CITIZEN 13660

by Mine Okubo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 20, 1946

She was California-born, and an art student of great promise at the University of California, one of the Nisei who will bear the scars of our own form of concentration camp through her life. But in her book, largely a picture book with running text, there is scarcely even a breath of criticism of the country she loves. The criticism is implicit in the bald record of what happened, of the six months living in the temporary center, housed in a stall in a semi-converted racing stable; of the hardships, and inadequacies of food and bare necessities, of the delays in organization, the demoralising effect of idleness, the efforts of the few to provide work and recreation, of the Victory gardens and the lake dug in the race track, and of the thrill of a single day of liberty, while some details were attended to before the transfer to the Utah camp, and another year of imprisonment. Her work on the camp paper brought her an offer from fortune, and when the loyal Nisel were released, she came east. She gives one a stark picture of the life in the relocation camps. And her drawings, in bold black and white, tell more than the text.

Pub Date: Sept. 20, 1946

ISBN: 0295959894

Page Count: -

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1946

Categories: NONFICTION