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Title: The Invisible Thread: An Autobiography
ISBN: 0688137032
Author:
Yoshiko Uchida
Publicate Date: 1995-09
Publish: 1995-09
List Price: $5.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $93.32
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $5.94
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1: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness
Home Building & Loan Assocation verses Blaisdell, the court stated, an emergency does not create power; an emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved; an emergency may furnish the occasion for the exercise of power; the war power of federal government is not granted by the emergency of war, but is the power given to meet the emergency and it is the power to wage war successfully; even the war power does not remove constitutional limitations safeguarding essential liberties; the general clauses of the constitution grant and limit power of the federal government; the general clauses set specific prohibitions constraining power.
The invisible thread explores the connection between Japan and America for the Uchida family. The central nexus is a missionary university in Japan. Yoshiko's mother Iku gained her education at the Missionary University, worked for a professor, and was introduced by the professor to Takashi. The introduction lead to an arranged marriage after Takashi advanced significantly in his career. In ten years, Takashi had gained an admirable job working for the Mitsui Company. Iku studies included advanced American Literature studies. Takashi work ethic, knowledge, and skills distinguished him as a brilliant student and a masterful businessman. The transplant of such talent enriched America. The industrial enterprises of Japan on American soil provide jobs, productivity, and economic growth. Yoshiko talks extensively about how her parent included her and her sister Keiko on many outings, such as plays, musicals, concerts, and movies. Yoshiko was a part of the emerging cultural explosion of the early forties. The connection to the Christian Church in Japan remained strong and cross cultural exchanges allowed Japanese ministers to arrive at the Uchida home where Japanese food was prepared, hot baths provide, letters exchanged, and ideas communicated. The invisible thread binding the family to the Japan was a constant theme in Yoshiko's early life. The warm Japanese culture provided a sense of meaning and stability against the constant racism that bombarded the family.
The safeguarding of "essential liberties" was guaranteed by the constitution were preempted for the Japanese, a bloody war with millions dying, pearl harbor feeding fear upon Americans and escalating potential violence, and anti-foreigner sentiment statement became common. It was claimed that five thousand Japanese Americans refused to denounce the Emperor of Japan, a God in the flesh personage; Japanese Americans never had any loyality to the emperor to begin with; but the names of the individuals were not circulated nor confirmed; a case of compelling real danger was not demonstrated; no militia was required too suppressed a rebellious Japanese uprising; the Japanese American was a loyal, hardworking, and honest person with Christ-like attributes. The Japanese were very sensitive too their American communities and many heartfelt gestures were extended.
Did the court prove a connection between the Japanese American and a military crisis? No. The Supreme court applied separability and did not address connectability.
A person may not be able to define Justice, but that individual definitely understands when an injustice has been committed.
Takashi was sentenced to prison because he worked for a Japanese company and the family was separated. We see that when the "general clauses" of the constitution are relaxed the people suffer. The contractual bounds of the law were relaxed and the constitution then failed to protect the Japanese American's from being stripped of their property, expelled from lucrative business dealings, and driving behind wired fences.
The economic drain on California must have been immense. The specific prohibitions of political power was designed to limit government from intruding upon the civil liberties of the citizen. Legal precedence often opens doors of power. The preemption of Japanese civil rights started with court cases starting with creditor and home foreclosure acts which the court ruled against where a emergency power extending the payment terms was not rule unconstitutional. If the emergency power was ruled unconstitutional and the borrowed allowed to move into foreclosure the precedence would have been far better for the Japanese American.
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2: The Invisible Thread, Jana C.
The memoir, The Invisible Thread, tells the story of a young Japanese girl during the 1930's. Yoshiko Uchida goes through so many unjust events in her younger ages due to the fact that she is Japanese even though she is a Nisei, the second generation of Japanese immigrants. Through Yoshiko's eyes her life, with her older sister and parents, was full of hardships and pain. "Do you cut Japanese hair?" was one of the embarrassing questions Yoshiko had to ask. This capturing novel is an excellent example of a Japanese girl's life during and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
I grew to love the description of a happy Japanese family living in Berkley, CA. That family was Yoshiko Uchida, her daring older sister, Keiko Uchida, and their two loving Issei ( first generation) parents. The Japanese racism doesn't really stand out in the beginning but it later jumps right in and turns Yoshiko's life upside down. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor many Japanese were suspected and questioned, then taken away for labor. The Uchida family was one of the unlucky families where the father was taken away to work in Montana and the rest of the family were evacuated to a Tanforan where they lived for five long months. After reading these few chapters of horror and despair I compared it to the blissful and loving beginning and realized how this change that had nothing to do with them directly almost destroyed them.
