Journey Home Author:Yoshiko Uchida, Charles Robinson (Illustrator) Twelve year old Yuki and her parents have just been released from Topaz, one of many concentration camps in which all west coast Japanese were imprisoned during World War II. Although they are welcomed by a loyal friend, Mrs. Jamieson, returning to Berkeley is not easy. — There are no houses to rent, Papa cannot find a job, and former... more » friends have changed. In the climate of fear and distrust created by the war, many people had come to hate the Japanese, as Yuki and her family painfully learn.
Yuki's best friend, Emi, and her grandmother join them to start a new life; so does old Mr. Oka, whom they met in their makeshift lodgings. Their joint venture is almost destroyed by anti-Japanese violence, however, and even the return of Yuki's brother, Ken, wounded in the war, brings another disappointment. But eventually they find new hope and strengths in themselves, and Yuki discovers that coming home is a matter of heart and spirit.« less