Rating: 
Summary: A powerful slice of Japanese-American history
Review: "Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family," by Yoshiko Uchida, is a compelling autobiographical narrative. Uchida tells the story of her family, which includes her Japanese-born parents and her sister. After the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan and the outbreak of World War II, the family endures the fate suffered by many other Japanese-Americans: they are forced to abandon their home and are relocated to an internment camp in Utah.This is a powerful story of injustice, racial prejudice, endurance, and family devotion. Uchida creates a vivid portrait of the internment camp: "an artificial government-spawned community on the periphery of the real world. . . a dismal, dreary camp surrounded by barbed wire in the middle of a stark, harsh landscape that offered nothing to refresh the eye or heal the spirit." Despite the unpleasant and often humiliating conditions, it is amazing how many residents worked to create a liveable community with a viable infrastructure. I was intrigued by Uchida's account of the Christian faith of her mother. Also fascinating is Uchida's deconstruction of the Big Brother-ish language used to mask the true nature of the internment program. The book includes many photos of the family and other camp residents. Uchida also discusses her own mother's vocation as a writer of tanka (31 syllable Japanese poems), and includes translations of some of these poems. This enhances the literary quality of the book. "Desert Exile" is told simply but with great eloquence. The book is, in my opinion, a wonderful contribution to the multi-ethnic literary tradition of the United States. Also recommended: "Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories," by Hisaye Yamamoto.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful slice of Japanese-American history
Review: "Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family," by Yoshiko Uchida, is a compelling autobiographical narrative. Uchida tells the story of her family, which includes her Japanese-born parents and her sister. After the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan and the outbreak of World War II, the family endures the fate suffered by many other Japanese-Americans: they are forced to abandon their home and are relocated to an internment camp in Utah. This is a powerful story of injustice, racial prejudice, endurance, and family devotion. Uchida creates a vivid portrait of the internment camp: "an artificial government-spawned community on the periphery of the real world. . . a dismal, dreary camp surrounded by barbed wire in the middle of a stark, harsh landscape that offered nothing to refresh the eye or heal the spirit." Despite the unpleasant and often humiliating conditions, it is amazing how many residents worked to create a liveable community with a viable infrastructure. I was intrigued by Uchida's account of the Christian faith of her mother. Also fascinating is Uchida's deconstruction of the Big Brother-ish language used to mask the true nature of the internment program. The book includes many photos of the family and other camp residents. Uchida also discusses her own mother's vocation as a writer of tanka (31 syllable Japanese poems), and includes translations of some of these poems. This enhances the literary quality of the book. "Desert Exile" is told simply but with great eloquence. The book is, in my opinion, a wonderful contribution to the multi-ethnic literary tradition of the United States. Also recommended: "Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories," by Hisaye Yamamoto.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful!
Review: Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family"by Yoshiko Uchida deals with a Japanese-American family who were sent to concentration camp during World War II as Japanese-Americans at that time were considered to be potential "spies" for the Japanese government. Uchida started off with introduction to her family, of how her parents met, and how California became their home. Even though she was raised with Japanese values and ideals, she was at the same time an American who can barely speaks Japanese. Her world was turned upside down when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Japanese-Americans were sent to concentration camp for fear that they could endanger the national security. This violates their Constitutional rights but there were no public support for their fellow citizens. It was indeed racist of the government as German-Americans were not sent to any concentration camps even though the United States was fighting Germany. The Japanese-Americans had to swallow their pride and dignity and were moved to barracks that were bare and ill-equipped. They were placed behind the fence, guarded by MPs and basically were treated as prisoners. Uchida's vivid descriptions of their living conditions were both horrifying and shocking. "Desert Exile" was used by my professor for a History of American West class. This is truly an eye-opener as most Americans are unaware of their fellow citizens' ordeal and treatment. The Japanese-American loss was immeasurable. Not only did they lose financially (from selling their homes hastily), they lost touch with friends and relatives, lost their pride and lost confidence in their government. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about the ordeal of the Japanese-Americans during World War II. It is extremely well-written, eloquent and easy to understand.
Rating:
Summary: Well-Written and Informative
Review: I found this book to be extremely interesting. I don't believe that it's as well known as _Farewell to Manzanar_, another book that relates the experiences of the Japanese internment during the war, but I gained much more from this book. The author had just been graduated from UC Berkeley when she was interned, and her age during the experience gives us a different insight than does _Farewell to Manzanar_. As an elementary school teacher in the camp and the daughter of a camp leadership figure, the author relates an interesting story of the administration of the camp that is not found in _Farewell to Manzanar_. Furthermore, since the author's family came from California's Bay Area, there is a different perspective of pre-war attitudes toward this ethnic group. I believe that this book is a valuable contribution to the history of our society, serving as a reminder of what can happen to ordinary people when we let our fears overcome us. I wish this were required reading material for American high school students.