In the story Yoshiko Uchida does a fair job of describing the characters, that are not only herself, in a realistic way. Keiko, a curious and inquisitive young being is always wondering and fully spirited throughout the book in rain or shine. She has a strong will but also a level head most of the time. Mama's characteristics were rarely mentioned in the story but it is perceived that she is a cheerful housewife and, along with Papa, likes to keep in touch with everyone they know be it a good friend or just a person on the bus. Papa is a social and popular man and organizes a local church, with Mama's help, for many families. Yoshiko is mentioned many times as a fun yet shy child. She can be quite strong at times when personal things are in danger to her but most of the time she is quiet and watching beneath Keiko's shadow. This memoir doesn't read as a regular story but more as a historical novel in which the characters are open to the imagination in their description but in setting in history their characteristics are limited and more precise.
This story is wonderfully written in a true voice from the actual time period. The problems most Japanese families faced were mentioned and how the particular Uchida family dealt with them. Jam packed with the narrative were many interesting facts that helped understand the story more fully. Ms. Uchida really captured the feeling of her younger life during the 1930's: angst, pain, sorrow, happiness, all of it. I recommend this book to readers of all ages because there is absolutely no reason to not read this amazing book that's filled with such detail and description.
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3: Always Bound to Her Japanese Ansestry (Jody F.)
Although she wanted to be just American, "a long invisible thread... always bound," Yoshiko Uchida to her Japanese ancestry. In the Invisible Thread: a Memoir by Yoshiko Uchida, Uchida, a second-generation Japanese-American, lives a normal American childhood life living with her family, attending school, dreaming to be a teacher and encountering little racial prejudice in Berkley, California. However, everything changes when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor in 1941. Accordingly, President Roosevelt ignores the Japanese-American's constitutional rights by forcing, "eviction of all Americans of Japanese ancestry along the West Coast," only because they looked like the enemy. I loved The Invisible Thread, because Yoshiko Uchida vividly shares how she and her family struggles and deals with life imprisoned in crowded and isolated Japanese concentration camps and teaches great lessons to her readers.
Throughout the entire book, Yoshiko Uchida provides adjectives, comparisons, similes and metaphors to give detailed descriptions of the surroundings. When she and her family are in the bus that relocates them from California to Topaz, Utah, the concentration camp, in the book she said, "the bus made a sudden turn into the heart of the sun-drenched dessert, and there, in the middle of nowhere, were rows and rows or tar-papered barracks. They looked like small match boxes laid out neatly on a vast white table." She continuously describes Topaz, Utah so well that the pictures at the back of the book look almost exactly like what I had envisioned.
I also love the book because it teaches me many valuable lessons. Yoshiko Uchida is inspiring to me because even though she endures racial discrimination during and after the war, because of her Japanese face, she still has the strength and pride to pursue her dream to become a teacher. Additionally, reading this book has made me appreciate and enjoy my freedom more. Always taking my freedom in America for granted, I never realized that it could be snatched from me any day.
In this moving memoir, Yoshiko Uchida recounts the events preceding, during and following the attack of Pearl Harbor in her life. It also focuses on how she and her family overcame the hardships in this ordeal. I encourage people to read, The Invisible Thread, because it will show you how life for Japanese-Americans dramatically changed during WWII. I would highly recommend this inspiring book for its vivid descriptions, details and strong messages it sends out to all ages.
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4: Life of a Japanese American during Relocation
I found this book intriguing. Uchida vividly explains her childhood as a Japanese American and illustrates the need to conform, like any other young child. As she ages, she realizes that her heritage can never be erased, and she is soon penalized for this, a thing she cannot help.
I enjoyed how Uchida used words to show how innocent she was when she was a child. The beginning of this book shows how, even if Yoshiko wanted to be like other girls, there were still places that she could not go because of her face. She is just like any other girl, living a good life in a good, accepting city.
I disliked that, towards the middle of the book, about when Uchida and her family are sent to the camps, the author's use of words describing her feelings stops. Instead, she tells more about her surroundings, and less of how she feels about how America has betrayed her and her family.
The Invisible Thread gives an inside look into the lives of the Japanese Americans forced to make their way in sub-standard living conditions. The vivid language used to describe her family's guests, habits, and unforgettable moments make the book worth the read. I would recommend it to anyone interested in World War II, Japanese American relocation after Pearl Harbor.
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5: Not so invisible any more, thank goodness
In addition to her writings about the Japanese and Japanese-American culture, Yoshiko Uchida wrote several fiction books that drew from her experiences as a Japanese American during World War II. The Invisible Thread, written for young adults, is an autobiography that tells of her life before, during her family's internment in a camp in Utah.
Although her parents were Japanese citizens, Yoshi and her sister were born in the United States. They were as American in their speech and culture as the Swedish family next door to them. Yet, because of their appearance, they faced discrimination even before the war. The American government violated the Japanese Americans' constitutional rights when they removed them from their homes. The conditions under which they were forced to live were deplorable.
The author chose not to dwell on the horrors of that period of her life. Although she clearly describes their relocation and the stable and barracks they lived in, her emphasis is more on family life and the positive things they did to keep their lives as normal as possible. She does a fine job of describing her own confusion, her loyalty to her family and friends and her loyalty to the government that betrayed them.
This book is on our local school system's 2005 Summer Reading List. With the current backlash against Arab Americans, this is an important book for children to read. It is only through education and tolerance that we have a hope of avoiding past mistakes.
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