Silver Like Dust: One Family's Story Of America's Japanese Internment (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
This book was a wonderful read. I was particularly fond of the way that the author took time to understand and put together the history of her grandparents. What struck me most was her ability to grapple with how the generational difference stood as a primary hurdle in conveying and understanding the history. It was a wonderful book to read because of how the author handled that aspect and incorporated those sensitive issues in a respectful yet honest manner.I bought this book solely because the book was about Japanese American incarceration. As an American Muslim, I have a very special relationship to this history and to the internees. It was the Japanese American community that reached out the Muslims in Southern California after 9/11 to tell us about their history, that they stood with us as Americans and that we needed to brace ourselves for potential backlash. Their courage, their struggle and their patriotism is an inspiration for me and I have tried hard to make sure that share this history with every American I meet and to carry on their legacy in the activism work I do to empower the community as well as bare solemn witness to this dark part of our history. To that extent I have gone for several years to Manzanar, which was a concentration camp here in California for an annual pilgrimage and have taken scores of Muslim youth and community members.What I appreciate about Mrs. Grant's book was her use of concentration camps, her emphasis on what was lost and the psychological and social affect it had on individuals and family units and I was most impressed with how she shared the kidnapping of thousands of Latin and Canadian Japanese to the US under US directives. A few things that I had hoped to read about but I didn't find included the story of post internment- were Obichaan and Ojichan involved in the apology and restitution movements, what were their thoughts about this, how did this challenge their concepts of "haji". Also, what happened to the family house off of Pico, I feel that loss of property, if there was one, would be an important thing to share. Another aspect that would be interesting would be the post internment years, which is something I would have really like to read about because I haven't found to much written about how families pieced together their lives after such a horrible experience.But overall, even the lack of those points does not detract from the wonderful narrative voice that was drawn upon to construct this book. I am thankful to Obichaan for allowing her story to be shared and I carry it with me. I also appreciate Mrs. Grant for taking six, or more, years in piecing together her grandparents narrative history. Having lost my grandparents, that is one thing I am utterly sad I won't have the opportunity to do, and greatly admire her resolve to work through the years and put together this book. I had to read this for my history class, but it was actually a very interesting and well written memoir. It's unfortunately easy to forget that the U. S. had internment camps during World War II, and right now I'm only miles away from the one discussed in this book, Heart Mountain. It was a somber book, but I feel it is good to learn about these events, so that perhaps they won't be repeated again.
What do You think about Silver Like Dust: One Family's Story Of America's Japanese Internment (2012)?
A well written account of a Japanese family who was interred during WWII.
—nevermind96
Good tale of a sad time in our history.
—books2013
