'Journey' is a picture book written and illustrated by artist Sheila Hamanaka, with Steve Frederick behind the book's design. The words on the cover "Japanese American, Racism, Renewal" are powerful words that instantly garbs the reader's attention. Personally, I knew little on the matter until I got to read this picture book about how those from Japan came to live in America. Hamanaka has put her passion in this book, being one of the children who had parents moving over to America. In the 1930's when the Japanese, including Hamanaka's father, moved to Hawaii hoping for a chance at a better life they were met with people of European descent. These people denied them the right to citizenship and the ability to own a farm, a grocery store, or even a house. The ones who found work in the fields worked for little pay. Even those who had graduated from college were pushed into the farms because of racial discrimination. Hamanaka writes and illustrates through powerful pieces on how things quickly got worse after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 by the Japanese Imperial Navy. She describes how the U.S. placed all Japanese Americans, or anyone who may be at least one-sixteenth Japanese, living on the West Coast, were forced into concentration camps just a couple of days after the bombing. Hamanaka tells readers how people called anyone with Japanese ancestry terrible names, the journalists allowed to attack them at any opportunity, and even government officials backing up the concentration camps. These camps were only for the "enemy race." Hamanaka brings up a great point in how this enemy race only included the Japanese population but no one of the German or Italian race, who were involved in the war; anyone of European descent. Readers feel Hamanaka's and the Japanese American population's emotions as she tells us the horrible conditions to those in concentration camps who were wrongly accused. The military drafted over 30,000 of the Japanese people to fight or gain intelligence in Asian territory for the U.S. army, drafting them and wanting them to foreswear their allegiance to the Japanese emperor, Hirohito. We feel the Japanese Americans' strength as they continue to fight from the inside of these camps for their rights. After Japan surrendered on September 2nd, 1945, and the U.S. government started releasing the captives, it wasn't until 1946 of March that the last captive was able to leave these camps forced into. Even afterwards, the Japanese kept fighting for their peace. The continued to tell those willing to listen of what had happened. Generations of the people rallied together demanding reparations for what happened to them. They fought for the right to gain complete citizenship. It was not until 1988 that a public and formal apology was given to the Japanese Americans, the surviving victims of these camps, from he government. Hamanaka does a fantastic job getting the word out to caring readers wanting to know this journey the Japanese people, who came to America, had been on and had to fight for as they continue to do so for the surviving people who were placed into those concentration camps.. ( )