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Picture Bride Yoshiko Uchida Carrying a photograph of the man she is to marry but has yet to meet, young Hana Omiya arrives in San Francisco, California, in 1917, one of several hundred Japanese "picture brides" whose arranged marriages brought them to America in the early 1900s. Her story is intertwined with others: her husband Taro Takeda, an Oakland shopkeeper; Kiku and her husband Henry, who reject demeaning city work to become farmers; Dr. Kaneda, a respected community leader who is destroyed by the adopted land he loves. All are caught up in the cruel turmoil of World War II, when West Coast Japanese Americans are uprooted from their homes and imprisoned in desert concentration camps. Although tragedy strikes each of them, the same spirit and strength that brought her to America enable Hana to survive. Yoshiko Uchida was born in Alameda, California, and spent most of her life in Berkeley. The author of more than 25 books, she chronicled her own World War II experiences in Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family. April. 222 pp., LC 97-3, 6" x 9" |
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