Dandelion Through the Crack
by Kiyo Sato
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kiyo SatoEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-08-27
ISBN: 0976269716
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Willow Valley Press
Book Reviews of Dandelion Through the Crack
Book Review: An extraordinary book for all readers
Summary: 5 Stars
Kiyo Sato's Dandelion Through the crack is, in one sense, "an Internment memoir," one of several published over the years. It is valuable as that. But it is so much more as to stand out from the rest.
Dandelion is, at its heart, the story of a family's quest for the American Dream, as the subtitle suggests. The specific facts pertain to the Sato family--father Shinji and mother Tomomi and their nine children, of whom daughter Kiyo was the first. At another level, Dandelion is the story of all immigrants to America seeking their piece of the American way of life, realized in the form of a home, family, rewarding and productive work, education, and acceptance as a valued part of the American community. And at yet another level, it is the story of all families, struggling with the challenges of life, from managing expenses to coping with the aging and death of parents.
In all of this, Dandelion has a unique and compelling literary voice. Distinctively, it is written in present tense, putting the reader right there in the story. It is further brought to life through the use of Shinji Sato's poetry (mostly haiku) and the stories he told his growing children. The writing is clear and direct, free of self-pity but influenced by an entirely understandable indignation at the way these patriotic citizens were treated by their own government and abandoned by their friends. (Shinji and Tomomi had lived in the U.S. for decades before the outbreak of WW II, and all of their children, born in the U.S., were American citizens. Shinji and Tomomi became naturalized citizens in the 1950s, taking the American names John and Mary, respectively.)
The book opens (after acknowledgments) with a dramatic scene in 1942, as the Internment and its rounding up of Japanese Americans, rapidly approaches. Kiyo, then just 19, is on a mission to find suitcases for "the trip," for the removal to a--let's be blunt--concentration camp. It is an anxious and dismaying time for young Kiyo.
A look back follows to how Shinji Sato came to America as a young teenager, learned English, acquired some useful education (he took classes at the Heald business school), and began to put down roots (literally as well as figuratively, as he became a farmer, starting with strawberries and then adding grapes and walnuts).
Kiyo turns, then, to her own life, starting with her first memories as a very young child. While I suspect that some of the memories are not entirely in chronological order, and tend to be impressionistic, they are nonetheless a remarkable window into the author's early years and into life on a Sacramento-area farm during the Roaring 20s (they did not roar for the Satos) and the Depression (which saw the Sato family, with its farm and its farming-community neighbors, able to manage with frugality and constant work).
Work! The Satos are relentlessly hard working, always in the fields or managing the household. And they are frugal, making every scrap productive or useful. They are a study in the American values (so much neglected these days) of thrift and industry, not to mention of dedication to family and its nurturing.
In all of this, the family is becoming American--especially the children, born in Sacramento, California, educated in public schools, and absorbing lessons of American history, government and patriotism.
And then it falls apart. Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and a wide net of fear and suspicion is thrown over people (people of Japanese ancestry, whether American-born citizen or immigrant) who were simply living life as best they could, working, contributing to their communities. Friends turn cold.
We have seen, in loving detail, the growth of the family and of the farm.
And then the family and its Japanese neighbors and Japanese Americans across the West are rounded up and taken away. Their property is often lost or destroyed--or simply stolen--their rights removed with a stroke of President Roosevelt's pen and with the support of Earl Warren, later to become Chief Justice of the United States, but then California Attorney General.
We see how life was in the camps, how ingenuity and effort and devotion to the children helped to make life bearable, to the extent that was possible. Sometimes the results are surprising, as the knowledgeable and industrious internees make the desert bloom with vegetables and flowers--as many had turned undesirable land into thriving farms over preceding decades.
Kiyo is released (still under the government's watchful eye and conditions) to attend college in the East (the Western states were still off limits), and she struggles to earn enough to pay her expenses.
In time (1945) the family returns to what is left of the Sacramento farm. You must read that for yourself, in the context of all that has gone before. Remember: these were Americans, the children citizens born here and the parents residents for decades.
The story is far from over by that point, as the family rebuilds a life--again, a tribute to unceasing work. Challenges abound, including a confrontation with developers whose plans would have ruined what remained of the farm, which has again become a thriving enterprise.
In a touching chapter that has lessons for ALL families, Mama (Mary Tomomi Sato) passes on, surrounded by her family, decades after the trauma of the Internment.
Ultimately, the story reaches its payoff, as the reader realizes that the family has indeed achieved the American Dream. It has done so not through the acquisition of fancy cars and impressive homes, but through the success of children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, productive and educated citizens--through perseverence toward honorable goals.
Incredibly, despite the losses and the trauma that form a backdrop to much of the narrative, at the end, the reader feels good. The outcome, for which the title image of the Dandelion Through the Crack is apt, rewards the reader. A postscript, in the form of a letter to Tochan ("Daddy," Kiyo's father), brings the story up to date with yet more insightful and touching observations on the continuity of life and the outcomes of literal and figurative seeds planted generations earlier.
Dandelion Through the Crack is a jewel. Kiyo Sato has given us all a great gift in this remarkable, beautifully crafted narrative.
Summary of Dandelion Through the Crack
Dandelion Through the Crack: The Sato Family Quest for the American Dream tells of a real Japanese-American family, formed both by ancestry and by the American way of life. We see mother, father, and children, and their challenges over seven decades. There are the extraordinary times of the Depression, wartime emergency, internment in the Poston "relocation" camp in the Arizona desert, oppressive prejudice, and the struggle to recover from near-total loss. But there are also many simple, almost-pastoral moments. The wise fables of the author's father -- tales of his old and new homelands and his haiku poetry -- are interwoven throughout. This is Kiyo Sato's first-person account of the family's struggles and triumphs. The result is a work of literary grace, emotional power, and historical and social importance.Japanese Books
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