Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi

Dear Canada

by Susan Aihoshi

The harsh conditions of an internment camp become a reality for a young Japanese-Canadian girl.

It is 1941 and Mary Kobayashi, a Canadian-born Japanese girl enjoys her life in Vancouver. She likes school, she likes her friends, and she yearns above all else to own a bicycle. Although WWII is raging elsewhere in the world, it hasn’t really impacted her life in B.C.

Then on December 7, 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor…and everything changes.

Suddenly a war of suspicion and prejudice is waged on the home front and Japanese-Canadians are completely stripped of their rights, their jobs and their homes. Mary is terrified when her family is torn apart and sent to various work camps, while she and her two sisters are sent, alone, to a primitive camp in B.C.’s interior. Here Mary spends the duration of the war, scared and uncertain of how it will all end.

In Torn Apart, author Susan Aihoshi draws from the experiences of her own family during “The Uprooting” of the Japanese in B.C. during WWII. Through young Mary’s eyes, readers experience this regrettable time in Canadian history firsthand.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Canada, Historical, Childrens, Fiction, World War II, Young Adult

216 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2012

Reviews

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's just put it out there: during my year of reviewing everything I read (I know, I know I'm behind I'm busy trying to pass my PhD quals...) I knew I would run up against a time I would read a Dear America book and review it. This is a Dear Canada book, my replacement addiction after the Dear American series went defunct, came back, and is apparently defunct again. One of my recurring book related dreams is walking into a bookstore and there being 5 more of these books I haven't read yet. Naturally I use by adult-ish level money to buy them all. tl:dr I freaking love this book series and have since second grade.

That being said, there are also some troubling issues with my gateway to history books. One: there were two Native American characters in the first run of the series, four African American (woo putting a Great Migration character in there too!), and one Latina, and a fair number of immigrants from Europe. Really, it was not particularly diverse until towards the end when the really tired American history narratives (the Mayflower, the American Revolution, the Civil War just to name the first three in the series) were over. Then, when the series relaunched, I was super excited to have the issue of Japanese internment brought up in the first reboot book.

There were no Asian diarists in the original Dear America books, nor would there be in the reboot. Japanese interment was apparently going to be told by Dear America from the point of view of a white preacher's kid.

Really, with all of George Takei's discussion of this issue, after the decades since internment with the camp locations throughout the west? With major Asian communities all across the West Coast? I mean, there's nothing wrong with white girls but My Name is America (the masculine diarist version of this series) had an Japanese character write a diary about his internment so why not Dear America?

So, what's up? This is Dear Canada's second Asian narrator, and while the series almost has a comparable number of books, both Asian characters come from British Columbia and deal with very different times in history (Chinese Exclusion and World War II). Dear Canada also has two First Nations characters, so already on par with Dear America.

This 'diary' didn't focus as much on the internment itself as the years leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the challenges of Japanese-Canadians gaining even citizenship and the right to vote, even for those born in Canada (which bugged my American sensibilities for a bit, since birthright citizenship is a thing and make the internment of those Japanese-Americans who were born citizens even more troubling. But I read Dear Canada too because I know shamefully little about Canadian history). The epilogue does bring up the internment of Ukrainian communities during World War I as a precedent for the Canadian government to do this (covered by another book in the series), and all in all it seems more like an unfortunate episode in history book other than an angry one (which in all fairness the Dear *insert country here* books tend to have fairly optimistic characters).

But at least their main character in a story about a particular ethnicity being singled out as looking too much like the enemy even though they'd never been to that country and lived their whole lives in Canada/the US was actually from that community.

Really Dear America, get it together. This is how kids learn the basics of history. If you can have a 1970s anti-war diary, or a Trail of Tears diary, then you can have one written by an Asian character. There is the whole West Coast, you know, with Asian characters ripe for the selection instead of the Chicago Fire or something.

If I wasn't trying to pass my quals I'd even try to write one for you. It could be fun?

