Book: Graphic Novel
photo by K. Reyes 1/2021
Bibliographic Information
- Title: Displacement
- Author: Kiku Hughes
- ISBN: 978-1250193537
- Publisher: First Second
- Copyright Date: 2020
Genre [Format]:
- historical fiction, speculative fiction, magical realism, graphic novel [book]
- Subject tags: Japanese internment WWII, racism, anti-Asian laws, loyalty to country, family, community, historical trauma, cultural erasure
Awards or Honors:
- 2021 ALA Asian/Pacific American Award Young Adult Honor
- Title Listed as one of YALSA's 2021 Great Graphic Novels for Teens
Reading Level/Interest Level:
- Reading age : 12 - 18 years
- Grades 7-12 (Teachingbooks.net, 2021); ideal for all YA readers
Plot Summary:
Kiku visits San Francisco with her mother when she first experiences the fog that takes her away and transports her in the past. She calls these moments: displacements. The first time she heard the music and she was in the audience listening to her grandmother’s violin recital. Another time she is transported to the time when Japanese-Americans, anyone with Japanese ancestry, were rounded up and sent to various internment camps. Kiku would have been part of the incarcerated despite being half white. At her most recent displacement, she stayed for months and was placed in a room adjacent to where her own grandmother, still a child at this point, was housed. Kiku experiences the trials of the incarcerated Japanese-Americans and the squalor and trauma they endure. She doesn’t know when she will be returned to her home in Seattle and this mirrors the situation of everyone in the camp which is essentially an outdoor prison sanctioned by the US government.
Kiku visits San Francisco with her mother when she first experiences the fog that takes her away and transports her in the past. She calls these moments: displacements. The first time she heard the music and she was in the audience listening to her grandmother’s violin recital. Another time she is transported to the time when Japanese-Americans, anyone with Japanese ancestry, were rounded up and sent to various internment camps. Kiku would have been part of the incarcerated despite being half white. At her most recent displacement, she stayed for months and was placed in a room adjacent to where her own grandmother, still a child at this point, was housed. Kiku experiences the trials of the incarcerated Japanese-Americans and the squalor and trauma they endure. She doesn’t know when she will be returned to her home in Seattle and this mirrors the situation of everyone in the camp which is essentially an outdoor prison sanctioned by the US government.
Author Background:
Kiku Hughes is Yonsei, fourth generation Japanese-American. Her mom is Japanese and she identifies herself as “mixed Nikkei (Yonsei)” (Hughes, 2021). She is a comics artist and this graphic novel is her debut piece. She currently lives in Seattle with her girlfriend. Besides what one reads in this graphic novel and in her website, Hughes shares very little other personal information.
However, a bit of social media sleuthing by my teenage daughter unearthed Hughes’s girlfriend, CY, posting birthday greetings on March 10th, and her “mutuals” (people who follow her and whom she follows in return) seem to be thirty-ish, so guessed that Hughes is also around this age. In a tiny print on her Tumblr page, she says she’s 27. Hughes does not have an art degree and instead majored in English in college (another factoid found through Twitter scrolling). She currently draws comics for Team Avatar Tales (Avatar.fandom.com, n.d.).
Kiku Hughes is Yonsei, fourth generation Japanese-American. Her mom is Japanese and she identifies herself as “mixed Nikkei (Yonsei)” (Hughes, 2021). She is a comics artist and this graphic novel is her debut piece. She currently lives in Seattle with her girlfriend. Besides what one reads in this graphic novel and in her website, Hughes shares very little other personal information.
However, a bit of social media sleuthing by my teenage daughter unearthed Hughes’s girlfriend, CY, posting birthday greetings on March 10th, and her “mutuals” (people who follow her and whom she follows in return) seem to be thirty-ish, so guessed that Hughes is also around this age. In a tiny print on her Tumblr page, she says she’s 27. Hughes does not have an art degree and instead majored in English in college (another factoid found through Twitter scrolling). She currently draws comics for Team Avatar Tales (Avatar.fandom.com, n.d.).
Check out artist/writer Kiku Hughes's website here,
Critical Evaluation for Books:
Displacement is the first graphic novel I have read that deals with the Japanese American internment during WWII. It is a shameful part of our history and Hughes uses her grandmother’s and great grandparents’ experience as a focal point for understanding this event. She also ties it to what’s happening in current time as our country’s openly antagonistic attitude towards immigrants and those of Muslim faith are harbingers of a repetition of history.
Her drawing lines are crisp but the colors are muted and in brown and beige tones whenever the story is transported to the past. Her character is also the one wearing a muted blue that stands out. “A memory is too powerful a weapon” she writes after a memorial to a murdered incarcerated Japanese man was quickly taken down by the camp director. Memory is an important underlying thematic element as the story acknowledges that many Issei and Nissei, first and second generation Japanese Americans, wanted to move past this painful history and become more American and less Japanese. This means language and culture are not passed to the next generation and that tremendous loss and historical trauma is felt, though often not understood, by the subsequent generation. This graphic novel also contains a helpful glossary and a list for further reading at the end of the book.
