Journey to Topaz and Journey Home by Yoshiko Uchida

First published:Journey to Topaz, 1971; Journey Home, 1978

Type of work: Historical fiction

Themes: Race and ethnicity, war, and social issues

Time of work: World War II and shortly thereafter

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: Berkeley and Tanforan, California; Topaz and Salt Lake City, Utah

Principal Characters:

• Yuki Sakane, a young, innocent girl, who tries to understand the reasons for the hardships that she and her family are forced to endure
• Mr. Sakane, honest, hardworking, and accepting of his fate
• Mrs. Sakane, who always sees the brighter side, accepting of her fate
• Ken Sakane, less accepting than his parents, who is bothered by the injustice and experiences deep tragedy, but who finds hope in the end
• Mrs. Jamieson, a kindhearted non-Japanese neighbor
• Mr. Toda, a frank, sad, lonely, older man, a friend of the family
• Michelle Nelson (Mimi), Yuki’s best friend at the beginning of the story
• Emiko Kurihara (Emi), who becomes Yuki’s best friend
• Mrs. Kurihara (Grandmother Kurihara), Emi’s grandmother, strong-willed and kind
• Mr. Kurihara (Grandfather Kurihara), Emi’s grandfather, blunt but kindhearted
• Jim Hirai, Ken’s best friend, who dies in combat
• Mr. and Mrs. Henley, the Sakanes’ landlords in Utah, friendly but suspicious
• Mr. Oka, a bitter old man who becomes a friend
• Mr. and Mrs. Olssen, non-Japanese neighbors, kind and helpful
• The Reverend and Mrs. Wada, a kind minister and his wife

The Story

Yoshiko Uchida points out in the introduction to Journey to Topaz that the story is largely autobiographical. It begins with the fictionalized Sakane family’s hearing about the infamous bombing of Pearl Harbor and finding it hard to believe. Immediately, the Federal Bureau of Investigation takes the father into custody, and Yuki and her mother and older brother wait for his return. They find that he will not be returning, but that he will be sent to a concentration camp in Montana. Ken drops out of college because he hears that there will be a massive evacuation of the Japanese Americans out of California to concentration camps. This is difficult for everyone to believe, but it comes true. Mrs. Sakane, Yuki, and Ken pack up what they can carry on their backs and are transported, along with thousands of other Japanese Americans, to Tanforan, where they are forced to live in a horse stall. Rations are meager, there are no doors on the bathrooms, and the camp is surrounded by barbed wire.

The family tries its best to cope with the conditions in camp. Emi Kurihara, a young girl living in the stall next to them, becomes Yuki’s best friend, and Emi’s two grandparents (her parents are dead) become part of the family. Soon the camp is moved to Topaz, which is located in the middle of the desert in Utah. Ken grows more discouraged. Yuki and Emi and others discover that there are arrowheads and other interesting artifacts in the sand. Emi catches tuberculosis, and Yuki is told not to visit her while she is in the hospital. Yuki does sneak in once and gives Emi a trilobite. A dust storm comes up before Yuki can get back to her barracks, however, and she nearly gets lost in it.

Mr. Toda and Mr. Kurihara wander to the edge of the camp in search of arrowheads, and one of the guards shoots and kills Mr. Kurihara. Just after Thanksgiving, the Sakane family receives a telegram from Mr. Sakane saying that he is being released on parole and will soon join them. He arrives the day before Christmas. There is a celebration. Emi is still in the hospital, but Yuki brings her a present and waves at her through the glass.

The army recruiters arrive and ask for the young Japanese American men in the camp to volunteer for a special all-Nisei combat team. After debating whether to fight for a country that has imprisoned them, Ken and his friend Jim decide to join. Mr. Sakane begins working closely with the white administrators of the camp, determined to be as useful as he can. This causes the other prisoners to hate him, and their threats finally convince him that he must take the family and leave Topaz. This decided, the family says its good-byes and heads to Salt Lake City as Journey to Topaz ends.

