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Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family

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"Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family," by Yoshiko Uchida, is a compelling autobiographical narrative. Uchida tells the story of her family, which includes her Japanese-born parents and her sister. After the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan and the outbreak of World War II, the family endures the fate suffered by many other Japanese-Americans: they are forced to abandon their home and are relocated to an internment camp in Utah.

This is a powerful story of injustice, racial prejudice, endurance, and family devotion. Uchida creates a vivid portrait of the internment camp: "an artificial government-spawned community on the periphery of the real world. . . a dismal, dreary camp surrounded by barbed wire in the middle of a stark, harsh landscape that offered nothing to refresh the eye or heal the spirit."

Despite the unpleasant and often humiliating conditions, it is amazing how many residents worked to create a liveable community with a viable infrastructure. I was intrigued by Uchida's account of the Christian faith of her mother. Also fascinating is Uchida's deconstruction of the Big Brother-ish language used to mask the true nature of the internment program.

The book includes many photos of the family and other camp residents. Uchida also discusses her own mother's vocation as a writer of tanka (31 syllable Japanese poems), and includes translations of some of these poems. This enhances the literary quality of the book.

"Desert Exile" is told simply but with great eloquence. The book is, in my opinion, a wonderful contribution to the multi-ethnic literary tradition of the United States. Also recommended: "Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories," by Hisaye Yamamoto.

Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family"by Yoshiko Uchida deals with a Japanese-American family who were sent to concentration camp during World War II as Japanese-Americans at that time were considered to be potential "spies" for the Japanese government. Uchida started off with introduction to her family, of how her parents met, and how California became their home. Even though she was raised with Japanese values and ideals, she was at the same time an American who can barely speaks Japanese. Her world was turned upside down when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Japanese-Americans were sent to concentration camp for fear that they could endanger the national security. This violates their Constitutional rights but there were no public support for their fellow citizens. It was indeed racist of the government as German-Americans were not sent to any concentration camps even though the United States was fighting Germany. The Japanese-Americans had to swallow their pride and dignity and were moved to barracks that were bare and ill-equipped. They were placed behind the fence, guarded by MPs and basically were treated as prisoners. Uchida's vivid descriptions of their living conditions were both horrifying and shocking.

"Desert Exile" was used by my professor for a History of American West class. This is truly an eye-opener as most Americans are unaware of their fellow citizens' ordeal and treatment. The Japanese-American loss was immeasurable. Not only did they lose financially (from selling their homes hastily), they lost touch with friends and relatives, lost their pride and lost confidence in their government. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about the ordeal of the Japanese-Americans during World War II. It is extremely well-written, eloquent and easy to understand.

Reviewer: Terah Johnson from Richmond, VA USA
Though I was forced to read this book for a class and I was very reluctant to do so, "Desert Exhile" was one of the best books I have ever read. It is an account of a Japanese American family who was uprooted from their homes during World War II and sent to sort of "concentration" camps in the desert.

In every classroom in the US we learn about and criticize what happen to the Jewish people in Germany with the Holocaust. However, there are many people who do not know that the United States did almost the same thing to Japanese American people. It blew my mind to read about the Uchida family and other families who were sucessful Americans that got torn from their homes because our government believed they had something to do with the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor. This family was ripped apart and they had to make provisions in horrible conditions with thousands of other Japanese Americans.

Our country is known as "The land of the Free" where "All men are created equal" and it is the "land of opportunity." So why was our country doing this to these innocent people? Nonetheless, "Desert Exhile" is a well written biography that tells a part of American history that is ignored by so many people and I learned so much from this book that I never knew and it astonishes me. I would reccomend this book to anyone.

This book provides readers with an inside view of the confusion, anger, humiliation and betrayal felt by many Japanese-Americans who experienced internment. The young woman sharing her story provides poignant insight into the radical changes that took place in her life.

Ms. Uchida chronicles a personal account of a dark day in American history during WWII, when thousands of American citizens were herded into unspeakable conditions, purely on the basis of their race and ancestry.

The book is well written, portraying the bi-cultural life she led and the incarceration she, her family and thousands like her were forced into under the guise of well-sounding euphemisms. Her story must be read by all who need to know that part of American history and the desire to see that no such evil ever gets repeated.

This is a superb novel that illustrates the@physiacal trial and emotional tourment that many Japanese and nikei went through. This is an interesting@and critical point in American political history. This book is Yoshiko Uchida's account of her experiances. She is an incredible writer and it is very refreshing to have authors that are willing to give us, the reader and generations who find it hard to understand why or how this could happen, a glimps into the past. This book is a must read for all who want to understand the Japanese/American perspective on WWII.

This was a book assigned for my son over the summer and he said it was a fast read and was well written.

I was very interested in finding a book that wasn't just dry history. I wasn't born in this time period of World War II, so I was really eager to find a book relating to this topic. Possibly learning about someone who lived through this time period, something a little like Ann Frank's Diary.

My initial thoughts were, this book would be interesting learning about history without any government interference with the conditions of the camps. In fifth grade I made friends with my best friend who had just moved from Japan and her family was getting aquainted with the United States. I interviewed her mom on how she was liking America and the one resp9onse that really stuck out was, I have so much Freedom.

In the Book I realized that many Japanese Families experienced Racism from many nationalities. Children were taken out of school and from colleges. For a few years the students that were attending Universities were no longer able to graduate with their friends.

Having a friend from Japan gave me an extra push to read the book. To my surprise, I couldn't believe that families were living in horse stalls and that people did not have proper barials if they did die while in the camp.

The beginning of the book started off with how this Japanses-American Family pushed their way through life in America and tells us about their family success. At the end of the book I found that some of these Japanese American Families were actually more patriotic than many American families.

Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family
Researching the history of Japanese internment camps led me to a great links on the subject through Amazon. Desert Exile will bring tears to your eyes and a hunger for more books on this subject. My interest in the subject was put into action after reading a novel Hotel on Avenue between Bitter and Sweet, another don't miss book.

This is an excellent first-hand account of the concentration camps of World War II; however, not the concentration camps that most of us are familiar with. These were the camps of America's creation, built to house and isolate its very own citizens. It is the story of one Japanese-American family's imprisonment in Tanforan and then Topaz camps shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Both Issei (first-generation immigrants to America) and Nisei (second-generation Japanese-Americans who had known no other home than America) were herded into poorly constructed barracks in the middle of the desert. Yet, as Uchida retells, they all faced this unspeakable act of their government with a dignity and patience that few individuals could maintain, much less a whole segment of a population.

It is a story that would be difficult for most to tell without a tone of righteous indignation. Uchida, however, lets the story create the reaction and inspire us to say (hopefully) that we will never let this happen again.