Displacement is the first graphic novel I have read that deals with the Japanese American internment during WWII. It is a shameful part of our history and Hughes uses her grandmother’s and great grandparents’ experience as a focal point for understanding this event. She also ties it to what’s happening in current time as our country’s openly antagonistic attitude towards immigrants and those of Muslim faith are harbingers of a repetition of history.
Her drawing lines are crisp but the colors are muted and in brown and beige tones whenever the story is transported to the past. Her character is also the one wearing a muted blue that stands out. “A memory is too powerful a weapon” she writes after a memorial to a murdered incarcerated Japanese man was quickly taken down by the camp director. Memory is an important underlying thematic element as the story acknowledges that many Issei and Nissei, first and second generation Japanese Americans, wanted to move past this painful history and become more American and less Japanese. This means language and culture are not passed to the next generation and that tremendous loss and historical trauma is felt, though often not understood, by the subsequent generation. This graphic novel also contains a helpful glossary and a list for further reading at the end of the book.
Creative Use for a Library Program:
This book will easily pair with Quiet Defiance: Alaska’s Empty Chair Story by Karleen Grummet, about the incarceration of local Juneauite John Tanaka and his family in Minidoka, Idaho, the year that he was set to graduate as the valedictorian at JDHS. May is Asian American Heritage month and I will propose a two-week long collaboration with the history teachers using this book as a springboard for discussion and possibly as inspiration for creating a graphic novel of Quiet Defiance.
This book will easily pair with Quiet Defiance: Alaska’s Empty Chair Story by Karleen Grummet, about the incarceration of local Juneauite John Tanaka and his family in Minidoka, Idaho, the year that he was set to graduate as the valedictorian at JDHS. May is Asian American Heritage month and I will propose a two-week long collaboration with the history teachers using this book as a springboard for discussion and possibly as inspiration for creating a graphic novel of Quiet Defiance.
Speed-Round Book Talk or Short Book Trailer:
The US government incarcerated its own citizens under the guise of protecting “true” Americans. This graphic novel will give you a glimpse of what our government did to Japanese Americans during WWII. Our collective consciousness has a way of forgetting the past thus we are bound to repeat it. Read this book, remember our atrocities, and keep us from committing the same mistake of demonizing and imprisoning those whom we deem different and enemies of the state.
The US government incarcerated its own citizens under the guise of protecting “true” Americans. This graphic novel will give you a glimpse of what our government did to Japanese Americans during WWII. Our collective consciousness has a way of forgetting the past thus we are bound to repeat it. Read this book, remember our atrocities, and keep us from committing the same mistake of demonizing and imprisoning those whom we deem different and enemies of the state.
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation:
The portrayal of history in this graphic novel is quite tame; violence that happens in camp is implied. However, one challenge that could arise would be from the budding romance between Kiku and another female close to her age. Some will deny this would’ve happened in the camps, others will think this is a misrepresentation, and others may consider it wrong to include this in a text considered appropriate for young adults. We have an obligation to serve all people and denying the existence of LGBTQ+ people in varying historical contexts is a disservice to our patrons and a repudiation of the Library Bill of Rights (American Library Association, 2021).
The portrayal of history in this graphic novel is quite tame; violence that happens in camp is implied. However, one challenge that could arise would be from the budding romance between Kiku and another female close to her age. Some will deny this would’ve happened in the camps, others will think this is a misrepresentation, and others may consider it wrong to include this in a text considered appropriate for young adults. We have an obligation to serve all people and denying the existence of LGBTQ+ people in varying historical contexts is a disservice to our patrons and a repudiation of the Library Bill of Rights (American Library Association, 2021).
Reason for Inclusion:
This graphic novel is both highly readable and educational. I can see this becoming part of a teaching curriculum and I want every student to read this.
This graphic novel is both highly readable and educational. I can see this becoming part of a teaching curriculum and I want every student to read this.
REFERENCES
American Library Association. (2020, July 13). Libraries respond: Services to LGBTQIA+ people. Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/diversity/librariesrespond/Services-LGBTQ.
Avatar.fandom.com. (n.d.). Kiku Hughes. Avatar Wiki. https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Kiku_Hughes.
Hughes, K. (n.d.). About. kikuhughes. https://kikujhughes.wixsite.com/kikuhughes/about.
Hughes, K. (2021). Some Kind of Halvesie. https://geniusbee.tumblr.com/.
TeachingBooks.net. (2021). Displacement. TeachingBooks. https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=70455.
Avatar.fandom.com. (n.d.). Kiku Hughes. Avatar Wiki. https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Kiku_Hughes.
Hughes, K. (n.d.). About. kikuhughes. https://kikujhughes.wixsite.com/kikuhughes/about.
Hughes, K. (2021). Some Kind of Halvesie. https://geniusbee.tumblr.com/.
TeachingBooks.net. (2021). Displacement. TeachingBooks. https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=70455.
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