What do you think?
Rate this book
Silver Like Dust
Sipping tea by the fire, preparing sushi for the family, or indulgently listening to her husband tell the same story for the hundredth time, Kimi Grant's grandmother, Obaachan, was a missing link to Kimi’s Japanese heritage, something she had had a mixed relationship with all her life. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, all Kimi ever wanted to do was fit in, spurning traditional Japanese cuisine and her grandfather’s attempts to teach her the language.
But there was one part of Obaachan’s life that had fascinated and haunted Kimi ever since the age of eleven—her gentle yet proud Obaachan had once been a prisoner, along with 112,000 Japanese Americans, for more than five years of her life. Obaachan never spoke of those years, and Kimi’s own mother only spoke of it in whispers. It was a source of haji, or shame. But what had really happened to Obaachan, then a young woman, and the thousands of other men, women, and children like her?
Obaachan would meet her husband in the camps and watch her mother die there, too. From the turmoil, racism, and paranoia that sprang up after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the terrifying train ride to Heart Mountain, to the false promise of V-J Day, Silver Like Dust captures a vital chapter of the Japanese American experience through the journey of one remarkable woman.
Her story is one of thousands, yet is a powerful testament to the enduring bonds of family and an unusual look at the American dream.
But there was one part of Obaachan’s life that had fascinated and haunted Kimi ever since the age of eleven—her gentle yet proud Obaachan had once been a prisoner, along with 112,000 Japanese Americans, for more than five years of her life. Obaachan never spoke of those years, and Kimi’s own mother only spoke of it in whispers. It was a source of haji, or shame. But what had really happened to Obaachan, then a young woman, and the thousands of other men, women, and children like her?
Obaachan would meet her husband in the camps and watch her mother die there, too. From the turmoil, racism, and paranoia that sprang up after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the terrifying train ride to Heart Mountain, to the false promise of V-J Day, Silver Like Dust captures a vital chapter of the Japanese American experience through the journey of one remarkable woman.
Her story is one of thousands, yet is a powerful testament to the enduring bonds of family and an unusual look at the American dream.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
136 people are currently reading
3075 people want to read
About the author
Kimi Cunningham Grant
6 books2,308 followersKimi Cunningham Grant is the author of four books. Silver Like Dust is a memoir about her Japanese-American grandparents and their experience in the internment camp at Heart Mountain during World War II. Her second book, Fallen Mountains, is a literary mystery set in a small town in Pennsylvania, where fracking has just begun. In her third book, These Silent Woods, a father and daughter living in the remote Appalachian mountains must reckon with the ghosts of their past. Her fourth book, The Nature of Disappearing, features a woman who must team up with the ex-boyfriend who ruined her life to trek deep into the Idaho wilderness in search of a friend who's gone missing.
Before she wrote novels, Kimi was an award-winning poet and nonfiction writer.
She lives with her family in Pennsylvania.
Before she wrote novels, Kimi was an award-winning poet and nonfiction writer.
She lives with her family in Pennsylvania.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 245 reviews
April 18, 2012
I enjoyed the book moderately. There are other books about this unfortunate period of history that cover it better. Kimis grandmother does not really wish to recount her experiences in the internment camp and kimi slowly pulls some stories from her over a period of years. So the actual camp experiences recounted do not cover a lot of the writing. Kimi adds facts from world war II and much of her own meandering, sometimes repeating herself. I prefer nonfiction but think this story, with little actual content might have been better fleshed out with some imagination. I found the grandmother to be a wonderful character though. And the book would bea good introduction to those unacquainted with the Japanese internment time.
May 3, 2012
In my high school social studies classes, no one ever once uttered the words "Japanese internment camp". In fact, I learned that our country rounded up and imprisoned the West Coast Japanese when I was in my mid-20s, and I found out because of a song by Fort Minor (a rap group), where the lead singer (Mike Shinoda) raps about his Japanese family being taken from Los Angeles to the Manzanar internment camp during WWII. I thought I was hearing the lyrics wrong, but after I listened more closely, I got the picture. I couldn't believe it.
This book tells the experience of the author's grandmother and her family being taken from their home in Los Angeles to a temporary camp in Pomona, CA (where the LA County Fair is now held - I went last year, and in retrospect that's kind of eerie). They stayed there while the permanent camp in Wyoming was finished and made ready for its occupants. There, her grandmother married and had her first child. The Japanese were there for just shy of three years before being released.
