i read this because i'm researching internment camps for a body of artwork i'm creating.

i found it very well researched, and once i got past the first few chapters [it was slow in the beginning for me], i was very interested in the events and people described.

i do think sakamoto wobbled between being an objective observer and a writer wanting to really tell a compelling story in a way that isn't super great for plot development. but other than that critique, the situation that fukuhara's found themselves in seemed so very complicated, sad, poetic, compelling, etc. the personal insight and stories that all the family members disclosed made a historic time much more individualistic and comprehensible.