#68 - The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

I have somehow been transported back to the beginning of World War II in my reading.  I just finished with "The Buddha in the Attic" and I'm currently reading "The Girl You Left Behind" by Jojo Moyes both of which have settings in that era.  Funny how my choices seem to coincide like that without conscious effort.

I really enjoyed this novel.  It is written in an unfamiliar tone (first person plural) but that really added to the idea that the author was trying to convey, namely that these women who came over on the boat from Japan were seen as nameless and faceless to those who crossed their paths.  Their stories and experiences were so similar that a single voice could tell the story of the untold thousands of Japanese women who were enticed to the states by the "mail order bride" advertisements.  They came expecting a better life and were stashed away in fields and maids quarters and integrated into a society who only noticed them after they were gone.

It is easy to forget that work camps existed in this country as well as overseas.  Easy to forget that the fear of foreign invasion caused such a stir that we ordered thousands of people into exile while a mirror was happening in Germany and Poland.  The last chapter was especially disturbing, when we "Americans" wake up one day and people are gone.  It's only too late that we notice that something unjust has occured.  What does that say about us that they went silently while we were yammering away about some trivialities?

Goodreads rating 4.5 stars

In progress (nook) The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes
(paper) Golden Boy by Abigail Tartellin