The author really paints a picture of what it was like back then, complete with many, many references and quotes from publications of that time period. It shocked me how racist our country was back then, and how blatant our media and government was in expressing this. Without this historical information, I wouldn't have had the full picture of what life was like for the Japanese then.
This book should be on the reading list of every high school kid everywhere. It is informative, extremely interesting (I couldn't put it down), and historically important.
This book tells the experience of the author's grandmother and her family being taken from their home in Los Angeles to a temporary camp in Pomona, CA (where the LA County Fair is now held - I went last year, and in retrospect that's kind of eerie). They stayed there while the permanent camp in Wyoming was finished and made ready for its occupants. There, her grandmother married and had her first child. The Japanese were there for just shy of three years before being released.
The author really paints a picture of what it was like back then, complete with many, many references and quotes from publications of that time period. It shocked me how racist our country was back then, and how blatant our media and government was in expressing this. Without this historical information, I wouldn't have had the full picture of what life was like for the Japanese then.
This book should be on the reading list of every high school kid everywhere. It is informative, extremely interesting (I couldn't put it down), and historically important.
April 15, 2018
I enjoyed this book enormously mostly for personal reasons that I will get in to below. For the general reader, it is a great account of the Japanese American internment experience during WWII. What makes it different and exceptional was that it is told from the perspective of the mixed race granddaughter who is learning the details of her Obaachan's (grandmother's) experiences in the camps for the first time. Kimi Cunningham Grant is able to give the history while also highlighting the cultural and generational divide in so many Japanese American families. Like Grant says, the majority of Japanese Americans interned the in the camps faced the situation with resolve and the "characteristic Japanese mentality of shikataganai. Whatever happens, happens.". Many lived their lives with a deep sense of haji, or shame, about who they were and where they or their ancestors came from because of Japan's involvement in WWII and the United States' response to it. This caused them to not talk about their experiences in the camps so many children and grandchildren of the interned know very little about it. Grant is able to unfurl the story of her Obaachan while also showing us her experience of getting her Obaachan to open up. It reads beautifully and quickly and I highly recommend.
Now, on to the personal stuff...
I cannot explain how fulfilling it was to read a book by an author with my same first name. I know that sounds weird but when you are a mixed race child who grew up a town that was 98.9% white, encountering another Kimi is rare, especially another Kimi that is also mixed Irish American and Japanese American. I identified with every word in this book which, though I have identified with other books, was so inspiring because for the first time, I saw ME. Not the various personality traits that could be me but the cultural, genetic, racial, and historical facts that mirror my life in a way I haven't seen yet.
My family history and life parallel a lot with this author, though off by a generation. I am also a child of a Japanese American woman and an Irish American man. I was raised in a town where my brothers, mother, and I were 4 of only a few people of color. I resonated a LOT with Grant's thoughts that "It was not an ideal place for me to sort out issues of racial identity". In fact, I am just now coming into my own racial identity (helped along by reading books by and about Japanese Americans throughout 2018, a list that this book was a part of). I, too, am named after a family member (my grandfather's mother) and have a name that reflects my mixed heritage: Kimi (Japanese) Loughlin (Irish). My grandparents and great grandparents are also very emotionally reserved and don't often outwardly express love towards me or my brothers. Both my grandparents were interned with their respective families, my grandfather as a 1st grader and my grandmother as an infant. The similarities are endless and I felt so much joy and "rightness" reading this memoir. Thank you, Kimi Cunningham Grant!
Now, on to the personal stuff...
I cannot explain how fulfilling it was to read a book by an author with my same first name. I know that sounds weird but when you are a mixed race child who grew up a town that was 98.9% white, encountering another Kimi is rare, especially another Kimi that is also mixed Irish American and Japanese American. I identified with every word in this book which, though I have identified with other books, was so inspiring because for the first time, I saw ME. Not the various personality traits that could be me but the cultural, genetic, racial, and historical facts that mirror my life in a way I haven't seen yet.
My family history and life parallel a lot with this author, though off by a generation. I am also a child of a Japanese American woman and an Irish American man. I was raised in a town where my brothers, mother, and I were 4 of only a few people of color. I resonated a LOT with Grant's thoughts that "It was not an ideal place for me to sort out issues of racial identity". In fact, I am just now coming into my own racial identity (helped along by reading books by and about Japanese Americans throughout 2018, a list that this book was a part of). I, too, am named after a family member (my grandfather's mother) and have a name that reflects my mixed heritage: Kimi (Japanese) Loughlin (Irish). My grandparents and great grandparents are also very emotionally reserved and don't often outwardly express love towards me or my brothers. Both my grandparents were interned with their respective families, my grandfather as a 1st grader and my grandmother as an infant. The similarities are endless and I felt so much joy and "rightness" reading this memoir. Thank you, Kimi Cunningham Grant!
