Sumiko's Life Before Pearl Harbor

What I Read:

I started reading the book Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata.  It's about a girl names Sumichan (Sumiko for short), who is a Japanese-American middle schooler that is living her life in the U.S. before the attack on Pearl Harbor. When Sumiko gets invited to a party by a student in her class, she gets so excited because she almost never gets invited to a white American party. On the day of the party, her classmate's parents give her a slice of cake and tell her to leave, just because she's Japanese. 

Sumiko lives with her family in a Japanese neighborhood in southern California. Everyone in her family works on their farms growing crops, picking flowers and taking care of their animals, especially Baba (their horse). One day Sumiko and her family listen to the morning radio and hear that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese. A few days later Sumiko's uncle and Grandfather (Jiichan) are told to go to the police to be "checked". A few days later, Sumiko and the rest of her family are sent to Internment Camp. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT? 

What I Thought About:

As I start reading this book, I like that this story is being told from a Japanese-Americans' point of view. In the past, I've heard of many Pearl Harbor and World War II stories that are normally told from a white Americans', Nazis', or Jews' perspective of the war or Holocaust. Still, when Sumiko and her family get sent to an Internment Camp it reminds me of what happened to Jewish people at the start of the Holocaust. This story keeps on reminding me that what happened to Jews was terrifying, but look at what was happening to Japanese-Americans in the U.S. after Pearl Harbor. 

Something that seems really interesting yet shocking to me at the same time is that the offensive word referring to Japanese people is already being used. This is demonstrating to me the hatred that Americans had toward people from different races.

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What I Conclude:

I can't wait to read the rest of this story and see how Sumiko lives her life during the Second World War. Despite the fact that this is a historical fiction story, I think I'll learn a lot about American history during the Second World War. I think that Sumiko will survive the Internment Camp and start a new life. However, her life and perspective of life will change a lot because of her experiences there.

Also, I think that it's really unfair that the Japanese and Japanese-American people were treated like that during World War II.   It's understandable that people get scared during a war, but Japanese-Americans never planned for the Japanese to bomb Pearl Harbor.  So, it's unfair to take away their rights and freedom when they didn't do anything wrong.  It's embarrassing to think that this happened in American history.