Thin Wood Walls is
a coming of age story about a boy who is Japanese-American that lived near Seattle, Washington prior to WWII. 11
year old Joe Hanada and his family are living the American dream and are excited
about the upcoming Christmas Holiday but after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941that all changed. Joe’s
family and all the other Japanese-American families were split up forced to
move to War Relocation Camps by the FBI.
Joe’s dad is taken somewhere else because he is suspected to be a spy. Joe’s family lives in the internment camp, in
a shack that has “thin wood walls,” that is surrounded by soldiers and barbed
wire. The FBI questions all of these
people to see if they are loyal to America or Japan which makes Joe feel torn
between his loyalty to his country and his Japanese heritage. Joe keeps a journal throughout his experience
in the camp where he writes poetry and talks about his concern for his father
who he has not seen since the family was split up and for his brother who
joined the American Army to prove is loyalty to America. Joe is forced to grow up quickly when his
world is changed overnight.
This
was a great read but I thought this was an intense story that gives a new
prospective to what was going on for some Americans at this time. I think because Pearl Harbor and WWII was so devastating
that the fact America had their own internment camps gets over looked; I didn’t
learn about these camps until I was in college.
This would be a good book for an 8th grade class and I think
this would be a great book to incorporate into a lesson on the effect of WWII on
Americans. America went through so many
changes during WWII but not everyone’s experience was the same. WWII was harder on some Americans and I think
this is a good example of that difference.
I honestly never learned about the relocation camps of WWII until I came to college. I think this is a very important even in our history that needs to be taught. This book could be a great way to incorporate history and language arts together in a lesson. Thank you for sharing, I want to read this book now to learn more about the camps.
ReplyDeleteI find books like this really interesting. I really like that you chose this book because a lot of places don't talk a lot about internment camps and kind of graze over the ugly and harsh side of America. This is something about what really happened, given a fiction story put to it. Fantastic choice of book. I look forward to sharing it in my own classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think that a book like this would need to be carefully examined and approved by the principal and parents before introducing it to the class. I think it'd be a great book to use to teach junior highers about some of the less-pleasant aspects of our American history, and also teach a valuable lesson about prejudice against other races because of what one group did. This concept can also be applied today, where many people are angry at Arab Americans, who were in no way connected to 9/11. This is a book I will definitely push to be read by my entire classroom!
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