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ehmannky's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
I learned of Okubo's memoir through an art exhibition at my local fine art museum and I am so glad I did. Her work is really beautiful, and the captions at the bottom of each work of art provide stark insight into what life was like in the American Japanese internment camps. I think that there's not much to critique in terms of what the book is about. If you're not familiar with the history of Topaz, I think this will provide a quick and really personal introduction, and if you are familiar, you get an first-person artistic insight into the experience. I think what struck me this time reading about it was just how much of a waste of human potential, money, and time that anti-Japanese racism created here.
jackdziatkowiec's review against another edition
informative
sad
slow-paced
2.75
I didn't know this happened. Should have known; people are so cruel.
lauren_soderberg's review against another edition
5.0
This is an irreplaceable documentation of Japanese American internment camps during the actual time they were happening. Mine Okubo not only lived this experience firsthand, she brilliantly documented and encapsulate said experience. Each sketch is like a literal snapshot of daily life, and her succinct, to-the-point description of the camps and of the people who lived there makes this work as vital as it is inimitable. And this should absolutely be used for whole classroom instruction.
deranged_pegasus's review against another edition
5.0
The use of the nine blank pages was rather ingenious as it gives the impression that what it written is impossible to portray with any accuracy. The reader is forced to try and imagine something that can not be shown in a picture, or even a photograph. The reader has to consciously apply themselves to what was read and so the point being made is more prominent and driven home to the reader. First blank page, 11, shows the absence of her father and leaves both the main character and the reader at a loss to understand why. The next blank on page 13 seems to show just how quickly they had left and how abrupt it had been for them. Page 16 has no picture because how could anyone portray 110,000 people in a single image much less give the feeling of so many, most people have never even been in a group larger than about five hundred. The fourth blank is on page 118 and describes perfectly the emptiness of the land they were traveling through and makes the reader wonder after reading the last line of the page "The meals on the train were good after camp fare."
Page 128 which shows the rooms they had been given to live in is followed by a plank page with illustrates how much they really had. Page 138 adds to the feeling even more as the text tells of how they had divided the space even further. Page 176 is just the perfect illustration as the first sentence is the end of the one from the page before and reads "thereby made themselves stateless persons." The second to last blank page is on page 200 and is somewhat chilling to read at the text tells of how the teenagers fought to stay and not lose all they had gained by being labeled disloyal. The final blank is on page 206 and I feel it was a wonderful choice as the text reads :"In January of 1944, having finished my documentary sketches of camp life, I decided to leave." The blank was masterful in that is showed that she was done, there was nothing more to draw and so there was nothing drawn.
Page 128 which shows the rooms they had been given to live in is followed by a plank page with illustrates how much they really had. Page 138 adds to the feeling even more as the text tells of how they had divided the space even further. Page 176 is just the perfect illustration as the first sentence is the end of the one from the page before and reads "thereby made themselves stateless persons." The second to last blank page is on page 200 and is somewhat chilling to read at the text tells of how the teenagers fought to stay and not lose all they had gained by being labeled disloyal. The final blank is on page 206 and I feel it was a wonderful choice as the text reads :"In January of 1944, having finished my documentary sketches of camp life, I decided to leave." The blank was masterful in that is showed that she was done, there was nothing more to draw and so there was nothing drawn.
kmatthe2's review against another edition
5.0
A fascinating and important text/artifact coming out of Topazโโthe Japanese Internment Camp in Utah. Read the introduction *after* you read the text. The intro is all about how reception was shaped (not always for the better), and ironically, it works just like that. Read the text on its own and then return to the sharp intro.
wildgurl's review against another edition
4.0
Citizen 13660๐๐๐๐
By Mine Okubo
Reprinted 1945/ 2018
University of Washington Press
February 19, the day the Executive Order 9066, issued by FDR, has been named Remembrance Day by the Japanese Americans, to honor the memory of relatives interned to camps. Executive Order 9066 ordered the mass evacuation from the West Coast and internment of all people of Japanese descent.
"In the history of the United States this was the first mass evacuation of its kind in which civilians were moved simply because of their race. "
110,000 Japanese were moved from their homes and sent to one if 10 camps, set up in make shift empty fair grounds, Coliseum and buildings. Tanforan and Topaz are the most known of the camps.
This is Okubos recording of what she saw, heard and experienced while evacuated to these camps. "To see what happens to people when reduced to one status and condition.", Okubo states. Cameras were not permitted, so she sketched, drew and painted what she saw. Every page has an illustration. Citizen 13660 is the story of her camp life.
Great book...Loved it!!
By Mine Okubo
Reprinted 1945/ 2018
University of Washington Press
February 19, the day the Executive Order 9066, issued by FDR, has been named Remembrance Day by the Japanese Americans, to honor the memory of relatives interned to camps. Executive Order 9066 ordered the mass evacuation from the West Coast and internment of all people of Japanese descent.
"In the history of the United States this was the first mass evacuation of its kind in which civilians were moved simply because of their race. "
110,000 Japanese were moved from their homes and sent to one if 10 camps, set up in make shift empty fair grounds, Coliseum and buildings. Tanforan and Topaz are the most known of the camps.
This is Okubos recording of what she saw, heard and experienced while evacuated to these camps. "To see what happens to people when reduced to one status and condition.", Okubo states. Cameras were not permitted, so she sketched, drew and painted what she saw. Every page has an illustration. Citizen 13660 is the story of her camp life.
Great book...Loved it!!
longl's review against another edition
4.0
Reading Citizen 13660 made me reflect on how important captions are. Unlike typical/traditional graphic novels where text is integrated with the visual elements and embedded within the immediate narrative as dialogue or exposition in interjectory spaces, Citizen 13660 doesn't have that. Instead, we have a clear separation, a fence, between illustrations and text. In my opinion, they function like adjacent tellings that supplement, complement, or contradict each other to give depth and complexity to what we experience from them.
If Japanese American interment were to happen now in 2023, Mie Okubo's illustration and captions of day-to-day life would be what we'd be seeing on our feeds, and all the things that escape unsaid through the boundaries between post and caption would be what keeps us up at night and our thoughts suddenly arrested.
If Japanese American interment were to happen now in 2023, Mie Okubo's illustration and captions of day-to-day life would be what we'd be seeing on our feeds, and all the things that escape unsaid through the boundaries between post and caption would be what keeps us up at night and our thoughts suddenly arrested.