What do the women depicted in the novel have in common?

Julie Otsuka follows the lives of a group of young women as they travel by boat to America. All are hoping for a better life. They work hard beside their husbands to make a place for themselves in America. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, however, the American dream turns into a nightmare as the Japanese are forced to leave behind the things for which they have worked so hard. They are sent to live in interment camps.