displacement, by kiku hughes. First Second, Macmillan. Raincoast. 2020. $24.99 ages 12 and up

"I listened to her speaking to
her parents - my great grand-
parents - in Japanese as they
moved into the stall next to
mine.

I couldn't understand them
but I could tell by their tone
they were stressed.

I knew no Japanese ... "

This stunning graphic novel is both fact and fiction. It tells one family's story of the Japanese internment following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942. Learning about her family's history happens when Kiku and her mother visit San Francisco. Her mother wants to see the house where her mother grew up; Kiku is not impressed by their wandering about and is ready to head back home to Seattle.

Her mother is anxious to visit the mall that now sits on the site where the house once was. Kiku wants to sit and wait outside. It is her first time of  'displacement'.

"That's when it happened.

I heard the music first.

And when I opened my
eyes, all I could see
was a thick fog.

But when it cleared at last ...

I was somewhere entirely different."

Her return to the present time happens quickly. Then, she is 'displaced' again ... and then again. Finally, she seems to be stuck back in time where she experiences what her grandparents and many other Japanese families endured while incarcerated during World War II. She soon realizes she is going to be there for some time. She resigns herself to surviving along with the others. She watches the varied reactions of those sent to the camps. Some are determined to protest and not abide by the rules set for them by the government. Others yield to their circumstances, hoping that life will soon be normal again.

Although she knows that her grandmother is a camp resident, she does not make contact with her. Rather, she watches and sees in her grandmother bravery and refinement as she deals with the conditions of camp life. Kiku's 'displacement' connects her to a heritage she has not explored, as little has been said about it. Unsure that she will return to the present time, there is a sense of hopelessness that is shown in the memorable artwork that offers a rather bleak existence in the desert (where many of the camps were located), and a true sense of isolation that all must have felt so far from home and all they had known.

Readers - and there will be many interested in this historical, autobiographical graphic novel - will learn needed information about a time in history that is not often discussed. A connection is made to the current incarceration in the United States of migrant children, as well as the Muslim ban enacted by President Trump and his administration. It has an emotional impact that is memorable for all who read it.

Archival photos, an author's note, a glossary to terms used, and a list for further reading are useful and may encourage further research.