Beneath the Wide Silk Sky

It's the beginning of December1941. Sam Sakamoto, the daughter of immigrants from Japan, is worried that her father won't be able to make the last payment on their farm in California. Her brother isn't interested in inheriting it because he wants to go to college, and her sister is accepting clothing as payment for her work as a tailor instead of insisting on cash. Then Japan bombs the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, and their world is completely upended. The family is already under a great deal of stress since their mother died. Now they are subjected to hate from many in their own community. When government officials show up to confiscate items such as her beloved camera, Sam turns to her neighbor Hiro Tanaka for help, so she can try to win a photography contest to win money for the farm and to document the injustices she sees taking place all around her. But time is running out as the U.S. Government decides to forcibly relocate Japanese-Americans into internment camps. Beneath the Wide Silk Sky is a beautifully written historical novel based on experiences of the author's family which are provided in the novel's afterward.