Displacement by Kiku Hughes

A teenager is pulled back in time to witness her grandmother's experiences in World War II-era Japanese internment camps in Displacement, a historical graphic novel from Kiku Hughes. Kiku is on vacation in San Francisco when suddenly she finds herself displaced to the 1940s Japanese-American internment camp that her late grandmother, Ernestina, was forcibly relocated to during World War II. These displacements keep occurring until Kiku finds herself "stuck" back in time. Living alongside her young grandmother and other Japanese-American citizens in internment camps, Kiku gets the education she never received in history class. She witnesses the lives of Japanese-Americans who were denied their civil liberties and suffered greatly, but managed to cultivate community and commit acts of resistance in order to survive. Kiku Hughes weaves a riveting, bittersweet tale that highlights the intergenerational impact and power of memory.

A mix of sci-fi interwoven with actual history about Japanese internment in the US after Pearl Harbor. Hard to read about but something I unfortunately have read all too little about. Great color palette.

A touching story about the incarceration of Japanese Americans in the US after World War II.
Although the artwork's stunning, the main ability of the character was never explained. Which felt a little odd to me. Why not just tell the history of your people without elaborate plot points to make it interesting?
A decent read though.

I absolutely loved this graphic novel!!! I definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading and learning a bit about Japanese interment camps in america. I loved how hughes interweaves fiction and reality and makes the story easy to understand. They inserted their own family history with a fantastical twist. Also it's a lil queer :) PLEASE READ THIS BEAUTY WHEN IT COMES OUT!!

Terms I needed to look up and their meanings, because I didn't realize the author had a glossary in the back:

Nikkei: of Japanese lineage (literally) and often used to refer to Japanese people who emigrated from Japan and their descendants

Nisei: a person born in the US or Canada whose parents were immigrants from Japan

Issei: first generation Japanese immigrants to countries in North America and South America
(Thanks Wikipedia for spelling this out for me: issei are born in Japan; their children born in the new country are nisei (ni, “two”, plus sei, “generation”); their grandchildren are sansei (san, “three”, plus sei, “generation”). )

I think it's interesting – fitting – that the main character has a Japanese first name with an American last name while many that she is surrounded by have American first names and Japanese surnames.

This made me cry. I have a soft heart for this period of history. A building in my hometown has a plaque talking about how the building was returned to the Japanese family after their period of displacement. I regret what my country did out of fear and incensed that it then has the nerve to turn around and use it to support the model minority myth.

I really liked how Kiku talks to her mother after her experience and puts her experience into action.
This was well written and I like the art.

Only one little thing niggled me: this teenager in around 2016 had a grandmother who was a teenager in the early-mid 1940's. Huh, I dunno how that generational math works. But it helps a little that the book mentions that Kiku's mom was the youngest of four and I guess it's possible that Kiku's mom had her later in life but it does stretch my suspension of disbelief as she dropped out of college in the 70's and Kiku is born around early 2000's. It doesn't matter to the story, it's just something I had to get out of my brain