more as to stand out from the rest.

Dandelion is, at its heart, the story of a family's quest for the American Dream, as the subtitle suggests. The specific facts pertain to the Sato family--father Shinji and mother Tomomi and their nine children, of whom daughter Kiyo was the first. At another level, Dandelion is the story of all immigrants to America seeking their piece of the American way of life, realized in the form of a home, family, rewarding and productive work, education, and acceptance as a valued part of the American community. And at yet another level, it is the story of all families, struggling with the challenges of life, from managing expenses to coping with the aging and death of parents.

In all of this, Dandelion has a unique and compelling literary voice. Distinctively, it is written in present tense, putting the reader right there in the story. It is further brought to life through the use of Shinji Sato's poetry (mostly haiku) and the stories he told his growing children. The writing is clear and direct, free of self-pity but influenced by an entirely understandable indignation at the way these patriotic citizens were treated by their own government and abandoned by their friends. (Shinji and Tomomi had lived in the U.S. for decades before the outbreak of WW II, and all of their children, born in the U.S., were American citizens. Shinji and Tomomi became naturalized citizens in the 1950s, taking the American names John and Mary, respectively.)

The book opens (after acknowledgments) with a dramatic scene in 1942, as the Internment and its rounding up of Japanese Americans, rapidly approaches. Kiyo, then just 19, is on a mission to find suitcases for "the trip," for the removal to a--let's be blunt--concentration camp. It is an anxious and dismaying time for young Kiyo.

A look back follows to how Shinji Sato came to America as a young teenager, learned English, acquired some useful education (he took classes at the Heald business school), and began to put down roots (literally as well as figuratively, as he became a farmer, starting with strawberries and then adding grapes and walnuts).

Kiyo turns, then, to her own life, starting with her first memories as a very young child. While I suspect that some of the memories are not entirely in chronological order, and tend to be impressionistic, they are nonetheless a remarkable window into the author's early years and into life on a Sacramento-area farm during the Roaring 20s (they did not roar for the Satos) and the Depression (which saw the Sato family, with its farm and its farming-community neighbors, able to manage with frugality and constant work).

Work! The Satos are relentlessly hard working, always in the fields or managing the household. And they are frugal, making every scrap productive or useful. They are a study in the American values (so much neglected these days) of thrift and industry, not to mention of dedication to family and its nurturing.

In all of this, the family is becoming American--especially the children, born in Sacramento, California, educated in public schools, and absorbing lessons of American history, government and patriotism.

And then it falls apart. Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and a wide net of fear and suspicion is thrown over people (people of Japanese ancestry, whether American-born citizen or immigrant) who were simply living life as best they could, working, contributing to their communities. Friends turn cold.

We have seen, in loving detail, the growth of the family and of the farm.

And then the family and its Japanese neighbors and Japanese Americans across the West are rounded up and taken away. Their property is often lost or destroyed--or simply stolen--their rights removed with a stroke of President Roosevelt's pen and with the support of Earl Warren, later to become Chief Justice of the United States, but then California Attorney General.

We see how life was in the camps, how ingenuity and effort and devotion to the children helped to make life bearable, to the extent that was possible. Sometimes the results are surprising, as the knowledgeable and industrious internees make the desert bloom with vegetables and flowers--as many had turned undesirable land into thriving farms over preceding decades.

Kiyo is released (still under the government's watchful eye and conditions) to attend college in the East (the Western states were still off limits), and she struggles to earn enough to pay her expenses.

In time (1945) the family returns to what is left of the Sacramento farm. You must read that for yourself, in the context of all that has gone before. Remember: these were Americans, the children citizens born here and the parents residents for decades.

The story is far from over by that point, as the family rebuilds a life--again, a tribute to unceasing work. Challenges abound, including a confrontation with developers whose plans would have ruined what remained of the farm, which has again become a thriving enterprise.

In a touching chapter that has lessons for ALL families, Mama (Mary Tomomi Sato) passes on, surrounded by her family, decades after the trauma of the Internment.

Ultimately, the story reaches its payoff, as the reader realizes that the family has indeed achieved the American Dream. It has done so not through the acquisition of fancy cars and impressive homes, but through the success of children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, productive and educated citizens--through perseverence toward honorable goals.

Incredibly, despite the losses and the trauma that form a backdrop to much of the narrative, at the end, the reader feels good. The outcome, for which the title image of the Dandelion Through the Crack is apt, rewards the reader. A postscript, in the form of a letter to Tochan ("Daddy," Kiyo's father), brings the story up to date with yet more insightful and touching observations on the continuity of life and the outcomes of literal and figurative seeds planted generations earlier.

Dandelion Through the Crack is a jewel. Kiyo Sato has given us all a great gift in this remarkable, beautifully crafted narrative.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching Poignant Unforgettable!, September 4, 2007

By 

Sherry York "Librarian & reviewer" (Ruidoso, NM & Maverick, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dandelion Through the Crack (Hardcover)

Dandelion Through the Crack is a compelling memoir. One of the few memoirs by Japanese Americans who experienced the internment experience during World War II, it is worth reading for that aspect alone. This book is historically significant and skillfully written. Kiyo Sato's story is never preachy or asking for pity. She reports the facts simply and eloquently. As I read about her treatment at college the day after Pearl Harbor, I felt her bewilderment and shock as people in the hallways turned away from her and refused to speak. On the previous Saturday she had been a young American college student with a bright future. By the following Monday she and her family had become The Enemy. Dandelion is touching, poignant, and unforgettable!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling memoir, September 19, 2007

By 

James D. Umbach (Reno, Nevada, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dandelion Through the Crack (Hardcover)

I must start by saying that Dandelion Through the Crack is not a book that I would have picked up at a store, even to browse through. However, upon hearing and reading rave reviews of the book, I decided to read it for myself.

Kiyo Sato tells an excellent, bracing story of her life as the daughter of Japanese immigrants, growing up on a farm outside Sacramento. Everything is great for her family until 1942, when the American government posts the dreaded "NOTICE TO ALL PERSONS OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY" that require her to report to a camp for the duration of the war. Despite the fact that she is an American citizen and was in no way responsible for the attack, she and her family are rounded up and taken to an internment camp in Arizona.

From there, the story is very fast paced, as she writes about daily life in the camp, her release to attend college, and how she always keeps her family first and foremost despite being separated from them by a thousand miles. She moves from place to place, trying to secure the future for her family. And, her family is trying to do the same for her, despite their hardships.

Dandelion Through the Crack is a wonderful book that anybody interested in reading a well-crafted true adventure should read. There are several bracing conflicts in the books: the family vs. the government, vs. developers, vs. anti-Japanese sentiment, and vs. nature. But, throughout each conflict, the family grows stronger.

In addition to be a good story, the book opened my eyes up about what Japanese internment camps were like during World War II. Highly recommended.