Displacement by Kiku Hughes--Student Review

by Ethan Wang

On February 12, 1942, nearly three months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt issued Executive order 9066, which forced citizens with Japanese heritage to be held in incarceration camps, as they were perceived by the government as a threat to national security. The book Displacement by Kiku Hughes provides a view into the experiences of the Japanese American citizens as they lived in those camps by moving the main character from her life in the modern world to a life in an incarceration camp using an unexplained supernatural event. Through this supernatural premise, the author, Kiku Hughes, expresses the dehumanizing and unequal aspects of this executive order, as well as the activities and values among the Japanese Americans that helped them overcome challenges in the camps. 
After the main character, Kiku, is transported to the time when all the Japanese citizens were being rounded up and transported to the incarceration camps. In this section, Hughes puts a lot of emphasis on how these people were being treated like prisoners of war. The busses that they were put on had their windows papered over to prevent the passengers from knowing where they were, presumably for the sake of preventing escape. The people in the camps were fed in a mess hall, with canned food, similar to the rations in a prison. Many people were taken from their families under the suspicion that they may be spies. Later in the story, these conditions are contrasted with the values of the United States, as the Japanese American children, including Kiku, learn about how the Constitution was written on the basis of freedom, security, and the right to property. 
Throughout the story, Hughes also stresses the importance of community in the camps, even among people who barely knew each other. For example, at the start of the story, Kiku, as well as many other people, worked with their roommates to fix up the barracks that they were housed in. Not only did this improve their housing, it also gave the Japanese Americans a sense that they could rely on each other. This bond was best highlighted when someone was shot by a security guard. Even people who did not know the person who was shot showed up for the funeral that the community held for him. Here, instead of being a weakness that gets them incarcerated, the Japanese Americans’ shared cultural heritage becomes an advantage, as it strengthens the bonds within the community. 
While the book Displacement does a great job portraying the experiences of Japanese Americans during their internment through a more personal lens, it fails to show the broader effects of this event on the Japanese Americans. For example, the book does not delve much into how many people lost their property as they were being incarcerated, and never got it back. Arguably, this is one of the more personal effects of internment, as Japanese Americans are forced to rebuild their lives from scratch after they were released. The book also does not show much of what happens to the people after they leave the internment camps. While there is a section about Kiku’s grandmother becoming a talented violinist, her grandmother’s experiences are not typical of someone exiting incarceration, since most of them did not have the educational opportunities given to Kiku’s grandmother by a nonprofit. 
While not explicitly stated, the book stresses the importance of keeping personal and detailed records of what happened in the past. It is necessary for people to remember details and feelings of the people who have gone through these events in order to prevent such things from happening again.
The book Displacement provides a great personal view into the lives of Japanese Americans as they went through the effects of Executive order 9066, which differentiates itself from history books that often only include statistics and objective descriptions.