March 18, 2022
“You might be the only Japanese a person ever meets,” he insisted, “and that person will judge the entire race based on how you act. It might not seem fair, but it’s true.”
Kimi always felt there was something missing in her life and perspective of her heritage. The story focuses on the author's journey to find out about her Grandmother's life as a Japanese American from the 1930s through WWII and after. She discovers details about her time in the internment camp in Wyoming where her grandmother met her grandfather, wed and had their first child.
The story shows another part of the American experience that we rarely hear about. IT also shows how the author's relationship changes with her grandmother as she learns more about her past.
I listened to the book on audio, which was well narrated. If you enjoy finding out about different parts of the American experience, this book is for you.
Kimi always felt there was something missing in her life and perspective of her heritage. The story focuses on the author's journey to find out about her Grandmother's life as a Japanese American from the 1930s through WWII and after. She discovers details about her time in the internment camp in Wyoming where her grandmother met her grandfather, wed and had their first child.
The story shows another part of the American experience that we rarely hear about. IT also shows how the author's relationship changes with her grandmother as she learns more about her past.
I listened to the book on audio, which was well narrated. If you enjoy finding out about different parts of the American experience, this book is for you.
October 27, 2015
Kimi Grant has written of her grandmother's internment as a Japanese American citizen at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. during WW II. More than 112,000 people were relocated for around five years.Although she has clearly covered the formidable situation for these people during their forced confinement, the major stress of this book is family and the relationship between the granddaughter and the elder grandmother.It was a sweet, poignant story.
Grant attempted to impart the outrageous situation for these detainees, but it seemed to be tangential to her family's story. Certainly their experiences at Heart Mountain influenced their lifelong attitudes and behaviors. Although much more limited in scope, the brief, When the Emperor Was Divine, conveyed more sensitive difficulties. Also, Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment, touchingly disclosed the indignities of their imprisonments.
How unbelievable and brave it was to read of the many Japanese American men, who despite the government's unfair treatment, fought valiantly for America, viewed by all as their country, during the war. Overall, I did enjoy reading this account.
Grant attempted to impart the outrageous situation for these detainees, but it seemed to be tangential to her family's story. Certainly their experiences at Heart Mountain influenced their lifelong attitudes and behaviors. Although much more limited in scope, the brief, When the Emperor Was Divine, conveyed more sensitive difficulties. Also, Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment, touchingly disclosed the indignities of their imprisonments.
How unbelievable and brave it was to read of the many Japanese American men, who despite the government's unfair treatment, fought valiantly for America, viewed by all as their country, during the war. Overall, I did enjoy reading this account.
May 23, 2012
I couldn't decide on two or three stars for this one. The subject is always interesting to me. I appreciate that she brought up the situations where the families were separated and never really connected again besides the occasional birthday card. Many books end with the release of the internees and don't consider the long-term effects on the families.
My objection with the book is the writing style. Odd details are included and are distracting. I'm not sure why the reader needs to know what the author and her grandmother ate a Thai restaurant and that the waiter approved of their choices.
My objection with the book is the writing style. Odd details are included and are distracting. I'm not sure why the reader needs to know what the author and her grandmother ate a Thai restaurant and that the waiter approved of their choices.
June 20, 2013
As a fan of George Takei on Facebook, I was well aware that America sent residents of Japanese descendents living on the West Coast to internment camps inland. What I didn't really realize was the blatant racism the Japanese had encountered for years, both well before and during WWII. Initially, as the only Asian group to have immigrated to the US, the Chinese were the ones who experienced this prejudice. It was felt that the Chinese were coming to the States to steal jobs from white men, a sentiment I see now as a modern 21st century woman, regarding Mexican immigrants in the border states. Apparently things don't change much, even in a hundred years. But that racism felt by the Chinese was easily transferred over to the Japanese once the emperor opens the borders of his nation and allowed his people to emigrate to the States. The Japanese weren't allowed to visit the public pools. They weren't allowed to sit on the first floor of the movie theatre, but were relegated to the balcony with the other marginalized groups, the blacks and Mexicans and Chinese. They weren't even allowed to shop at the small, mom & pop stores owned by whites. They had to stay in Little Tokyo or shop at the large department stores. Yet they accepted this, as they accepted the transfer to the internment camps, as their lot in life. The Japanese felt that the best way to serve their new nation was just to keep their heads down and not make a fuss, even with their rights being trampled on all over the place. It makes this 21st century American a little ashamed of her nation.
