Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation

“‘This is a repeat of the news bulletin,’ a newscaster said harshly, his voice trembling with urgency. ‘Japanese planes have attacked Pearl Harbor…The United States Fleet has been heavily damaged… Fires are raging over the waterfront.’”

Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Yuki lives a life no different than any other American child. However, as the family listens to the radio report detailing the attack, they are stricken by an ominous premonition that their lives are about to be irrevocably changed. The news seems so outlandish that they initially think it may be a radio drama instead of a news bulletin.

“Seeing the troubled expression on Ken's face, Yuki began to feel apprehensive. If this meant that the United States and Japan were at war, what was going to happen to them? Mother and father were Issei (first-generation Japanese). They were as law abiding and loyal as any American Yuki knew, but they had never been able to become citizens because of a law that wouldn't permit them to.”

Yuki looks up to Ken, so she gauges her reaction to the changing political situation in the United States on how he interprets the news. This is Yuki’s first recognition of the unfairness of US law toward individuals of Japanese descent. The Immigration Act of 1924 barred further immigration from Japan and prevented Issei such as Mr. And Mrs. Sakane from ever becoming citizens, despite their substantial contributions to American society.

“Miss Holt had stopped writing on the blackboard and had stated then and there to the entire class that the Japanese born in America, the Nisei, were just as American as anyone else in the school.

‘They must never be confused with the Japanese militarists who attacked Pearl Harbor,’ she explained. ‘The Nisei are good and loyal citizens,’ she added emphatically, ‘just as you and I.’”

The racist slur that Yuki’s classmate aims at her is the protagonist’s first direct exposure to racism. The members of the Japanese community—even the Nisei, who are American citizens— are being increasingly targeted by white Americans during this early period of unrest. Fortunately, the white people in Yuki’s life (Miss Holt, the Nelson family, and Mrs. Jamieson) are deeply sympathetic to the plight of Yuki’s community.