Customer Reviews

Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family (Oregon Reads)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just finished reading The Stubborn Twig today. I love to spend hours in bookstores looking for different kinds of books and am pretty quick at purchasing what I know I will like. This book intrigued me just by the title - it went right to the top of the pile of books that I brought home that day. I started reading it right away.

The story deals with how the Yasui family copes with the trials and daily living of being different. It also gives a look into how they at times fit in with their white (hakujin) neighbors and no one noticed.

The story is both touching and exciting as the reader goes through the generations of Yasui's and how they feel about the world around them.

I think that Ms. Kessler did a very good job of telling the story of each family member while weaving them into the importance of the famliy as a whole. I too come from a large family with generations of history. It has inspired me to start better record-keeping for my own children and the ones to come.

I never knew of the reasons behind the internment of the Japanese Americans during the war. This book not only gives facts and history but the details of how real people had to cope to survive. I recommend this book to anyone interested in history, and an admirable approach to finding the courage to start over in life.

I found this book while browsing in the stacks one day. I had no idea that Japanese had been imported to build the Railroads in the Northwest during the late 19th and early 20th centuries (this was because Chinese were not available... laws had been passed making their immigration to the US illegal), and mainly ONLY MEN. It was a real eye-opener (I have seen NO such information ever in any US History book I read in school, and I am born and educated in the US -- graduated from UC Berkeley).

This book is very easy to read and become engrossed into. I could not do anything else in my spare time other than work on finishing reading this. It goes a long way to filling in much of the missing pieces with Japan of US History before, during, and after WWI and WWII.

Most US Citizens NEVER heard of Min Yasui, a newly minted Lawyer and Japanese-American US Citizen (by birth) from Hood River, Oregon, who decided to challenge Executive Order 9066 by deliberately disobeying it, getting arrested, charged, convicted, and put into Solitary Confinement for the duration of WWII even as the US Supreme Court ruled against him regarding the Constitutionality of it. And, yes folks, Executive Order 9066 could be reissued today, against anyone (even you), without Due Process. You too could be treated just like the Yasui's, ripped out of your job and home, have your bank accounts frozen, told you had 48 hours to pack and could only bring what you personally could carry with your hands and nothing more... and then lose your property and home when you could not pay the property taxes (because your Bank Accounts had been frozen by the Federal Government).

You say you're a US Citizen? So were the Yasui's (except for Min and his wife, who were prohibited by Federal Law from ever becoming Naturalized Citizens -- a Law that was not changed until 1958!! Whites could, and Blacks after the Civil War in 1865 were added to the list. But Asians were never mentioned anywhere. It didn't say they could not, but it didn't say they could either. It just didn't say... and so the US Supreme Court ruled that Asian Immigrants were EXCLUDED from ever becoming Naturalized US Citizens. Hard to believe? Read about how the Yasui's coped with this issue. And the next time you eat an apple from a box marked HOOD RIVER, OREGON... you will know "the Rest of the Story... ".

This book should be Required Reading for anyone taking or even remotely interested in US History.

This was my book club book this month. Good thing. Otherwise I might not have 1) chosen it...I don't tend to pick up history nonfiction books for my reading, and 2) gotten through the dense first few chapters. I'm so glad I kept reading. Kessler does an amazing job of pulling together an incredible amount of research and interviews to clearly show the history and culture of Japanese immigrants moving to our country as well as their experience here, in the past and up to current time -- all through the lens of one large extended family. I'd certainly heard about the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII...but I had no idea of the full extent of what that meant. I think every American should read this book so that we don't ever allow that kind of treatment of our citizens again. This book may well have you reevaluating your own sense of right and wrong and what it means to be prejudiced. And it will have you thinking about your own background & history.
Kathie Hightower, co-author of Help! I'm a Military Spouse -- I Get a Life Too! 2d Edition

Interesting story but I had to skip a lot as I found it very dry. Read more like a text book than a novel. Gave me a good insight as to what it must have been like for this courageous family at this time in history. I live in Oregon and this helped me appreciate the book even more as I could visualize where a lot of these events took place. Overall, a solid historical account of the events that this family endured, and an important story, but not a great book. The writing style was way too dry.

As a child we lived in the Yakima Valley. Some summer afternoons my father would take me with him to buy vegetables from a Japanese farmer. My father, normally outgoing, was reserved and deferrential. Dad explained that the farmer before the war had been a successful engineer, but had lost everything when he was forced to go to "the camp" - a tragedy and great waste. I've been haunted by that guiet farmer ever since, so it was with enthusiasm that I began Stubborn Twig, the story of a Japanese family's American experience.

Stubborn Twig is well researched and chock full of details about the Yasui family. Reading their story should be compelling. It's not. It's repetitious, tedious and a slow, difficult read. The last 50 pages, the third generation, is a mix of biography and sociologist psycho babble. So why read Stubborn Twig? Because it's an important story, an American story that has much to teach us, and one that shouldn't be forgotten.

I recently discovered Stubborn Twig, the featured book in Oregon Reads, a statewide reading project offered in conjunction with Oregon's sesquicentennial celebration. Lauren Kessler has provided a well-researched and compelling multi-generational story of the Yasui family, a Japanese American family headed by patriarch Masuo Yasui.

Masuo emigrated to this country in 1903, and eventually settled in the Hood River Valley, Oregon. He built up his power and position in society as a community leader and successful businessman, even while he and his family faced rising anti Japanese sentiment. This culminated in the family's internment during World War II, as a result of President Franklin Roosevelt issuing Executive Order 9066 in mid-February of 1942, calling for the removal of all people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. This book follows the Yasui family through the internment and the war's aftermath, touching on Masuo's legacy to the next two generations.