That said, there isn't a whole lot in this book regarding the internment camps. Ms Grant has to pull the memories from her grandmother, called Obaachan, in small stages over several years because she is such a private woman. The author makes up for that by dropping in small anecdotes about some of the other inmates (like the Japanese cowboy and the white woman who had chosen to accompany her Japanese husband to the camp), but even still, she mentions them and that's about it. I wonder if the author could have done more research, contacted more people from her grandmother's camp, to find out more information about some of these people, especially the white American imprisoned with her husband.
Ms Grant also uses this book to tell the reader about her blossoming relationship with her grandmother, who had always been in the shadows throughout her childhood behind her loquacious grandfather. But I found her conjectures about her grandmother, done because her grandmother just wouldn't share certain things, even sixty years later, to be a bit distracting. Of course, Ms Grant would have reacted differently in such situations, as a modern woman who may have felt different growing up, being half-Japanese, from her white classmates, but who hadn't been exposed to such virulent racism ("Kill all the Japs!") that her grandmother had dealt with in the 1930s and 40s.
At any rate, this is a very eye-opening book, and I think it needs to be discussed that Americans imprisoned Japanese, and even American citizens of Japanese descent, in this camps. I know my history class didn't really discuss this issue when I was in high school.
I'll be looking for more books on this subject.
That said, there isn't a whole lot in this book regarding the internment camps. Ms Grant has to pull the memories from her grandmother, called Obaachan, in small stages over several years because she is such a private woman. The author makes up for that by dropping in small anecdotes about some of the other inmates (like the Japanese cowboy and the white woman who had chosen to accompany her Japanese husband to the camp), but even still, she mentions them and that's about it. I wonder if the author could have done more research, contacted more people from her grandmother's camp, to find out more information about some of these people, especially the white American imprisoned with her husband.
Ms Grant also uses this book to tell the reader about her blossoming relationship with her grandmother, who had always been in the shadows throughout her childhood behind her loquacious grandfather. But I found her conjectures about her grandmother, done because her grandmother just wouldn't share certain things, even sixty years later, to be a bit distracting. Of course, Ms Grant would have reacted differently in such situations, as a modern woman who may have felt different growing up, being half-Japanese, from her white classmates, but who hadn't been exposed to such virulent racism ("Kill all the Japs!") that her grandmother had dealt with in the 1930s and 40s.
At any rate, this is a very eye-opening book, and I think it needs to be discussed that Americans imprisoned Japanese, and even American citizens of Japanese descent, in this camps. I know my history class didn't really discuss this issue when I was in high school.
I'll be looking for more books on this subject.
Currently reading
January 7, 2026Book club read Jan. 17, 2026.
March 22, 2012
I really enjoyed this book as well as informed by it. I thought it was recommended by a friend of mine but as it turns out, she was referring to a different book. I'm glad I made the "mistake"!
March 14, 2022
This book was included with my Audible subscription. If a reader is looking for a detailed account of what it was like to live in an internment camp, they will probably be disappointed because the focus is on this one woman's account, the narrator's grandmother who lived her early adult years in the camp, was married and had a child there, but who has also spent her life as a listener and secret keeper, not a storyteller. That said, the central character's personality and account are truly endearing. My favorite parts of the book was the explanation of how moving a gift from the Quakers at the camp was (it showed a kindness and understanding the Japanese Americans had longed for and not received for many years), the details about the relationship that bloomed between the central character and her husband, and the quiet toughness of the central character which seems to be representative of those forced to stay in the camp. Overall, a book that makes the reader examine the cost of discrimination and oppression and how people push forward--sometimes ever so quietly.
September 11, 2022
I have read a few books about the experience of Japanese Americans who were interned during WW2 and this one was similar to all the ones I have read. I enjoyed listening to the audiobook version though the narrator's depiction of the author's grandmother sounded like a child. An important book about how the Japanese Americans were prejudiced against and their treatment.
