Silver Like Dust ─ One Family's Story of America's Japanese Internment

Kimi’s Obaachan, her grandmother, had always been a silent presence throughout her youth. Sipping tea by the fire, preparing sushi for the family, or indulgently listening to Ojichan’s
(grandfather’s) stories for the thousandth time, Obaachan was a missing
link to Kimi’s Japanese heritage, something she had had a mixed
relationship with all her life. Growing
up in rural Pennsylvania, all Kimi ever wanted to do was fit in,
spurning traditional Japanese culture and her grandfather’s attempts to
teach her the language.

But
there was one part of Obaachan’s life that fascinated and haunted
Kimi—her gentle yet proud Obaachan was once a prisoner, along with
112,000 Japanese Americans, for more than five years of her life. Obaachan never spoke of those years, and Kimi’s own mother only spoke of it in whispers. It was a source of haji, or shame. But what really happened to Obaachan, then a young woman, and the thousands of other men, women, and children like her?

From
the turmoil, racism, and paranoia that sprang up after the bombing of
Pearl Harbor, to the terrifying train ride to Heart Mountain, Silver Like Dust
captures a vital chapter the Japanese-American experience through the
journey of one remarkable woman and the enduring bonds of family.