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Kobayashi begins a diary after receiving one as a present for her twelfth birthday in May 1941. Although there is a war going on in Europe, it seems very far away from Vancouver. At first, Mary writes mostly about her everyday life - school, friends, Girl Guides meetings, and summer camp. But when Japan attacks the United States at Pearl Harbor later that year, everything changes forever.

Even though Mary and her siblings were born in Canada to immigrant parents who became naturalized citizens of their new country, many people are suspicious of anyone with Japanese heritage. Soon, restrictions are placed upon them and the other Japanese Canadians in their community. They must observe a strict curfew, give up cars, radios, and cameras, and many are forced to leave their homes. Mary is left wondering if her life will ever be the same again.

I expected Torn Apart to be mainly about Mary's experiences in an internment camp, based upon the publisher's description and the subtitle "The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi." It's actually mainly about her life in Vancounter during the year and a half leading up to those events - only the last forty pages or so of the book are set at the internment camp Mary and her family are sent to. Although this book was not one of my top favorites from the Dear Canada series, I still overall enjoyed it. The author, whose parents and grandparents spent part of World War II in an internment camp, brought to life the injustices suffered by people of Japanese descent in Canada and the United States during the war. I recommend this book to readers who enjoyed other Dear Canada books (or the similar Dear America series), or who are interested in this era of history.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book that makes you realize that Canada wasn't always as nice as you'd like to think it was.

[ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to absolutely LOVE these books when I was younger. They were what got me interested in history and historical fiction. The writing in these books isn't the best, and they lack depth and complicity. Still very good for younger readers to get them interested in historical fiction and eventually move on to novels like The Huntress or They Went Left. Definitely, middle-grade novels but great intros to history

[Stephanie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a lot about the internment of Japanese-Americans. This is the first book I’ve read about the internment of Japanese-Canadians during WW2. As such, I learned many interesting facts, and it made me want to read more about the subject.
This would be a great tool to use in history classes!

[Bibliovoracious · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been to this internment camp.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: I'm working my way through reading this series.

One of my favourite WWII topics is the Asian Holocaust and the Japanese internment is a Canadian homefront bi-product. This is a very fast-paced interesting story and gives a good child's eye view of what happened during this time in Canada's own and the world at large's history. Of course a book like this cannot examine such a complicated situation both socially and historically to fathom the how and why of such events happening. I give props to Ms. Aihoshi for mentioning at least two facts. In one sentence she mentions the unnamed atrocities that the Japanese are inflicting upon the Chinese as they invade that country and in another sentence she mentions the Japanese submarine shelling aimed at a lighthouse on Vancouver Island. This at least sets the story in some political light but of course this book is not about that, nor did I expect it to be.

What it does do is highlight the feelings of a people when they are rallied against because of their ethnic heritage no matter where they were born or where they have lived. It is a terrifying situation and this first-time author describes it well through the eyes of a young girl and what she sees through her large Catholic family and neighbours' behaviours. We also see the resilience of people when they are brought together in tough times and how they can either decide to give up or pull together and make the most of a poor situation. Many bad things happened because of the internments, loss of property, items of personal value, businesses and homes; but many people managed to make their life better than before by moving to different parts of Canada and taking on new ways of life. The Japanese eventually won the rights they had been seeking some years after the war and received redress and restitution in 1984. A heart-warming, tender and often frightening story of a family who lost their rights in a free country.

[Laftrak · Rating 1 out of 5]

bbbboooorriiiinnnnggg......not at all what i though it was about. wasn't really about her time in the camp mainly in vancouver where it could have been about anybody. nothing intersting happens.

[Daylin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish they had gone more in depth as to what actually happened at the camps. It seemed to me that they just talked about what happened before and not about what the book was actually about.