October 29, 2020
Essentially, this is the story of a young woman trying to better connect with her heritage and forge a closer relationship with her grandmother through querying her grandmother about her experiences in internment during WWII. While this is an important part of history that gets too little coverage in education and general history books of the era, this particular account is not all that rich in detail. The grandmother is clearly reluctant to relive some parts of a painful past, and the granddaughter's constant pressuring for more information seems rather insensitive at times. Added to that, Kimi Cunningham Grant just isn't all that good a writer - she wanders off on tangents, spends inordinate amounts of time on entirely irrelevant details, repeats herself a lot, all of which sapped my patience.
July 4, 2012
Disappointed with the flow of the book. Hoped it would read more like a story and less like a conversation by the author about her grandmother. The book gave historical background but I wanted to hear more about the feelings of those interned in the camps in order to feel more of those being there.
April 12, 2018
Informative and interesting. Loved it!
May 29, 2023
My Bachan passed away in 2016 and I think about her every day, miss her every day. I asked her twice about internment. Once when I was a teenager and had just learned about it in English class and once as an adult when I was living with her. Both times she told me she didn't really remember, that she was too young. Later, I did the math and realized she was a teenager during internment and mostly, she just didn't want to talk about.
How I would have given anything to hear these stories from my Bachan. What a precious gift Kimi's Bachan gave her here.
How I would have given anything to hear these stories from my Bachan. What a precious gift Kimi's Bachan gave her here.
January 9, 2026
Silver Like Dust tells the story of the internment of the author's grandmother. She interviews her grandmother over the course of several years. Highlights of the book are Kimi's growth in understanding the Japanese-American culture and understanding why her grandmother acts the way she does. Her grandparents were incarcerated during WWII at Heart Mountain in Wyoming. How they got from CA to Wyoming is a heartbreaking story, but they took it all in stride. Their resilience in the face of injustice is inspiring.
January 7, 2023
I have never read an account of daily life in the Japanese internment camps in the US during WW2, and I thought this was an excellent story about that era. It was told through the voice of the granddaughter of a woman who lived in the camps. I learned tons. I thought the story ended a bit abruptly, but all in all this was an excellent, informative story.
(The author—the granddaughter—went to Messiah College in PA, so it was really interesting to read one or two references to Messiah in the midst of this account of the Japanese internments from the 1940s…)
(The author—the granddaughter—went to Messiah College in PA, so it was really interesting to read one or two references to Messiah in the midst of this account of the Japanese internments from the 1940s…)
Read
March 27, 2024DNF… (spent two days reading it)
I really enjoyed the author’s previous book (These Silent Woods) written in 2021 and gave it 5 stars. Unfortunately, this one, written back in 2012 was slow, repetitive, and not particularly interesting.
I listened to the audiobook and the grandmother’s voice was like a high pitched three year old. Made it more than halfway and chose to stop since it wasn’t getting any better.
I really enjoyed the author’s previous book (These Silent Woods) written in 2021 and gave it 5 stars. Unfortunately, this one, written back in 2012 was slow, repetitive, and not particularly interesting.
I listened to the audiobook and the grandmother’s voice was like a high pitched three year old. Made it more than halfway and chose to stop since it wasn’t getting any better.
April 5, 2021
The author does a wonderful job giving us a sense of time and place for all points of this story. I also became quite invested in her relationship with her obaachan, something I hadn't quite been expecting when I picked the book up. The image of obaachan in the Hart Mountain camp, curled up by her little fire reading novels is going to stay with me.
September 20, 2024
Good read. Very interesting just understanding the small details of the life of a Japanese American during the war. Not a huge exciting ending but worth a read
November 14, 2022
Mildly interesting.
September 10, 2013
This book is the sort of book I like to read. It is a character study of the author's grandmother and grandfather. While it has led me to other books about the Japanese American internment, its strengths are in its descriptions of family dynamics. In a relatively brief space, author Kimi Cunningham Grant conveys the inner lives of her outgoing grandfather and quiet grandmother. The man Kimi adored as a child, who overshadowed the grandmother she thought so cold, turns out to have been an exacting taskmaster as a husband, cowing the wife who had sacrificed so much of her independence for him. What strikes me is Grant's ability to show her dawning realization, as she gets to know her grandmother in adult life, that her grandparents' marriage was not what it seemed to her as a child.
This is not to discount the backdrop to the story: The United States government's flagrant violation of the rights of 120,000 citizens and resident aliens within its borders during the Second World War.
