shashasha

Through photographs, personal accounts, essays and historical documents, “Show Me the Way to Go to Home” by Sandy Sugawara and Catian Garcia-Kilroy reopens the conversation about the incarceration camps in which 120,000 Japanese Americans were held during World War II. Sugawara and Garcia-Kilroy visited the sites of the ten former camps and photographed the remnants and traces of what had taken place there. The evocative visual journey through the photographic part of the book is filled with contrast and contradiction between the beautiful natural surroundings and the injustice and inhumanity that had taken place in these locations.

Each camp is introduced by a short summary, printed on delicate rice paper, that includes the camp’s background as well as notable incarcerees. Following the photographic visit to the ten camps, “Show Me the Way to Go to Home” then focuses on the personal experiences of several survivors, among them Sandy Sugawara’s grandmother Kiyo Miyake, the artist Chiura Obata and the scientist Takashi Hoshizaki. Historical documents (including a speech by Ronald Reagan), poems by the writers Christine Kitano and Brandon Shimoda as well as essays Dr. Karen Korematsu and Dr. Donna Nagata further illustrate the grave injustice and its lasting impact.