[LobsterQuadrille · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
Educational enough, especially to compare and contrast between the experiences of Japanese people in the US and Canada at the time. I hadn't known that less than a century ago, Japanese Canadians weren't even allowed to vote! And it wasn't until four years after the war ended that they were allowed to even set foot on the West Coast again.
However, I didn't find this diary very engaging. The writing was rather monotone and there was very little personality to be found in any of the characters. Worthy subject matter for this series, but the finished product didn't affect me the way a fictional diary should.

[Kit McAlear · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dear Canada series are written in diary format and are a great way for youngsters to get to know Canadian history through the eyes of a 12 year-old girl. My daughter and I have read several of these books together. This one chronicles the events experienced by a Japanese Canadian family during the tumultuous WWII years, especially after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. It's hard to believe that 70 years ago, Canada placed their own citizens in internment camps because their country of origin was at war with Canada's allies.

Mary is a typical Canadian girl who attends Girl Guides, plays tennis and belongs to a grass-hockey team. She has a large family who are of the Catholic faith, with the exception of her grandfather who is Buddhist. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of all the characters--family and friends--she mentions in her diary. The tension begins as the news of war abroad spreads, and people become suspicious of the Japanese people. After fighting prejudice against them since they immigrated in the late 1800s, the Japanese community "was plunged into enormous turmoil. Families were torn apart, education was disrupted, businesses were shut down and thriving neighborhoods were uprooted and destroyed." (p.183)

My daughter who is sensitive chose not to finish this book after reading almost half with me because she knew where the story was heading after Mary's grandfather was sent away to a camp. She knows about the Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses who were sent to camps in Germany, and we talked extensively about why these things have happened and what is still happening in some countries today. The book ends on a hopeful note, and I enjoyed reading the rest of it. It's not graphic, but I did ache for Mary who lost her home, was displaced and had her family scattered, without knowing if they were alive and well.

The story is well written as have been all the ones we read in this series. Mary is a great character and I liked her instantly. She writes about school, her family, her friends but also about her fears, her hopes and her frustrations. The theme of loyal friendships and healthy family pride shines through in this book. I also liked the Japanese words and expressions throughout the book (with glossary in the back) that sometimes added subtle humour to the story.

I think this book should be a part of all Canadian school libraries. It would appeal to middle-graders who like diary-format books and stories from the past.

[Vanessa Sztym · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book! While the topic is something that kids might not understand, the author did a wonderful job in attempting to make it relate able for young readers, by writing the story as a diary of a young girl, Mary. The diary is filled with day-to-day activities that young readers are very familiar with, such as girl guides, going to the movies with friends, and an annoying brother. This also allows some breaks to be created in the material itself. There will be a number of entries about war events, and then there is an entry about having to study for a test, or winning a medal at a track meet.

The book is very good at teaching difficult concepts as well. Whenever Mary learns about a difficult topic, such as propaganda or 'enemy aliens' she writes a definition, told to her by an adult in her life, and the explanation they gave to her. This helps teach difficult concepts at an age appropriate level.

Plot Summary:
Mary Kobayashi lives with her family in Vancouver. It is almost the summer of 1941 and she is excited to work this summer picking berries so she can earn her own money to buy a bicycle. Mary spends the second half of her summer vacation with her friends at girl guide camp. School starts again and Mary has to deal with a bully in her class. Her friends stand up for her and her bully problem is over, until the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor on December 7. While the bully at school is difficult to deal with, Mary has bigger problems at home. Slowly the men of the Kobayashi family are sent to work camps throughout Canada. First Grandfather, then big brother Tad. Mary's other older brother, Mike, volunteers to go since it will mean he has freedom to find a job in another province to support the family.

Everything starts to spiral out of control as Mary's father loses his job, and Mary and her sisters are sent to a ghost town in the interior of BC, luckily their brother is working at constructing a hospital for the town and they are re-united. Their mother is with their ailing little brother in a hospital in Vancouver, and their father was taken away by the RCMP. The girls join another family that was forced into the ghost town until their mother and little brother arrive to join them. After extensive inquiries they find their father and he is sent to join them. They spend a cold winter in a small, uninsulated shack, and Mary runs out of paper...