On a personal note, my own mother, who grew up in Palos Verdes, California, often told me about what happened to the Japanese American students in her school after Pearl Harbor. She was fourteen. Within months half the students were gone; forced to go to internment camps. My mother kept up a correspondence with a friend of hers who had gone to a camp. One day her friend wrote her asking her not to send any more letters. I asked my mother if her friend gave a reason for this. She said the mere fact of the correspondence was making things difficult for her friend. Kimi Cunningham Grant points out that it was obvious to the prisoners that their mail was being read by the authorities.
This book is also about Grant's gentle efforts to gain her grandmother's trust. Broaching the subject of her time as a prisoner of her own government was difficult. In relating the story of her grandmother's gradual opening up, Grant shows us the contrast between her grandmother in her eighties (widowed within the last ten years) and her grandmother as a young woman. It is not so much that her grandmother changed, but that the world around her changed drastically. But certain things have not changed, and SILVER LIKE DUST shows these things realistically.
This is not to discount the backdrop to the story: The United States government's flagrant violation of the rights of 120,000 citizens and resident aliens within its borders during the Second World War.
On a personal note, my own mother, who grew up in Palos Verdes, California, often told me about what happened to the Japanese American students in her school after Pearl Harbor. She was fourteen. Within months half the students were gone; forced to go to internment camps. My mother kept up a correspondence with a friend of hers who had gone to a camp. One day her friend wrote her asking her not to send any more letters. I asked my mother if her friend gave a reason for this. She said the mere fact of the correspondence was making things difficult for her friend. Kimi Cunningham Grant points out that it was obvious to the prisoners that their mail was being read by the authorities.
This book is also about Grant's gentle efforts to gain her grandmother's trust. Broaching the subject of her time as a prisoner of her own government was difficult. In relating the story of her grandmother's gradual opening up, Grant shows us the contrast between her grandmother in her eighties (widowed within the last ten years) and her grandmother as a young woman. It is not so much that her grandmother changed, but that the world around her changed drastically. But certain things have not changed, and SILVER LIKE DUST shows these things realistically.
June 28, 2013
This is the true story of Kimi Grant's grandmother, who spent the years of World War 2 in a Japanese internment camp in Wyoming, along with her parents. She also met her husband in that camp, and gave birth to her first child there.
As a child, Kimi had a mixed relationship with her Japanese heritage; she resisted her grandfather's efforts to teach her the language. Growing up in Pennsylvania, she just wanted to fit in with the other kids, but as she grew into a young woman, she started to wonder about her grandmother's life in the camp. It was something her grandmother never talked about, and Kimi's own mother only spoke of it in whispers, as it was a source of shame for her.
Kimi never felt close to her grandmother growing up, but once she started visiting her in her home in Florida to start learning and writing about that time in the family history, they began to bond, and Kimi could finally understand how the experience shaped her grandmother's personality and outlook on life.
I feel that the author did a great job in drawing the stories out of her grandmother, letting her tell them at her own pace and at the same time, respecting her need to keep some details private. I also liked the way their relationships to each other grew and how you could feel Kimi's appreciation for her grandmother. It was interesting to read about the Japanese culture in America at that time, and why so many willingly went along with something that was so blatantly unfair. It also saddened me, how so many felt a sense of shame when they didn't do anything wrong.
This was a shameful chapter of American history, and I feel it's important that voices such as the author's grandmother be heard. It's also shameful that so many other Americans at that time did not speak out against the treatment of their fellow citizens, and let this go on. But then, America was still very racist at that time, so it's really not surprising either.
As a child, Kimi had a mixed relationship with her Japanese heritage; she resisted her grandfather's efforts to teach her the language. Growing up in Pennsylvania, she just wanted to fit in with the other kids, but as she grew into a young woman, she started to wonder about her grandmother's life in the camp. It was something her grandmother never talked about, and Kimi's own mother only spoke of it in whispers, as it was a source of shame for her.
Kimi never felt close to her grandmother growing up, but once she started visiting her in her home in Florida to start learning and writing about that time in the family history, they began to bond, and Kimi could finally understand how the experience shaped her grandmother's personality and outlook on life.
I feel that the author did a great job in drawing the stories out of her grandmother, letting her tell them at her own pace and at the same time, respecting her need to keep some details private. I also liked the way their relationships to each other grew and how you could feel Kimi's appreciation for her grandmother. It was interesting to read about the Japanese culture in America at that time, and why so many willingly went along with something that was so blatantly unfair. It also saddened me, how so many felt a sense of shame when they didn't do anything wrong.
