Scan barcode
Reviews
Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation by Yushiko Uchida, Yoshiko Uchida
kraley's review against another edition
4.0
Not terribly well written, but an honest look at Japanese internment. I use this each year to teach about WWII and America's response to the bombing at Pearl Harbor. Using it in conjunction with Under the Blood Red Sun works well too. Great book which addresses one of America's responses to war.
rachelhelps's review against another edition
4.0
This is a short chapter book about a Japanese-American girl who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII. I started doing some work on the Topaz Wikipedia page for work--mostly putting in citations. I hope to work on it more, but this book conveyed more information than what I learned doing fact-checking. It helped me understand the emotional impact of how Japanese-Americans were uprooted from the homes and not allowed to return. Families were split up and vulnerable populations got sick or died from the poor living conditions. I think the book did a good job showing how Yuki, the main character, was not only an American citizen but also culturally American. The book also showed how internment affected many age groups, especially college-aged young people who weren't able to finish their educations.
shannonmcw's review against another edition
5.0
My son was reading this as an assignment in his 5th grade class. The description caught my attention since I know very little about Japanese-Americans being sent to internment camps, and I wanted to be more informed so I could discuss the book with my son. We both enjoyed the book and had some great discussions about it. We felt connected to the characters and felt compassion and sympathy for what they were experiencing. There were sad parts, but they were not too overwhelming or intense for my son (who will not sleep if anything is too scary or worrisome). An excellent book!
ikuo1000's review
4.0
I'm a big fan of George Takei and his musical, Allegiance. Noticing this, a friend of mine recommended this book to me.
I had no idea there existed a children's book about the Japanese internment! In my own public education, I do not remember learning about World War II until high school (if we learned about it in middle school, I've forgotten), and we absolutely did not learn about Japanese internment. Even though this book is probably geared towards upper elementary and middle school-aged readers, I think it's a worthy read for any first-time student of World War II.
In many ways, this book reads like a non-fiction account of the internment. It's told from the perspective of an 11-year-old girl, but basically she relates heartbreaking detail after heartbreaking detail of what many Japanese-Americans experienced during this time. The topic is presently simply, but it isn't simplified; the book gets across the complexities of the situation. It's clear that what the government was doing was wrong, but what choice did the Japanese-Americans have?
One detail lacking in this account is the controversial "loyalty questionnaire", which was part of how the government decided who would be allowed to enlist in the all-Japanese regiment. I can understand, though, how that part of the history could be especially difficult for a young reader to comprehend, and the book did still manage to convey the different attitudes held by internees, i.e., that some people were willing to fight for the U.S. to prove their loyalty, while others refused to fight for a nation that was treating them like criminals.
I think this book is an excellent window into the Japanese interment, but I gave it 4 stars for two reasons. The first is because, as I mentioned, the book reads kind of like a non-fiction account - the narrative makes it easy to read, but mostly the book is rich in factual detail. It felt more like I was reading about the Japanese internment itself, not so much "one girl's experience" of the Japanese internment. Perhaps, though, I should consider that this book is probably many people's first introduction to the Japanese internment, so in that regard, this book does a wonderful job of making the topic approachable.
I also found the ending too abrupt. The story follows one family as they are evacuated from their homes and sent to live in an internment camp in the desert, but it stops short when that one family is able to obtain a kind of release to go to Salt Lake City. So they were lucky. But how come other families weren't so lucky? What happened to them? How did the camps finally come to close, and how did all those Japanese-Americans re-integrate into society? Were they able to get back all the things they put into storage? Were they able to gain back their livelihoods? Did Ken ever finish college and become a doctor?! So many questions left unanswered. I don't know if the author always intended to write a sequel, but I found out from reading other people's reviews of this book that a sequel, Journey Home, was published seven years after Journey to Topaz, and I do intend to read it as soon as I can.
