WWII - Manzanar

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On Saturday morning I was on page 40 of the book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. By mid afternoon I had read the 300 pages and finished the entire book. It was such an amazing read. I loved hearing about the different cultures (Chinese and Japanese), time period (Seattle during WWII), and of course the love story between the two main characters.

Some parts were emotional for me because they involved the Japanese being moved to the internment camps. I felt horrible hearing about their treatment and living conditions because my grandparents had to live in an internment camp, Manzanar, and possibly had similar experiences. My grandmother has never talked much about Manzanar and her life there, but a few years ago she opened up and shared something with me that even my mom had never seen:

During her time there she lived in Block Eight. In 1944 she had the others in her block sign their name on a handkerchief. Over the years she sewed over their signatures to make them permanent.

A close up.

3 comments :

  1. Wow. That handkerchief is very powerful. It brought tears to my eyes.

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  2. What an amazing piece of history. I too teared up. I can only hope that we learned something as a country about stereotyping whole groups of people.

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  3. How amazing that she kept that little piece of what she went through there.

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