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The year is 1942 and America is at war with Japan. All Japanese-Americans are being sent to live in internment camps for the duration of the war, including seven-year-old Emi and her family. Before they go, Emi's friend, Laurie, gives her a gold heart bracelet to remember their friendship. But upon her arrival at the camp, Emi discovers she has lost the bracelet. How will she remember her friend now? Full color.
Nice storyline for a young childReviewed by S. Couto, 2009-01-20
I was disappointed after receiving this. I expected much more in the storyline....I was expecting a grownup book...not a booklet w/pictures. It is a very thin booklet with pictures to help tell the story. It is suitable for a very young person for someone to read to them and have them look at the pictures as they are being read to.
Milligan 1866Reviewed by Golden Lion, 2007-11-05
Emergency does not create new power, it creates the exercise of
power.
In Ex Parte Milligan 1866, the court made the following
observations about civil liberties. The birthright of every citizen
when charged with a crime is to be tried and punished by law. If
the laws are ineffectual there is immunity from punishment. Even
the wicked individual cannot be punished if the law is not in
effect. By protection of he law human rights are secured and the
withdrawal of that protection puts the individual at the mercy of
wicked rulers. The trial of all crimes shall be by jury. The right
to trial is the exercise of the judicial power. The constitution is
a law for rulers and people equally in war and in peace. When
courts are open and their processes unobstructed then due process
of the law is mandated and cannot be preempted. Courts are designed
by the founding fathers to hear criminal accusation and redress
grievances. No usage of war can sanction a military trial when a
full functional civil court is available. The right of trial is
preserved for everyone accused of a crime, who is not attached to
the army, navy, or militia in actual service. Martial law does not
have a broad range of freedom. According in the Lincoln
interpretation of executive powers, the doctrine of Martial law
suggests, in time of war the commander of the armed forces has the
power within the lines of his military duty, to suspend all civil
rights and their remedies, and subject citizens as well as soldiers
to the rule of his will. If true the republic has failed and there
is an end to liberty regulated by law, destroying the civil
liberties guaranteed by the constitution and making the military
independent of a superior civil power. Civil liberty and this kind
of power cannot dwell together. Martial law cannot arise from a
threatened invasion. The necessity must be actual and present, the
invasion real, such as effectually closes the courts, and deposes
the civil administration. Next, the writ of Habeas corpus to a
speedy trial and the right to face ones accusers was established
legal mechanism allowing Justice to be administered and the citizen
protected from oppression.
180,000 Japanese were sent to ten internment camps and two thirds
of these individuals were citizens. The Korematsu case occurred
when Mr. Korematsu would not leave his home and report for
internment camp. The Supreme Court case sealed off appeal for legal
protection for the Japanese from higher federal courts for appeal
and liberation. In the bracelet, one shop owner placed a sign on
his store saying, "We are loyal citizens"; there were no cases of
insurrection or rebellion; each Japanese was given a prison number
and report date and location; soldiers guarded the prisoners, as
they traveled by bus to the horse racetrack; Reiko tells Emi that
the soldiers will shoot them, if they try to escape. No Japanese
citizen received a military trial and a sentencing punishment term.
The civil courts were not dysfunctional. The police forces did not
report any significant activity. There should have been thousands
of legal cases flooding the court systems, but these protections
were not available. The civil liberties of the Japanese were in
violation and presumed to be based on racism because of its
selective ethnic criteria. Fundamental equal protection of the law
based on race was preempted in favor of broad military
powers.
Emi received a bracelet from her friend, in Berkley. Emi's father
was sent to another prison camp because he worked for a Japanese
company. Emi lost the bracelet. Emi and her mother looked for the
bracelet but did not find it. They lived in a horse stall with a
small mattress to sleep on. Each day they would have to stand in
long lines for food. The people felt humiliated and discouraged
from the treatment and knew that an injustice had occurred. Emi's
mother expressed courage to her daughter and they longed for the
day that they could return back to Berkley and returned to a normal
life.
Excellent introduction of a heavy topicReviewed by PWR, 2006-02-24
I used this book to introduce my 10-year-old twin daughters to this bad time in our usually-praiseworthy US history. They were very moved by the story, identifying with Emi and her sadness and fear. In the story, the bracelet assumes the importance of a link to Emi's past; its importance lessens as difficult losses are suffered by Emi and the rest of her family. If you need to begin to address the topic of prejudice with your children, this story might be a sad yet somehow gentle way to begin.
The BraceletReviewed by Shantih D. Wiita, 2002-02-02
This book was mistakenly placed in my preschool classroom and read to the children by another teacher. If you are planning to buy this book be aware that some of the themes in the book may not be appropriate for children under 6-7 years old. This book deals with a child being taken away from home, friends and family then losing a prized possesion. The book also includes talk about war and soldiers with guns. My class had difficulty understanding why Emi was being taken away. This book is more suited to children much older.
an importance lesson in memoryReviewed by Larry Mark, 2001-04-21
In the first illustration we see two typically Californian homes with cars in their driveways. One has a "For Sale" sign on its front steps. Emi, a second grader, sits and waits. Her father has been sent to a prison camp in Montana, and soon the FBI will take her, her sister, and her mother to a detention center and then to a detention camp in Utah. Emi and her family are Japanese Americans in California. It is 1942, and the United States is at war with Japan. Emi and 120,000 other Japanese Americans (80,000 of them citizens) were sent to detention centers due to their ethnic heritage by the U.S. government; their rights were abrogated. There is a knock at the door. Is it the FBI? No, it's her friend and neighbor Laurie. She gives Emi a gift, a bracelet, with which to remember her by. They hug. Emi and her family, allowed just a couple of suitcases, are sent with other from San Francisco to a racetrack which has been converted to a detention center. They see guards with guns and bayonets, and as they pass a boarded up grocery store, we see a sign in the drawing, saying that the store owners are "loyal Americans." When Emi loses the bracelet after arriving at the detention center, she learns that a person can remember people and families in the absence of physical items and personal effects. An afterword explains the historical events and the redress made by the US Federal government under Presidents Ford and Carter. Yoshiko is also the author of The Invisible Thread, her account of a childhood in detention.