Under the Broken Sky by Mariko Nagai

"In 1931, the Japanese government overtook the northern part of China and declared it an independent state called Manchukuo with the last emperor of China - Puyi - as the Kangde Emperor of Manchuria. The government of the newly founded Manchuria created a slogan 'Five Races Under One Union.' ... However, in reality, Manchukuo was a puppet state controlled by the Japanese government."

"As a state policy, Japan encouraged its citizens - especially impoverished villages and second and third sons of farmer - to relocate to Manchuria ... to provide much needed natural resources for the mainland. With the promise of a better life ... over three million Japanese civilians ... lived outside of Japan."

In 1945 Soviet Armed Forces broke into the Manchurian border. The Japanese Imperial Army had retreated and so the people had to flee, walking because trains were not running and they had no access to cars. Many died before and on the journey and also when they arrived in cities from malnutrition. Some people felt forced to give away their children to Chinese families in the hope they would survive. 

This book, which is told in the form of a verse novel, is the story of twelve-year-old Natsu and her little sister who with a neighbour they call Auntie are forced to fee their home and endure the most harrowing of journeys in the hope of finding safety and also their father who has been conscripted. 

This is not a book for young readers. I would say it is for ages 13+. 

Literary and historically insightful, this is one of the great untold stories of WWII. Much like the Newbery Honor book Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Mariko Nagai's Under the Broken Sky is powerful, poignant, and ultimately hopeful. A book and a hug

Inside out and Back again

Here are two text quotes to give you a flavour of the writing in Under the Broken Sky. As with all of the best verse novels this book is filled with emotion. When Natsu was cold I felt cold. When she was starving I felt her aching hunger. Her pain and fear and despair will linger with me for a long time.

Running

We don't lock the door.
We don't release the chickens

from the hen house.

We don't board up the windows.

Holding Asa's hand,

I run out of the homestead ...

Run if anything happens.

And something is happening.

The Rest

We sit as one.
No one has anything

left to eat,

even our stomachs

have forgotten about us.

We've been carrying empty

canteens for so many days,
and we've been swallowing

spit in our mouths.

We don't know if we are

hungry or thirsty or tired.

We just lie there,

in damp clothes,

hoping that a train 

will come this way ...

Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall illustrated by Yas Imamura

With a title like Love in the Library you will have already guessed I just could not resist purchasing this book for my own too full bookshelves. This is a book you could share with readers aged 10+ especially on Library Lovers' Day. 

Ever since I read the book Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan I have been interested in the way Japanese citizens were placed in internment camps in the US.  It happened here too as I discovered in the book Red Day.

Now we have a picture book based on the real life experiences of the author's grandparents. 

Publisher blurb (Walker Books Australia): To fall in love is already a gift. But to fall in love in a place like Minidoka, a place built to make people feel like they weren’t human—that was miraculous. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tama is sent to live in a War Relocation Center in the desert. All Japanese Americans from the West Coast—elderly people, children, babies—now live in prison camps like Minidoka. To be who she is has become a crime, it seems, and Tama doesn’t know when or if she will ever leave. Trying not to think of the life she once had, she works in the camp’s tiny library, taking solace in pages bursting with color and light, love and fairness. And she isn’t the only one. George waits each morning by the door, his arms piled with books checked out the day before. As their friendship grows, Tama wonders: Can anyone possibly read so much? Is she the reason George comes to the library every day? Beautifully illustrated and complete with an afterword, back matter, and a photo of the real Tama and George—the author’s grandparents—Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s elegant love story for readers of all ages sheds light on a shameful chapter of American history.

Love in the Library is an exquisite piece of historical fiction and a love story for the ages. Book Page

Read more about the illustrator Yas Imamura here and see inside her book. 

Take a look at this review of Do Something for Someone Else also illustrated by Yas Imamura.