Journey Home picks up the story with Mr. and Mrs. Sakane and Yuki living with Mr. and Mrs. Henley in Salt Lake City. Jobs are hard to come by, but Mrs. Sakane finds work doing the laundry for Mrs. Griswold. Papa, however, will not let Mama do it full-time, because it hurts her back. Papa finds a job as a shipping clerk, far beneath his training and abilities, but it is the best job he can get. Yuki does not especially like Mrs. Henley, because Mrs. Henley is not convinced that the Japanese Americans are innocent. Everyone worries about Ken, who is still fighting in the war. Then news arrives that he has been wounded: His leg has been badly fractured, but he is alive and in a hospital. A few weeks later, the army revokes the exclusion order against the Japanese on the West Coast, and the Sakanes can go home. The Reverend Wada writes that he has been released from the prison camp in Topaz, and he is going back to reopen the church in Berkeley and turn it into a hostel. The Sakane family makes immediate plans to return home. When they arrive, the Reverend Wada and their friend Mrs. Jamieson are waiting. They move into the church dormitory, which is crowded and badly in need of cleaning, but everyone pitches in. Yuki is awakened by Hokusai, Mr. Oka’s cat, and throws her pillow at it. This leads to her first meeting with Mr. Oka, who is bitter because the White Americans have shown him prejudice over the twenty years he has lived in the United States. Despite this, Yuki becomes friends with him and begins calling him Uncle Oka.

Except for Ken, the family and friends have all been reunited, but all is not yet well. The priest from the Buddhist temple stops by to tell Grandma Kurihara that vandals have stolen all the possessions she left in his care. No one can find a job, and the houses have all been taken over by the defense workers who moved in while the Japanese Americans were in the concentration camps.

The war ends with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Everyone is mostly happy, though there is some sadness for relatives and friends who lived in those cities. The Japanese remaining in the camps are sent back to California, but there is not enough room to accommodate them. The church is overflowing. Then Papa has an idea: Since none of them can get together enough money to make it alone, they will pool their resources and buy back Mr. Oka’s grocery store so they can live together above it. This gives them all renewed hope.

The store is bought, cleaned up, and stocked. All of them, except for Mr. Oka, who wishes to remain living at the church, move in upstairs. Still, all is not resolved. Some of the neighbors do not like having “Japs” in the neighborhood. A firebomb is thrown through the window one night. Fortunately, they all get out safely, and the damage is not permanent.

Ken finally arrives home from the war. He is still on crutches, and may be for the rest of his life, but he is more than physically hurt—he is psychologically scarred from his experiences in the war. The family does not know how to help him.

The next-door neighbors, the Olssens, invite everyone over for Thanksgiving dinner. During the conversation, they reveal that their son was killed in Iwo Jima and shot by a Japanese soldier, but that they hold no grudges. This forgiving attitude on the part of the Olssens breaks through the walls that Ken and Mr. Oka have built around themselves. Ken decides to get on with his life and makes plans to return to college.

Context

Though there have been many books written for young adults about the Nazi concentration camps and the sufferings of the Jewish people during World War II, little has been written about the Japanese American internment. These two books offer a good introduction to the subject for children in their early teens. It is explicit enough to represent reality accurately without offending younger minds and sensibilities. Not only is the sorrow of the concentration camps presented, but what life was usually like for the Japanese Americans in California during this time has been revealed through their customs, dreams, and fears. This makes the story useful for Japanese Americans today, who might discover more clearly what the internment was like for their ancestors, and for others who may want to understand the Nisei culture.

Yoshiko Uchida has written many books about the Japanese culture, including In-Between Miya (1967), which contrasts past and present cultures; Samurai of Gold Hill (1972), in which a boy must come to terms with a new way of life in California; and A Jar of Dreams (1981), in which a young girl must come to terms with her heritage. She has also written books set in Japan, including Makoto, the Smallest Boy: A Story of Japan (1970), which is about a boy who loses at sports but paints a temple scene that rates best in the class; and Sumi’s Special Happening (1966), about a little girl of modern rural Japan and her problem in finding a gift for Ijii Chan, who is about to turn ninety-nine. She has also translated Japanese folktales: The Dancing Kettle, and Other Japanese Folk Tales (1949); The Sea of Gold, and Other Tales from Japan (1965); and The Magic Listening Cap: More Folk Tales from Japan (1955).

Her books are praised as simple, charming, easy-to-read stories that deal with such universal topics as self-respect, the importance of family, and the assumption of responsibility. Although some critics have found the characterization in these two books to be weak, Laurence E. Smardan (writing about Journey to Topaz) stated that “through Yuki, her major character, the author shows how Japanese-American families displayed tremendous courage and strength at a time when it would have been so easy to express utter disappointment and sorrow.” Writing about Journey Home, Judith Goldberger stated that “there are many sensitive touches and interesting glimpses into a largely ignored but important historical episode.” Dora Jean Young said: “This book fills a great need in describing the cruel treatment inflicted upon Japanese-Americans during World War II by their fellow Americans.”

Yoshiko Uchida is one of few writers of books for children dealing with the Nisei culture. Setting her books in either Japan or the western United States, she portrays universal themes as they appear in these cultures and offers a good introduction to the Japanese-American heritage.