A Place To Belong

A Place To Belong

Juvenile fiction
"This was the thing about Japan: she had never been there. Her
parents had told her her entire life that it was important to be
American. It was important to talk just a little more loudly than
some of the girls who were being raised to be more Japanese. It was
important to make eye contact and not cover your mouth when you
laughed, like some of the more Japanese girls did. Basically, the way
to be Japanese in America was to be more American than the Americans.
And now she was being told she would need to be more Japanese."
Hanako, narrator of Cynthia Kadohata's A Place To Belong, has
known more sorrow than anyone should have to in a lifetime. Following
Pearl Harbor her family has lost all their possessions including the
restaurant her father had worked so hard to establish and been forced
to survive in prison camps. Now the war is over. She and her parents
and little brother are on a boat about to go off to an uncertain
future in the ancestral land she has never seen, sent by Americans who
still consider them evil.
Hanako's family is going to live with her father's parents,
tenant farmers, in a small village near Hiroshima. That area is
relatively unscathed and green. But the residents live in dire
poverty. Hanako's grandparents often don't have enough to eat, even
though they labor in the fields just about all the time.
Hanako comes to love her grandparents deeply. She finally
starts to make friends at school. Then her life is shaken by yet
another decision beyond her control.
On a purrrsonal note, last night it was announced that University of
Maine will go online for classes after March break. As of the 22nd
the dorms will be closed for the rest of the semester. A lot of
people are worse off than me. Some people who don't have access to
wifi where they live could lose a semester. With all the travel bans
I bet some international students can't get home.
I worked my last day at dining today. Last night and today were so
sad. We're like family and want to take care of each other. Every
goodbye was breaking my heart. I'll miss my friends in my program and
my undergrads too.
Tomorrow I have to go on campus to get my poster and stuff on my
locker. Then Saturday is day one of what feels like house arrest but
is the only sane and sensible thing to do. Mixing and mingling
spreads the virus.
A great shout out goes out to you, my readers. Stock up on good books
at your library before it closes. I'm sure the librarians will be
lenient about late fees given the circumstances. I'll be reading and
reviewing plenty. Stay to home as much as possible. Wash your
hands. Drink fluids. Get rest. Avoid crowds. And stay off the damn
cruise ships. OK? I'm pulling for us to make it through this shit
storm.
jules and tobago hathaway


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