Looking Like the Enemy (The Young Reader's Edition) - Softcover

Gruenewald, Mary Matusda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0939165589 ISBN 13: 9780939165582

Publisher: NewSage Press, 2011

Synopsis

Mary Matsuda is a typical 16-year-old girl living on Vashon Island, Washington with her family. On December 7, 1942, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and Mary's life changes forever. Mary and her brother, Yoneichi, are U.S. citizens, but they are imprisoned, along with their parents, in a Japanese-American internment camp. Mary endures an indefinite sentence behind barbed wire in crowded, primitive camps, struggling for survival and dignity. Mary wonders if they will be killed, or if they will one day return to their beloved home and berry farm. The author tells her story with the passion and spirit of a girl trying to make sense of this terrible injustice to her and her family. Mary captures the emotional and psychological essence of what it was like to grow up in the midst of this profound dislocation, questioning her Japanese and her American heritage. Few other books on this subject come close to the emotional power, raw honesty, and moral significance of this memoir. This personal story provides a touchstone for the young student learning about World War II and this difficult chapter in U.S. history.

About this title

About the Author:

Mary Matsuda Gruenewald lives in Seattle, Washington. She will be 80 years old in 2005 when this book is published. This is her first book and of considerable significance for her generation and as a Nissei. She will be breaking the silence of telling her story, in-depth, about her years imprisoned for being Japanese in America. After being released from her last Japanese-American internment camp, Gruenewald became a registered nurse, and worked as an R.N. for more than a quarter of a century. She established the Consulting Nurse Service within the Group Health Cooperative in 1971, which has become a national model for numerous health care providers. In 2002 she was a medical delegate representing seniors on behalf of Medicare Plus Choice. At that meeting she was selected along with ten other delegates to advise President George W. Bush on health care issues. Her articles regarding her internment during WW II have appeared in newspapers and she has presented commentaries for NPR KPLU. She speaks to many schools and community groups about her internment. Gruenewald received an Asian American Living Pioneer Award in 2003 honoring her contributions.

About this edition

• Publisher: NewSage Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0939165589
• ISBN 13: 9780939165582
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264