Yoshiko Uchida

In the following essay, Yoshiko Uchida describes her family's attempt to piece together their lives upon their release from the Topaz relocation center in Utah. Uchida, like many Nisei, or second generation Japanese Americans, moved east to attend school and find work when she was released from custody. As a consequence, her parents moved east as well. Yet like many Issei, or first generation Japanese immigrants, Uchida's parents missed the mild climate of their old home on the Pacific coast and soon moved back. With stoic composure and patient discipline, and with minimal reimbursement from the government, Uchida describes how Japanese Americans quietly set about rebuilding their lives in the west.

A Japanese American recently asked me how the fourth generation Japanese Americans could be proud of their heritage when their grandparents and great-grandparents had been incarcerated in concentration camps. I...