This was a shameful chapter of American history, and I feel it's important that voices such as the author's grandmother be heard. It's also shameful that so many other Americans at that time did not speak out against the treatment of their fellow citizens, and let this go on. But then, America was still very racist at that time, so it's really not surprising either.
August 22, 2016
I often get interested in a topic (particularly a historical event) and want to read as much as I can to try to understand it. This has been the case for me recently with the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. I have known it happened for many years and read a couple of books about it during college, but it is hard to understand how our nation allowed this to happen in such recent history. Through my reading, I have learned more about the details of the internment as well as some of the motivation behind it. This knowledge is important because if we are to prevent something similar from happening in the present or future, we have to know about the past.
This is a true story of the author's grandparents internment. She spends time interviewing her grandmother and getting her to talk about her experiences in the camps. I was particularly interested in her explanation of shikataganai...the belief that when bad things happen, you accept them and make the best of them. And her eventual realization that this allowed those interned to not only survive the ordeal but to improve their situation when possible and to remain compassionate and human rather than becoming bitter and angry and shriveled.
Her grandmother was a young adult when they were interned at Heart Mountain. She met her husband in the camp at Pomona, they married and had their first child at Heart Mountain.
Some of the things that stood out to me: the lack of privacy in the bathrooms as well as in their living quarters, the uncertainty...not knowing how long they would be there or what they would find when they returned home (ultimately, they decided not to return to California but to take a job offered them in New Jersey). The fear that her child might live his whole life inside the camp. Living in such a small space with so few belongings for such a long time. The difficulty of filling out the questionnaire about loyalty to the US.
This is a true story of the author's grandparents internment. She spends time interviewing her grandmother and getting her to talk about her experiences in the camps. I was particularly interested in her explanation of shikataganai...the belief that when bad things happen, you accept them and make the best of them. And her eventual realization that this allowed those interned to not only survive the ordeal but to improve their situation when possible and to remain compassionate and human rather than becoming bitter and angry and shriveled.
Her grandmother was a young adult when they were interned at Heart Mountain. She met her husband in the camp at Pomona, they married and had their first child at Heart Mountain.
Some of the things that stood out to me: the lack of privacy in the bathrooms as well as in their living quarters, the uncertainty...not knowing how long they would be there or what they would find when they returned home (ultimately, they decided not to return to California but to take a job offered them in New Jersey). The fear that her child might live his whole life inside the camp. Living in such a small space with so few belongings for such a long time. The difficulty of filling out the questionnaire about loyalty to the US.
March 13, 2013
This is a well-written and personal account of one of the most shameful episodes in American history: the imprisonment of Japanese-American civilian citizens during World War II. The author's grandparents, along with many thousands of Japanese-American citizens, were required to leave their homes, businesses, and most of their belongings and were taken to prison camps in remote areas of the United States, even though these people were American citizens and had done nothing wrong. In this book, the author slowly gets her reticent 80 year-old grandmother to tell the story of everyday life in a prison camp where she and her husband lived for about 3 years.
While I enjoyed this book, I feel that it is only a very perfunctory look at the awfulness of being rounded up and sent to prison by the government and country that these people called their own. The grandmother, like most Japanese people, is very reluctant to talk about personal experiences, but the author does manage to slowly draw out parts of her story over a period of a few years. There is a sweetness to the book as the author and her grandmother become closer during the many visits and interviews necessary to gather the story for this book. The author also learns much about her deceased grandfather that she did not know, not all of it good.
An enjoyable book but one that requires follow-up reading to get a fuller picture of these historical events.
While I enjoyed this book, I feel that it is only a very perfunctory look at the awfulness of being rounded up and sent to prison by the government and country that these people called their own. The grandmother, like most Japanese people, is very reluctant to talk about personal experiences, but the author does manage to slowly draw out parts of her story over a period of a few years. There is a sweetness to the book as the author and her grandmother become closer during the many visits and interviews necessary to gather the story for this book. The author also learns much about her deceased grandfather that she did not know, not all of it good.
An enjoyable book but one that requires follow-up reading to get a fuller picture of these historical events.
November 14, 2024
This memoir was both moving and informative, weaving together the personal and the political in one Japanese American family's experience of incarceration during WWII. The story is told in the format of a granddaughter interviewing her Obaachan (grandmother) over several years about her life growing up nisei (second-generation) JA in California and being forcefully moved into temporary campgrounds at Pomona, then longer-term at the Heart Mountain incarceration camp in Wyoming. The author touches on daily life in the camps, the war raging on around the world, and the toll of it all on personal relationships, familial bonds, and self-identity, both during the incarceration and in the years and generations beyond.
