The Invisible Thread by Yoshiko Uchida
"The Invisible Thread" by Yoshiko Uchida is an autobiographical narrative that explores her experiences as a Japanese American girl growing up in California during the Great Depression. Through a series of reminiscences, Uchida reflects on her dual cultural identity, balancing her American childhood with the Japanese traditions instilled by her immigrant parents. The book poignantly addresses the impact of World War II, particularly the internment of Japanese Americans, which dramatically affected Uchida's family and community. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, her father was arrested, and she and her family were forcibly relocated to internment camps, where they faced the challenges of loss and displacement.
Uchida's storytelling is enriched by photographs that illustrate her life, providing a visual context to her experiences. Throughout her narrative, she navigates feelings of belonging and alienation, ultimately gaining a deeper appreciation for her heritage after the war. The book not only serves as a personal memoir but also contributes to the broader understanding of the Asian American experience during a tumultuous period in history. Uchida's work, alongside other narratives of similar themes, offers valuable insights into the complexities of identity and the impacts of war on communities.
Subject Terms
The Invisible Thread by Yoshiko Uchida
First published: 1991; illustrated
Subjects: Adolescents and race and ethnicity
Type of work: Autobiography
Time of work: 1928-1952
Recommended Ages: 13-18
Locale: Japan, California, and Utah
Principal Personages:
Yoshiko Uchida , a shy young Japanese American girl struggling to find her identity, who faces the problems of prejudice and internment during World War IIDwight Uchida , Yoshiko’s energetic father, a businessmanIku Uchida , Yoshiko’s caring, open-hearted motherKeiko Uchida , Yoshiko’s older sister
Form and Content
Yoshiko Uchida’s The Invisible Thread describes her life as the daughter of Japa-nese parents growing up in Depression-era California. While Uchida’s story is autobiographical and told in the first person, she does not use a strict, chronological format. Rather, she relates events from her life as a series of reminiscences. Each of Uchida’s stories illustrates aspects of her life that contributed to the development of her identity as a Japanese American. Photographs of Uchida, her family and friends, and the places they lived illustrate the work.
Uchida begins her story by describing her average, American childhood in Berke-ley, California, during the Great Depression. Her portraits of her older sister, neighborhood friends, and life in the suburbs could apply to any child, but, as she also tells about her dissatisfaction with the endless stream of Japanese guests whom her parents entertain, it becomes clear that she must also reconcile two distinct cultures in her life. While Uchida found the visitors boring, for her parents these friends formed an “invisible thread” connecting Uchida’s parents to the country and customs that they had left behind. Anecdotes from the early part of Uchida’s life show that she absorbed much of her parents’ Japanese culture: food preferences such as sukiyaki, her mother’s Japanese poetry and stories, and customs such as bowing to acquaintances. When Uchida went to Japan on a trip, however, she felt like a stranger, missing American food and American ways.
Uchida devotes half of her book to the seminal event in her life: her family’s internment in a relocation camp during World War II. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the government arrested her father, sending him to jail in Montana, and later forced Uchida (now a college senior), her sister, mother, and other Japanese families into a relocation camp. Uchida, her family, and many of her friends found themselves prisoners of their own country simply because they looked like the enemy. Their first relocation home was at Tanforan Racetrack Assembly Center, an abandoned racetrack in California, where Uchida’s father eventually joined them. They were later moved to Topaz Japanese Relocation Center, a permanent camp in the middle of the Utah desert. Here, the Japanese American citizens created a community under difficult living conditions. Uchida and her sister were able to leave the center before their parents did, and both found homes and jobs on the outside. After the war, the family reunited and continued their lives. When Uchida returned on a visit to Japan after the war, she had a new appreciation for her Japanese heritage, finding beauty and worth in the customs and stories of her parents’ homeland. Uchida used much of this background in the children’s stories that she went on to write.
Critical Context
Yoshiko Uchida was a noted children’s author who published collections of Japanese stories for children and many stories with Japanese American protagonists. She also wrote other autobiographical works that focus specifically on her experiences in a relocation camp during World War II: Journey to Topaz (1971), Journey Home (1978), and Desert Exile (1982). Because relatively few works focusing on the Asian American experience exist for young adult readers, Uchida’s book is valuable for the insight that it gives. Another work that does focus on the Asian American experience is Laurence Yep’s autobiography The Lost Garden (1991), and Uchida and Yep share the common theme of searching for an identity between two cultures.
Uchida’s autobiography makes an important contribution to the literature available on World War II. While The Invisible Thread is factual, Bette Greene’s Summer of My German Soldier (1973) presents a fictional account of how the war touched a young American girl in the United States. Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) makes less remote the tragedy of German concentration camps by allowing readers to develop a personal relationship with one of the victims of German injustice, while Uchida achieves much the same effect by providing an account by one of the victims of American injustice. The contrast between the situations provides young readers with the opportunity to examine war and its effects on people and governments.