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars for Torn Apart

Plot and Thoughts

Torn apart is the fictional diary of Mary Kobayashi a Canadian born Japanese girl living in Vancouver before and through the start of the internment of Japanese Canadians. The diary start in 1941, when Mary turns 12 and runs through for just a little over a year. Mary is something of aa Tomboy. She enjoys playing tennis, field hockey, as well as reading, bike riding, Girl Guides, and Choir.

After Pearl Harbor is bombed on December 7, 1941 everything changes. People begin to show prejudice against Japanese people. In the end, Japanese Canadians are stripped of their radios, cars, cameras, rights, jobs and homes. They are shipped off to Internment Camps, first the men originally from Japan, then all Japanese men and then finally, all Japanese including children.

Mary's Geechan, brothers Tad and Mike are all sent to different camps. The brothers are working to build roads, and then cabins for incoming Japanese sent to the ghost town internment camps. Tad managers to find work out East, but everyone else is stuck in BC.

The cool part is that this story does ring true as Susan Aihoshi draws from her own experiences in interment camps. The only thing I don't like is that a good chunk of this book takes place before the plot really starts moving. Get get the before picture of life in Vancouver, but you get a lot of it. I'd say roughly 1/2 half is when things start to speed up. Mary only writes while within the internment camp for maybe the last 1/4 or 1/5 of the book. I was hoping for a bit more insight, but many of those entries just talk of the cold, without really getting the reader emotionally involved. Though I do believe that this book has the distinct disadvantage of coming behind another particularly excellent book in the Dear Canada series I just read about the Typhus Epidemic in Canada during the Great Famine that had gripped Ireland. Hard act to follow.

In Conclusion

Another excellent Dear Canada book that had the disadvantage of coming behind a particularly good Dear Canada book, which may have influenced my score for Torn Apart a bit because I didn't feel the same connection to this diary writer as I did the last.

This book does include a brief epilogue and historical notes with pictures.

Age range: Middle school and up

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Kobayashi has lived in Canada all her life and her parents have been naturalized citizens for over 25 years. Mary is a very busy girl; participating in Girl Guides, Grass Hockey, and in the school choir. But prejudice seems to follow her everywhere. Mary tries to ignore this, but it will become impossible on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. Fearing an attack on their own soil, the Canadian and British Columbian government issues Japanese Canadians to surrender cameras and radios, and creates a dusk to dawn curfew. Mary and her friends are appalled about Canada's mistreatment of innocent people. Finally, with much urging of the European population on the West Coast, the government decides to "evacuate" the Japanese Canadians, regardless if they are citizens, for their own "safety". Life becomes very difficult in the internment camps as winter sets in. Will Mary still be proud to be Canadian?

I found this book very informative. It is about a controversial subject that Canada tries to hide. I really liked Mary's personality and the realistic reactions she had. This is a very good novel, considering this is the author's first book. One thing was the Kobayashi's weren't in the internment camp until the last 30-40 pages. Although Mary has a big family, and it is hard to keep track of everybody, the author gives them each a special role and purpose in this book. A very enjoyable read!

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a diary of a young Japanese girl named Mary. She is living a wonderful life in Vancouver with her family and friends. World War 2 is going on in other places in the world but it doesn't affect Mary's life until Japan bombed Pearl Harbour and everything went bad. All Japanese people were looked at as bad people. They were given a curfew and Chinese people had to wear buttons showing they were not Japanese. Even though Mary and her family had done nothing wrong, they weren't trusted.

This book was very heart felt and interesting to read. It was very sad but exciting. It was written very well and I really enjoyed reading it.

[Young Adult Historical Vault · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful story with so much heart and feeling that it blows past some of the minor flaws and sends this into "great" territory. The subject of internment is handled with grace and sensitivity and real knowledge, and the main character is a fully developed and strong character. My small quibble would be that it doesn't have a great deal of depth, or at least as much as it could--and that is very minor considering how great this book is in all of its other ways.

