Weedflower

Weedflower
By: Cynthia Kadohata
Atheneum Books 2006

When this book was assigned to us I was not entirely aware of what I should expect while reading this book. The emotions I felt while reading it were very unexpected.  The story of Weedflower begins with Sumiko and her family that runs a flower farm in California. They deal with the day to day prejudices of being Japanese, but they still run a successful business and are happy. Sumiko's parents died when she was young in a car crash and all she has left is Tak Tak. Her uncle and auntie had took her in and with them lives her cousins Ichiro and Bull and her grandfather, Jichan.. Sumiko is almost like a normal grade school girl at this time, except for the fact that she loves dirt and planting flowers. It is her life and what keeps her going through everyday. She begins to really feel the pangs of prejudice when she is invited to a birthday party but because she is Japanese she is not allowed to come in side because there were people at the party that would not want her present. This breaks Sumiko's spirit and also begins the events that lead up to the camps. Pearl Harbor is bombed soon after and the recent rumors of Japanese being taken away to "prison" and camps start to become true.

 First, the people who have not been born in America are taken away. This puts a huge damper on Sumiko's life but she continues to take care of the farm while her uncle and grandfather are gone. Next, district by district families are taken away. In May, Sumiko's life begins to really change. She is told as she can bring is one suitcase full of whatever she can hold and that is it. They are then sent to their temporary residence with straw mattresses and food that makes the whole camp sick.  She is sent to her permanent residence with her family where she spends about a year of her life at. It starts out being just rows of barracks, but as time progresses the Japanese people set up gardens and attempt to make it their own community since they have nothing else. Sumiko makes friends and deals with the struggle constantly of Americanization, and loosing her strong sense of family she used to have. She hangs out with the kids that lie and steal,  but she also meets the Indian boy Frank. As the war rages on Sumiko's relationships with her family, Frank, Mr. Moto, and Sachi change, but as it looms closer soldiers are being sought from everywhere. Japanese people are soon being allowed to leave the residence in order to get a house on the outside to work for a factory. Auntie always decided to stay until Bull and Ichiro decided they would enlist. Sumiko's life changes completely around once again and she is stuck with the decision of staying true to her family or doing what she wants.

This book hit me a lot harder than I would have thought it would. America usually does not talk about this dismal past and the horrible things that it had done, and being that this is all true it makes me almost feel guilty. The Japanese were given terrible living conditions, stripped of their rights, and stripped of everything they once had just so prejudice people could feel safe in their homes every night. I think when Sumiko found out that she would soon be leaving for her first temporary residence is when it first really hit me. The fact that they honestly told people who had well established lives to just pack up and leave because of prejudice was sickening. The author had a great way of writing the story so that I felt like I was her. I could feel the pain of being in her shoes and knowing I may never see some of my other family members again, and I would be ripped away from what I loved the most. It made me look around my own life and really value what I had because if I had to choose to just put everything in one suitcase and then leave forever I would have no idea of what to do. This book I feel is extremely important for students to read , because we always hear about slavery and how terrible it was but for me I learned about it so much it began to not really take too much of a toll on me. In history class we would hear about the internment camps in Germany for the Jewish people, and they sounded horrifying. You can't help but think what sick people would do that, but then you read this book and learn that America did the same thing to the Japanese and it sounds so terrible that the own country you live in used to put people into slavery and internment camps. However, it is almost never talked about, which seems really sad to me that America can not own up to the terrible things it has done. The fact that I have never really learned about this much is what really hit me because it was like unveiling some terrible truth.

One of the aspects I found the most interesting about the book is when you learn about how the Japanese thought of the Indians. They sounded almost as racist as everyone else in stereotyping them as being barbaric. The Indians too had so much but then all of their land was taken away. They didn't have running water or electricity they just had each other. However, America still wanted to enlist them. This is one of the biggest things that annoyed me was when America wanted to enlist the Japenese and Indians after they took everything from them. Why should anyone be loyal to a country that doesn't give them their rights and takes all of their things. It just felt so hypocritical. This book is just so important so students can see how many races were affected during this time and how prejudice hurt so many people for absolutely no reason. This book shows how far prejudice can go, and also why it is ridiculous to go as far as this. As I was saying earlier, it was interesting to see how the Japanese thought of the Indians. They even called black people "Negroes" which was  very weird. The book shows so much of why racism from any race is wrong, and how you never really know who you are stereotyping.

The book was very simplistic in a way. Sumiko just wanted to go back to her flowers, but because of prejudice she was stuck. However, this book got so many emotions out of me I am really surprised. it was sad to see Sumiko's struggles with trying to stay with her traditions while also trying to be American. I feel like many students in a class could relate to her problems. Also, as she seemed to loose her sense of family I think that is what really hit home for me. I almost cried when she discovered why she wanted to leave and it was because of her Jichan and all he had done for her. I think this book really makes students appreciate their families and what they have done for them so much more. I would definitely use this book in my classroom since it is just so powerful and teaches so many valuable lessons.