Essay Questions

Why are Sone and her family taken to internment camps during World War Two?

After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, it became apparent that many Japanese American citizens had chosen loyalty to their ancestral home over loyalty to the country of their birth; this is mentioned at length in Laura Hillenbrand's biography of Olympic champion turned World War Two hero Louis Zamperini; Louis' college friends, who were Japanese, were working for the Japanese consulate in California in the years preceding Pearl Harbor, and when America was officially at war, they went to work in the prison camps where American soldiers were held and tortured in Japan. It was instances like this that made the government both suspicious and wary, and also made the public very distrustful of their Japanese neighbors.

The internment camps were intended to keep the Japanese and Japanese American populations away from any contacts back in Japan, to make sure that they were not able to engage in any spying activity. The bombing of Pearl Harbor took place largely because of intelligence that the Japanese had received from Japanese Americans working for them; the American government wanted to make sure that this was not something that could happen again.

Why does Monica feel like she does not fit in anywhere? When does she finally feel that she fits in?

Monica does not feel like she fits in in America, even though she is a first generation Japanese American and was born and raised in America. This is predominantly because she is viewed as Japanese by her American friends and neighbors which earmarks her as different. As well as this, her parents maintain all of the traditions and daily practices that they had in Japan. They do not want to leave any of these behind and effectively create their own little version of Japan in America without trying to assimilate into their new culture at all. This also singles Monica out amongst her friends and neighbors because her home is not the same as everyone else's.

When Monica and her family go to Japan to visit with their extended family, she finds that she does not fit in there either; in fact, she is made to feel rather unwelcome and is judged harshly for being "too American", which is both unfair and ironic since it seems that her family were determined to deny her actual nationality and the culture she was being raised in.

It is not until she begins to attend an international college that she feels genuinely accepted; in this environment, everyone is originally from somewhere else, and therefore cultural identity is more an issue for the individual rather than for the community around them, or for the expectations of other people.