For my full recap and review, including details of spoilers, check out Young Adult Historical Vault https://yahistoricalvault.com/2016/04...

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

- diary of a 12 yr old Japanese-Canadian girl who is interned during WWII
- historically accurate and important reading for children to gain an understanding of a shameful chapter of Canadian history
- story eerily similar to my Mom's life right down to characters' names
- interesting for me but probably not for children who will find it somewhat dry and may not be able to relate to the situation
- story ended suddenly with no real conclusion but just an epilogue
- reading level: gr. 5
- interest level: gr. 5-7 girls

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Ok, I grew up in a house where my dad loved history, Canadian and WWII, specifically. I NEVER knew this occurred. How is this not taught in history class? How is it possible that I even knew this happened to the Japanese Americans because of George Taki????? As with residential schools this is another part of history that many Canadians don’t know about. Read this book. Read the “boy” version of this book in the companion series “l am Canadian”. Make your children read this book. We lived in a precarious time, don’t let history repeat itself

[Rachel Seigel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This latest "Dear Canada" book is informative and well-written. It's just something about this series that has never really appealed to me, and I felt the same way this time. It's fine. It sheds light on an embarrassing and important aspect of history, and you definitely come away having learned something. There just isn't really anything about it other than its Canadian content to make it stand out.

[Jessicadebiasio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an amazing read. It had very emotional parts and boring parts . This book takes a lot of time to get into or that is at least what I found out. The character developed so much though out the course of the story. One thing that I would change would be a faster beginning it takes alot of time to get used to. Overall this book was amazing and I really think that you should read it.

[Jamantea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good book that did a great job of showing what life was like back then. The author did an awesome job of making the book look like the diary of a young girl, the wording and the way it described her feelings were just perfect. I love historical fiction and I would defiantly recommend this to any one who enjoys a realistic historical fiction book.

[Renae · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one bothered me a little. It's called an "internment diary." But the actual internment didn't start until the last 40 pages or so. It's a lot of wind-up to a rather abrupt finish. Not sure what prompted that, since the DC titles are usually so thorough.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't even care what age group these books are for- I love them.

This book was amazing at showing how horrific the internment of Japanese Canadians was, not just the camps themselves, but every racist, cruel thing that went into the policy.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really tragic looking back into Canadian history and pointing out that Germany wasn't the only criminal country in WWII. It was even more so because she was born in Canada and had little loyalty or connection to Japan and yet was penalized anyway.

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, mary and her friends all live in vancouver and have a lot of fun. Then the japanese people from japan bomb pearl harbour, and all of the japanese people are treated unfairly. Auryn 12 years old, 2016

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know Pearl Harbor was terrifying, but the reaction was as bad as the Holocaust. It was like being grounded for nothing. Luckily, things turned out ok, and amends were made. Personally though, I think I prefer to read about the Holocaust because it’s one of my favorite historical events.

[Renaissance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, learned some new japanese vocab. Learned a lot about the Japanese internment camps. Did not realize that it was that bad. Bit irritated by the language though.

[Meaghan Steeves · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little slow at the beginning and I thought they got to the internment camp rather late in the story but overall I really enjoyed Mary as a character.

[Montague · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy heck. This book.

Dear Canada and Dear America books were incredibly popular when I was in elementary school. This one was written well into my high school years, but still. I always loved these books.

I found this one at a second hand store for a dollar, and figured why not. And holy heck.

We did not learn about this history in school. It's a fictional story based on true events. TRUE EVENTS.

I am angry at white government. I knew they were corrupt and disgusting, but I didn't know that out of all the terrible things they did in their history, that THIS was just another thing to add to it all.

To all the families what had to experience what this book talks about: I am so sorry. I mean that. I AM SO SORRY.

I recommend this book to anybody and everybody who wants to learn more about Canadian history, and the hardships people had to go through because white people were stupid and saw them as different.