• Age: 8 to 12
• Grade: 3 to 7

The harsh conditions of an internment camp become a reality for a young Japanese-Canadian girl.

It is 1941 and Mary Kobayashi, a Canadian-born Japanese girl enjoys her life in Vancouver. She likes school, she likes her friends, and she yearns above all else to own a bicycle. Although WWII is raging elsewhere in the world, it hasn't really impacted her life in B.C.

Then on December 7, 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. . . and everything changes.

Suddenly a war of suspicion and prejudice is waged on the home front and Japanese-Canadians are completely stripped of their rights, their jobs and their homes. Mary is terrified when her family is torn apart and sent to various work camps, while she and her two sisters are sent, alone, to a primitive camp in B.C.'s interior. Here Mary spends the duration of the war, scared and uncertain of how it will all end.

In Torn Apart, author Susan Aihoshi draws from the experiences of her own family during "The Uprooting" of the Japanese in B.C. during WWII. Through young Mary's eyes, readers experience this regrettable time in Canadian history firsthand.

SUSAN AIHOSHI is a third-generation Japanese Canadian whose grandparents and parents were interned in the ghost town of New Denver in 1942. On writing Torn Apart, Susan said, “It was not until this present opportunity arose to write the Dear Canada Japanese Internment story that I have at last been able to achieve one of my lifelong goals — to write a book. It has also been a very gratifying way to explore my own family members’ history as Japanese Canadians who lived through a major injustice and went on to thrive in spite of it.” After many years at Books in Canada magazine, Susan became managing editor at Madison Press Books, where as she worked on a wide variety of children’s books. She is currently a freelance editor and writer.

Susan M. Aihoshi's profile page

• Short-listed, Red Cedar Award (BC Young Readers' Choice)

Praise for Dear Canada: Torn Apart

"For those of us who are the children and grandchildren of Evacuation and Internment survivors, this book deserves our special attention and, hopefully, will be the catalyst for a younger generation to be empowered by better knowing who they are and where they come from." —Norm Masaji Ibuki, National Association of Japanese Canadians

"I found it really interesting, even though it was sad. It seemed more real than fiction...I would definitely recommend it." —The National Post (review by Maia and Diana, age 9)

"Though the outlines of the story may seem sadly familiar, they are chilling when revisited in the diary of 12-year-old Mary Kobayashi." —The Montreal Gazette

"An important story...this reader was moved to fury, and tears." —CM Magazine

Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi (Dear Canada)

Mary Kobayashi starts her diary on her twelfth birthday in the spring of 1941. Like any other Canadian 12-year-old girl, she plays tennis, goes to Guides and is saving up for a bike. But world events start affecting her life. First, her class has air raid practices. Then, as the war in Europe continues, her brothers are not accepted into the Canadian army because of their Japanese heritage, and the freedoms of Japanese Canadians are increasingly curtailed. Her father is no longer allowed to own a car, which means he can no longer work, and a curfew is imposed on everyone of Japanese ancestry. After Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, her family is separated as she and her sisters are forced to relocate to internment camps because of their Japanese heritage.

Part of Scholastic’s Dear Canada series, Susan Aihoshi’s Torn Apart smoothly incorporates historical events into Mary’s diary entries. The diary format works well, letting the reader witness Mary’s struggle as she tries to comprehend events around her. Through the different people Mary mentions in her diary, Aihoshi depicts the racism of the time, but also the sympathies and indignation expressed by those outside the Japanese-Canadian community about the injustices against Japanese Canadians.

Aihoshi’s exhaustive research into her own family history pays off with realistic portrayals of family and community dynamics. Her detailed descriptions of the political climate and conditions at the internment camps are enhanced by the inclusion of photos, documents and a map. But Aihoshi inspires us to go beyond the history books, to see the events as personal experiences that happened to Canadians, young and old, as part of Canadian history. The book is an excellent complement for a history unit or for Asian Heritage month.