This novel/memoir is based on the author's own story. After Pearl Harbor, little Marie Mitsui's typical life in San Francisco is upended. Her family and thousands of others of Japanese heritage are interned in camps. Living conditions are harsh and the treatment is unfair. Told from a child's perspective, The Little Exile deftly conveys Marie's innocence, wonder, fear, and outrage.
"Jeanette Arakawa has done a masterful job in bringing this tragic story to life. It should be required reading in our schools. We have to make sure that what happened to my parents, and tens of thousands of other Japanese-Americans, never happens again. The Little Exile belongs on everyone's shelf."
Prof. Michio Kaku, Professor of Theoretical Physics, author of Physics of the Impossible
"With the deftness and colorful detail of a gifted artist, Arakawa captures the WWII confinement experience of Japanese Americans as seen through the eyes of a young child. Little Marie's innocent wisdom and spritely audacity frame the enormity of the trauma along with the minutiae of everyday life confined by barbed wire. Her story tugs at the conscience and inspires human kindness."
Satsuki Ina, Ph.D., Producer, PBS documentary, Children of the Camps
"Few books about Japanese American incarceration capture so vividly the feel of community before the war, during the incarceration, and in the postwar relocation years. Arakawa has written an epic story in small, exquisitely remembered vignettes that glow with humor, warmth, and her own and her family's wisdom."