I had no idea there existed a children's book about the Japanese internment! In my own public education, I do not remember learning about World War II until high school (if we learned about it in middle school, I've forgotten), and we absolutely did not learn about Japanese internment. Even though this book is probably geared towards upper elementary and middle school-aged readers, I think it's a worthy read for any first-time student of World War II.
In many ways, this book reads like a non-fiction account of the internment. It's told from the perspective of an 11-year-old girl, but basically she relates heartbreaking detail after heartbreaking detail of what many Japanese-Americans experienced during this time. The topic is presently simply, but it isn't simplified; the book gets across the complexities of the situation. It's clear that what the government was doing was wrong, but what choice did the Japanese-Americans have?
One detail lacking in this account is the controversial "loyalty questionnaire", which was part of how the government decided who would be allowed to enlist in the all-Japanese regiment. I can understand, though, how that part of the history could be especially difficult for a young reader to comprehend, and the book did still manage to convey the different attitudes held by internees, i.e., that some people were willing to fight for the U.S. to prove their loyalty, while others refused to fight for a nation that was treating them like criminals.
I think this book is an excellent window into the Japanese interment, but I gave it 4 stars for two reasons. The first is because, as I mentioned, the book reads kind of like a non-fiction account - the narrative makes it easy to read, but mostly the book is rich in factual detail. It felt more like I was reading about the Japanese internment itself, not so much "one girl's experience" of the Japanese internment. Perhaps, though, I should consider that this book is probably many people's first introduction to the Japanese internment, so in that regard, this book does a wonderful job of making the topic approachable.
I also found the ending too abrupt. The story follows one family as they are evacuated from their homes and sent to live in an internment camp in the desert, but it stops short when that one family is able to obtain a kind of release to go to Salt Lake City. So they were lucky. But how come other families weren't so lucky? What happened to them? How did the camps finally come to close, and how did all those Japanese-Americans re-integrate into society? Were they able to get back all the things they put into storage? Were they able to gain back their livelihoods? Did Ken ever finish college and become a doctor?! So many questions left unanswered. I don't know if the author always intended to write a sequel, but I found out from reading other people's reviews of this book that a sequel, Journey Home, was published seven years after Journey to Topaz, and I do intend to read it as soon as I can.
bosstweed's review
emotional
funny
informative
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This is a great book, especially for young learners. It’s fiction but is so inspired by and informed by real experiences that it’s essentially non-fiction. It boils so many lived experiences into this one central family that this book can be read in such a way to understand part of the Japanese and Japanese American experiences of ww2. This would be amazing for students but also anyone.
whitneyborup's review against another edition
3.0
I'm really sure how I feel about this one yet. At the time it was written, it was probably a bit more shocking. Likewise, if I had read it as a child. But Scott and I were talking about how the author seems to gloss over certain things, or just skips ahead past parts that might be enlightening. At times this could be so frustrating. At other times it seemed appropriate. So I don't know. I'm going to cook club on Wednesday. Maybe they'll help me straighten things out.
sydney_s's review against another edition
4.0
This book is written by Yoshiko Unchida and is about a young girl named Yuki,and her family, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It tells what it was like in consentration camps, like what the living spaces were like and what kind of food they ate. What kind of jobs the men got and how they could earn money.
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it as a book to read along with history if you're studying WW2, or just as an on the side book. I would say this book is for ages around 9-15. Il liked his book because it was sad, heart warming, full of courage and contrasting characters.
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it as a book to read along with history if you're studying WW2, or just as an on the side book. I would say this book is for ages around 9-15. Il liked his book because it was sad, heart warming, full of courage and contrasting characters.
ninetalevixen's review against another edition
4.0
This was a required read in elementary school, as part of a larger unit about the Japanese and Japanese-American experience circa WWII. I enjoyed the book, and I really liked the simulation we did: the teachers had us pack and bring in bags (if you forgot, they gave you a stack of dictionaries) that we had to carry throughout a very long walk around the school, then we measured out chalk outlines for "cells"/rooms as described in the book.
estefania_13's review
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0