Rating:
Summary: an easy, factual read
Review: I had to read this book for my History 2710 class. I was very reluctant to do so at first. Uchida's book is a sad story about the Japanese Internment issue during the 1940's. Uchida talks about her own family and those she knew while at each stage of internment. She talks about how her dad lost his business, how she was pulled from college, and the general poor treatment of her fellow Japanese Americans. The book is full of facts, the author's own opinion, and her family's struggles at the time. This book is good, and is honestly one of the few novels that I have enjoyed while in college. Uchida does a good job of painting a picture of what the Japanese Interment issue was like for one family.
Rating:
Summary: an easy, factual read
Review: I had to read this book for my History 2710 class. I was very reluctant to do so at first. Uchida's book is a sad story about the Japanese Internment issue during the 1940's. Uchida talks about her own family and those she knew while at each stage of internment. She talks about how her dad lost his business, how she was pulled from college, and the general poor treatment of her fellow Japanese Americans. The book is full of facts, the author's own opinion, and her family's struggles at the time. This book is good, and is honestly one of the few novels that I have enjoyed while in college. Uchida does a good job of painting a picture of what the Japanese Interment issue was like for one family.
Rating:
Summary: Factual unemotional description of an American tragedy
Review: Ms. Uchida chronicles a personal account of a dark day in American history during WWII, when thousands of American citizens were herded into unspeakable conditions, purely on the basis of their race and ancestry. The book is well written, portraying the bi-cultural life she led and the incarceration she, her family and thousands like her were forced into under the guise of well-sounding euphemisms. Her story must be read by all who need to know that part of American history and the desire to see that no such evil ever gets repeated.
Rating:
Summary: Things I never Knew
Review: Reviewer: Terah Johnson from Richmond, VA USA
Though I was forced to read this book for a class and I was very reluctant to do so, "Desert Exhile" was one of the best books I have ever read. It is an account of a Japanese American family who was uprooted from their homes during World War II and sent to sort of "concentration" camps in the desert. In every classroom in the US we learn about and criticize what happen to the Jewish people in Germany with the Holocaust. However, there are many people who do not know that the United States did almost the same thing to Japanese American people. It blew my mind to read about the Uchida family and other families who were sucessful Americans that got torn from their homes because our government believed they had something to do with the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor. This family was ripped apart and they had to make provisions in horrible conditions with thousands of other Japanese Americans. Our country is known as "The land of the Free" where "All men are created equal" and it is the "land of opportunity." So why was our country doing this to these innocent people? Nonetheless, "Desert Exhile" is a well written biography that tells a part of American history that is ignored by so many people and I learned so much from this book that I never knew and it astonishes me. I would reccomend this book to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Never Again!
Review: This is an excellent first-hand account of the concentration camps of World War II; however, not the concentration camps that most of us are familiar with. These were the camps of America's creation, built to house and isolate its very own citizens. It is the story of one Japanese-American family's imprisonment in Tanforan and then Topaz camps shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Both Issei (first-generation immigrants to America) and Nisei (second-generation Japanese-Americans who had known no other home than America) were herded into poorly constructed barracks in the middle of the desert. Yet, as Uchida retells, they all faced this unspeakable act of their government with a dignity and patience that few individuals could maintain, much less a whole segment of a population. It is a story that would be difficult for most to tell without a tone of righteous indignation. Uchida, however, lets the story create the reaction and inspire us to say (hopefully) that we will never let this happen again.
Rating:
Summary: Things I Never Knew
Review: Though I was forced to read this book for a class and I was very reluctant to do so, "Desert Exhile" was one of the best books I have ever read. It is an account of a Japanese American family who was uprooted from their homes during World War II and sent to sort of "concentration" camps in the desert.
In every classroom in the US we learn about and criticize what happen to the Jewish people in Germany with the Holocaust. However, there are many people who do not know that the United States did almost the same thing to Japanese American people. It blew my mind to read about the Uchida family and other families who were sucessful Americans that got torn from their homes because our government believed they had something to do with the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor. This family was ripped apart and they had to make provisions in horrible conditions with thousands of other Japanese Americans.
Our country is known as "The land of the Free" where "All men are created equal" and it is the "land of opportunity." So why was our country doing this to these innocent people? Nonetheless, "Desert Exhile" is a well written biography that tells a part of American history that is ignored by so many people and I learned so much from this book that I never knew and it astonishes me. I would reccomend this book to anyone.
| 
