In Between Miya

by Yoshiko Uchida, Susan Bennett (Illustrator)

128 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1967

About the author

Yoshiko, born on November 24, 1921, was the second daughter of Japanese immigrant parents Takashi and Iku. Her father worked as a businessman for Mitsui and Company in San Francisco, and Iku wrote poetry, passing along her love of literature to her girls. Though the Great Depression raged, the Uchida family enjoyed comforts because of Takashi's well-paying job and their own frugality. Yoshiko loved to write, and her stories played out on pieces of brown wrapping paper. She also kept a journal to record her thoughts and events.

Enveloped in love and tradition at home, Yoshiko weathered the prejudice she sometimes faced. Many white students at University High School in Oakland didn't invite her to their parties and wouldn't socialize with her, deeming her a foreigner. Even while attending the University of California at Berkley, Yoshiko often faced the same dilemma of being ostracized. She found friendships with other Japanese American students and was preparing to graduate when Pearl Harbor was bombed, changing her life.

The United States government rounded up 120,000 people of Japanese descent and put them into camps. The Uchida family first resided in a horse stall at a racetrack in California, surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. Though difficult to endure, the next move was worse. Almost 8,000 Japanese were sent to a relocation concentration camp called Topaz in the Utah desert. The detainees suffered from violent dust storms, scorpions, snakes, and exceedingly poor living conditions. Yoshiko taught second grade children there until she received a fellowship from Smith College to earn a master's degree in education.

Yoshiko and her sister both left the camp in May of 1943, with their parents gaining release later that year. Teaching for several years in a Quaker school outside of Philadelphia, Yoshiko decided to quit teaching and find work that allowed more time for writing. She moved to New York City and began as a secretary, penning stories in the evenings. Asked to contribute to a book about Japanese folk tales, Yoshiko discovered that though the book didn't come to be, with time she could create a full collection of folk tales. Writing a few pieces for adults, Yoshiko realized she was better suited for children's books.

A Ford Foundation fellowship sent her to Japan to research the culture and their stories. Spending two years, Yoshiko found her time to be healing as she learned about her own ancestry. The pain of the concentration camps lessened, and she began writing about the experiences in fictional books such as Journey to Topaz and Journey Home. Her career as an author soared as people regarded her as a pioneer in Japanese American children's literature. The author of almost forty works, including Japanese folk tales and stories of Japanese American children making their way in the world, Yoshiko traveled extensively, lectured, and wrote. After suffering from a stroke, Yoshiko passed away on June 25, 1992, in Berkeley, California.

Reviews

[Iris]

This is such a beautiful book about acceptance and greediness, about telling lies and making promises. Miya is a beautiful girl who lives a poor life in a small house that is also a church. Their lights are tiny bulbs hanging from black wires and their roof leaks. One day Miya gets sent a letter, inviting her to go to Tokyo to her rich uncle and aunt's house, with a proper refrigerator and a bath tub with a gas heater. Her aunt is ill so she cannot do the housework, so they suggested Miya come over and do it. But as Miya accepted, she didn't think of the responsibility of the work and thought selfishly only of the luxuries and riches from her payment. So she aboards the train and meets a friend almost straight away. And soon she is at Tokyo...

[Curdie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This holds up brilliantly. I loved it when I was little and found it at the library, and I read it repeatedly. It’s full of sapid descriptions, and the train journey described is one of the reasons I love trains.

[Margaret Dilloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is my favorite Yoshiko Uchida book (I've been working my way through all of them). In this one, Miya is the daughter of a poor preacher who sometimes longs for a richer life in Tokyo, where she might be able to have a refrigerator(!) instead of living out in the country with next to nothing. She's envious of a friend whose father sold his land to a company, who will turn the farmland into a factory. But Miya doesn't consider how this will change their land-- all she knows is her country friend is getting a car!

She gets her chance when her ailing aunt needs someone to help run her Tokyo house. But Miya, being a young girl, is unfamiliar with city ways and all the responsibilities expected of her.

She makes friends with a sophisticated rich girl, but when the girl comes to visit her, Miya worries she'll see her as a bumpkin and so makes up a lie.

This story is both a wonderful way to immerse yourself in another place and time, and a reminder that money isn't everything. Borne out thematically on many levels (her aunt and uncle are wealthy but lonely and unhappy; her father is poor but everyone in the community needs and respects him because he's their priest; selling of farmland leads to quick riches for some and poverty to others; nothing can substitute for the simple pleasures of life, like riding a bike with a friend), this story is sweet and powerful.

I got this out-of-print book from the library but will be seeing if I can buy a copy for my children to read.