It has only been relatively recently, on August 10, 1988, that then President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Civil Liberties Act, calling for an official apology to all survivors of the internment, as well as some financial reparations. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to gain an understanding into what is one of the more shameful chapters in our country's history.

Like many Americans, I knew virtually nothing about the unconstitutional internment, property seizure, and harrassment of ethnic Japanese before, during and after World War II in the United States.

This book takes a prominent Hood River, Oregon family and follows their struggles as Issei (first generation immigrants) carve out a home in the small town amongst judicial and societal bigotry, loose everything, and then suffer emotional and financial effects as Nisei (second generation) and Sansei (third generation) face their own troubles carving out their identity as Americans.

What Stubborn Twig does is put a face on the internment experience. You find yourself cheering for Masuo Yasui and his wife as they break race barriers in Hood River's town, business, and schools.

You find yourself wincing with shame as their children are ostracized from clubs and normal teenager dating behavior.

And you find yourself chilled with loss at their personal tragedies.

As a person more-than-averagelly interested in the history of Japanese and American relations, there wasn't much in this book that was surprisingly new, just a level of detail that was fascinating. This is a real family who lived real lives in a tumultous time in Oregon's history.

What did constitute new information to me was the extensive coverage of Nisei son Min Yasui's struggle for redress for the crimes (yep, I used that word on purpose) committed against ethnic Japanese during World War II by the United States government.

The detailing of his fight, purposely breaking laws to be a test case, attempting to force the Supreme Court to rule, etc, and how his children carried it through may feel a bit long and dry sometimes, which is why the book doesn't quite get the 5th star, but for readers interested either in history or in facing a very dark time in US history it is definitely interesting.

This book's Snack Designation Rating: Tart and sweet Hood River Apple slices for how pushing through the hard-to-swallow sour racism to the sweetness of humanity's ability to survive and hope for healing sweetness in the end

A well-researched history of a Japanese American family that settled in Hood River, Oregon at the turn of the century and the struggle they endured to carve out a life for themselves in a racist political and social climate. Hard to read at times, Stubborn Twig describes how Mat (Masua) Yansui worked hard to establish himself as a business owner and orchardist, start and raise a family of well-educated children, and become a respected member of the community and how quickly his world came crashing down after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Denounced by the community that had come to heavily rely upon him, and arrested as a Japanese spy, Mat spent many years in federal prison camps while members of his family were interned in Oregon and California. I was amazed that throughout their horrendous ordeals, the Yansui family stayed ever committed to the U.S. and its justice system. Even more amazing is that as a country we have failed to learn from our past mistakes when characterizing people based on race. The blatant attacks on Arab Americans post-September 11th comes to mind. I believe we would all do well to learn more about this grim chapter of our country's history, if not from Stubborn Twig, then elsewhere. My one gripe with Kessler's writing style was that details were repeated again and again and the storyline was a little anachronistic, which is why I gave it only three stars.

Coming a little late to the party, I'm grateful for the chance to read Kessler's thoughtful portrayal of the Yasui family. The story of Masuo and his heritage is set amid a time when Americans didn't shine so well. The Japanese people who were tragically mistreated during WWII faced the sorts of prejudices we're all prone to practice in our own eras and cultures, especially when it seems like no one is watching. The fortunate piece of the sad outcome for the Yasuis and others arrived decades later, in the light of their courageous sharing of their story. I agree with other reviewers that Stubborn Twig should be required reading. It casts the same sort of spotlight as do places like Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where every school-age child must visit.

This book has rightly won its honors. Kessler writes with feeling, yet as a journalist. Those expecting an epic novel will find a more subdued approach. I, for one, appreciate the lack of melodrama. This story is told by an author immersed in the understated ways of the Japanese, and I find the style appropriately powerful.

On a flight from San Jose to Mobile, I read most of "Stubborn Twig" by Lauren Kessler. I got up early the next morning and finished reading the book.

It amazes me that some readers found this book boring, because I found it fascinating to see how three generations of Japanese-Americans used their courage, creativity, and traditions to survive a very difficult situation (i.e. internment) and become extremely successful, accepted, and well balanced. How many other groups have so quickly overcome such terrible adversity? Some people remain mired in bitterness the rest of their lives after facing problems less difficult.

Many of the Japanese-Americans who were put into internment camps during WW2 lost all they had gained after years of labor, but most of them in one generation were achieving success with little bitterness. I believe they are an amazing people and a good example for the rest of us on how to "make lemonade out of lemons".

The patriarch of the family, Masuo, knew that as a second son he had no future in Japan, so he committed himself to making a place for himself in the USA. He studied English so diligently that years later he corrected his American born children's English compositions. How many immigrants can match Masuo's determination to do well in the USA?

In building his businesses, Masuo has all of his children work hard to make the businesses a success. By doing this, Masuo taught all of the children to work hard to be successful and they all are.

When Masuo and most of his family are imprisoned in internment camps, Masuo helped to keep his family from becoming bitter and helped them to make the best of the situation so they don't spend those years being bitter and useless.

One son became a lawyer and committed most of his life after WW2 was over to challenging the constitutionality of the internment of most of the Japanese-Americans who were living on the west coast. Very few German-Americans were interned. Masuo efforts were successful and finally a Federal apology was issued to Japanese-Americans interned during WW2.

Most of us in the USA have never experienced anything comprable to what Masuo and his family experienced, so by reading this story we have the opportunity to vicariously live what they lived and perhaps learn a few lessons from the experience.