Displacement

Hughes, Kiku. Displacement. 2020. 283p. ISBN 978-1-250-19354-4. Available on the graphic novels section of the library.

Kiku and her mother are taking a vacation in San Francisco, looking for information about the past of a grandmother Kiku never knew. Back in 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during the Second World War, Kiku's grandmother, Ernestina, was interned along with her parents and most of the Japanese-American community of the West Coast in what was little better than concentration camps. 

The San Francisco of today has changed dramatically, and most evidence of this violent policy is gone. Kiku, however, finds herself transported in time back to the 1940s. She meets her grandmother, and finds herself carted off to a displacement camp. Kiku goes through two time displacements, but doesn't mention anything to her mother in case she thinks her daughter is going crazy or worse. On the third displacement, Kiku finds herself truly stuck back in time, and now she must adapt to live in the camps. Gaining a first-row seat in one of America's worst civil-rights abuse, Kiku bears witness to the pain and suffering the issei, the first generation Japanese immigrants, and their sons and daughters, the nissei, went through during the Second World War. Kiku also makes friends, and becomes part of the resistance that opposes the loss of civil liberties in the camps.

This beautifully-illustrated graphic novel provides a good look at a relatively unknown period of our history. Fans of history and of the Second World War will find the information contained in this book helpful to provide a better understanding of what Japanese-Americans on the West Coast lived through. Read We Hereby Refuse for another view of the Japanese-American experience in the camps.