On a personal note, this book resonated with me in many ways. Like the author, I am biracial Japanese American and learned much about my family history and heritage through conversations with my nisei grandmother. Although my family was incarcerated in different camps, the experiences and sentiments described in this story echo many of the ones my grandmother and other family members have shared. At the same time, I appreciated the smaller details about camp life and the wider historical context shared in this book, because they didn't play much of a role in my family's stories and I never learned about it formally in school.
On a personal note, this book resonated with me in many ways. Like the author, I am biracial Japanese American and learned much about my family history and heritage through conversations with my nisei grandmother. Although my family was incarcerated in different camps, the experiences and sentiments described in this story echo many of the ones my grandmother and other family members have shared. At the same time, I appreciated the smaller details about camp life and the wider historical context shared in this book, because they didn't play much of a role in my family's stories and I never learned about it formally in school.
November 26, 2014
Silver Like Dust focuses on the relationship of a grandmother and granddaughter. The author--the granddaughter--wants to strengthen her relationship with her grandmother. At the start, she feels like she barely knows her. She knows a few things, perhaps, but not in a real-enough way. For example, she knows that her grandmother spent world war 2 in an internment camp. She knows that that is where her grandparents met, and also where her uncle was born. But her grandmother has never talked about the past, about the war, about her growing-up years. In fact, her grandmother has always been a private, quiet person. So she focuses her attention and begins to do things intentionally. She sets out to get to know her grandmother, she sets out to get the story, the real story. The book isn't just telling readers about the grandmother's experiences in the 1940s. The book is telling readers about the process, the journey, to getting to the story. That was unique, I thought. Not every nonfiction book lets readers in behind the scenes. I also thought it kept the book personal. This is very much family history, taking an interest in your family, in the past, of making sense of it all.
I found it an interesting read.
I found it an interesting read.
January 13, 2016
This is another book dealing with the internment of the persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast during World War II. It's told in a different way that other books I have read as the woman telling the story interviews her grandmother who was in the Heart Mountain camp.
She uses the term "concentration camp" in reference to the various camps that housed the Japanese Americans and the Issei Japanese who were not allowed to have American citizenship. The book talks about the anti-Japanese prejudice and other matters that give the book a solid historical background.
We find out about her grandmother's marriage and how, at least in my opinion, she was mentally abused by her husband. The book also looks at the daily life in the camp and the various problems encountered there and the infamous questionnaire problem.
There's also some about the Japanese culture of the time, how the nearby town felt about the camp, the 442nd Combat Regiment and it's wonderful work during the war and various other topics. This all is personalized by the grandmother and makes the book quite interesting.
She uses the term "concentration camp" in reference to the various camps that housed the Japanese Americans and the Issei Japanese who were not allowed to have American citizenship. The book talks about the anti-Japanese prejudice and other matters that give the book a solid historical background.
We find out about her grandmother's marriage and how, at least in my opinion, she was mentally abused by her husband. The book also looks at the daily life in the camp and the various problems encountered there and the infamous questionnaire problem.
There's also some about the Japanese culture of the time, how the nearby town felt about the camp, the 442nd Combat Regiment and it's wonderful work during the war and various other topics. This all is personalized by the grandmother and makes the book quite interesting.
October 28, 2012
Kimi, a high school English teacher who is half-Japanese, wants to write a book about her grandparents' experiences at Heart Mountain Internment Camp for Japanese citizens during WWII. However, she doesn't know her grandmother well and this time in their history was never spoken of while Kimi was growing up. Kimi must visit her grandmother in Florida and forge a relationship with her to get her story, and the book ends up not only being about the internment camp but about a grandmother and granddaughter reaching out to one another and becoming close. This was a very well-written tribute to grandparents who suffered the indignities of being removed from their innocent lives during a time in our country's history that was shameful, it understandable at the time, as well as the story of a wonderful, strong lady and her adult granddaughter forging a friendship.
December 1, 2012
After a lifetime of not really being close with her Japanese-American grandmother, Kimi Cunningham Grant decides to begin interviewing her grandma about her life as a young girl and what life was life at the Heart Mountain internment camp during WWII. The book is half about her grandma's life and her story, with the rest focusing on how the relationship between Kimi and her grandma developed and deepened, and the history of racial prejudice against the Japanese in America. A very touching read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 245 reviews