Characters
Yuki and Ken, born in the United States, are American citizens, unlike their parents who were born in Japan. This situation makes Mr. Sakane particularly suspicious to American authorities during wartime. Despite being a law-abiding businessman, he is arrested and separated from his family shortly after the United States declares war on Japan. Consequently, Yuki, Ken, and their mother are forced to relocate from Berkeley to Tanforan, and eventually to Topaz.
Their non-Japanese neighbors mostly feel sympathy for Yuki's family but are unable to provide significant help. Mrs. Jamieson, Yuki's best friend Mimi Nelson, and others offer only emotional support and some assistance with food and essential items. After moving, Yuki and her family rely on these friends for distant support, receiving letters and supplies from them. Unfortunately, some people take advantage of the family's situation. One neighbor even digs up part of Mr. Sakane's garden to take his well-tended flowers.
At the start of Journey to Topaz, Yuki, an intelligent and thoughtful eleven-year-old, eagerly anticipates Christmas and the holiday season. Despite her parents' foreign origins, she has had little reason to consider the broader world. Throughout the novel, Yuki discovers inner strengths she never knew she had. The harsh experience of losing their home and possessions embitter many who are sent to Topaz. For example, Mr. Kurihara, Emiko's grandfather, longs to leave America due to the mistreatment he endures. However, Yuki resists the temptation to become bitter and finds the strength to help others endure internment. She matures quickly, gaining the courage to face the deaths of her pet dog and Mr. Kurihara, and to motivate Emiko in her battle against a potentially fatal illness. Yuki's likable and engaging nature helps her make the best of her challenging circumstances.
While other characters do not develop as extensively as Yuki, her brother Ken also grows through the trials of internment. He is forced to pause his college education and is initially filled with anger over his family's suffering. However, he ultimately chooses responsibility over futile anger, thereby helping family and friends better cope with their difficulties.
Although Mimi is Yuki's best friend at the novel's beginning, Emiko, also known as Emi, becomes Yuki's closest companion as the story progresses. Emi's parents have passed away, and her grandparents, the Kuriharas, care for her. She meets Yuki at Tanforan, and they quickly bond, spending time playing and exploring together. Emi's vibrant spirit makes her eventual collapse from tuberculosis all the more shocking. Like Yuki, Emi shows resilience in fighting her illness, supported by Yuki's rapidly maturing and genuine friendship.
Uchida explores the theme of injustice in depth by blurring the lines between good and evil characters. One of the unsettling aspects of Journey to Topaz is that few characters seem intent on harming Japanese-Americans. The FBI agents, soldiers responsible for relocating the internees, and those witnessing the injustices against their former neighbors may appear insensitive and self-centered at times. However, Uchida depicts them as ordinary individuals just trying to live their lives, simply fulfilling their duties. The fact that their roles involve ruining the lives of thousands of innocent Americans seldom troubles them. Uchida's chilling portrayal of complacent Americans reveals that those who could have opposed the illegal internment of American citizens chose not to; those executing the forced removal of Japanese-Americans do so simply because they are instructed to. Uchida illustrates how a grave injustice unfolded in a free society, where civil rights are constitutionally protected for all citizens, because the populace allowed it to happen.
Uchida deepens the theme of injustice by portraying the victims as fully developed characters with...
(This entire section contains 1137 words.)
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both positive and negative traits. For example, Yuki enjoys playing and loves her pets, yet she is impatient and sometimes clashes with her brother. In many respects an ordinary young girl, Yuki must summon immense reserves of courage and perseverance to endure hardship and injustice. The diverse group of Japanese-Americans further enriches the theme of injustice. Mr. Kurihara succumbs to bitterness, while Mr. Toda oscillates between despair and determination. Some internees, like Mr. Sakane, strive to find something positive in the difficult circumstances of their lives. Meanwhile, others become bullies, terrorizing their fellow internees and worsening the situation for everyone.
Other themes in Journey to Topaz—such as God and religion, racism, the refugee experience, bitterness, despair, and death—illustrate the full complexity of the characters' lives, enhancing the story's realism and clarifying the historical context. For instance, the Sakanes take their Christian faith seriously and attempt to maintain worship services even amidst the numerous hardships of the concentration camps. For them, God is omnipresent, and their religious beliefs are a fundamental part of their identities.
Racism, a crucial element in the internment of Japanese-Americans, underpins events throughout the novel. One of Yuki's classmates calls her a "dirty Jap," and despite Yuki's teacher's efforts to explain that the Nisei are loyal Americans, racial hatred endures among the ignorant and narrow-minded.
The novel also prominently features the image of refugees. Like refugees, the Sakanes must pack only what they can carry, leaving the rest behind as they move their few remaining possessions from place to place. Although they resemble victims of military aggression escaping a war zone, they are, in fact, victims of their fellow Americans. The stark resemblance between refugees and the internees highlights the shocking injustice of the internment.
Yuki overhears her mother telling Mr. Kurihara, "Fear has led this country to commit an act she will eventually regret, Mr. Kurihara, but we must not let this grave mistake taint our hearts. If we do, we will be the ones to ruin our own lives and those of our children." During the internment, Yuki observes that those who succumb to anger and frustration end up poisoning their lives with hatred. By choosing not to embrace hatred, Yuki forms new friendships that help her endure the hardships at Topaz. Uchida doesn't provide easy solutions for overcoming the destructiveness of a hateful heart but suggests that during severe trials, bitterness must be continuously resisted.
In much of the novel, despair and death are intertwined. When Yuki discovers her beloved dog's death, she nearly loses hope of ever regaining the security and optimism of her past. She has endured immense stress, losing her home, school, and friends, but Pepper's death represents the loss of her entire past; Yuki's sense of loss feels complete. Later in the story, a concentration camp guard fatally shoots Mr. Kurihara—an event inspired by Uchida's own experiences at Topaz. Yuki finds Mr. Kurihara's bitterness unpleasant; his embittered heart makes him appear as if he were already dead. As Yuki matures, she comes to understand Mr. Kurihara, despite disliking his demeanor. When he dies, the camp is filled with profound sorrow and outrage, but Yuki has grown enough to feel sadness without falling into despair.
