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"id": "Why She Left Us (book)",
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"description": "A 1999 novel by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto that follows the Okada family from the 1920s to the 1990s and includes their incarceration at the\n \n Santa Anita Assembly Center\n \n and\n \n Amache\n \n as well as the experiences of two\n \n Nisei\n \n who serve in the\n \n 442nd Regimental Combat Team\n \n . The novel is structured as a series of vignettes told from the points of view of four characters.\n \n Why She Left Us\n \n was honored with an American Book Award in 2000.",
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"Family – blessing or curse",
"Motherhood",
"Power of the past",
"Role of women"
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"Widely available"
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"title": "Brian Niiya",
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"title": "Why She Left Us (book)",
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"modified": "2020-06-10T17:02:04",
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"title": [
"Why She Left Us"
],
"creators": [
"Rahna Reiko Rizzuto"
],
"interestlevel": [
"Grades 9-12",
"Adult"
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"lexile": [],
"theme": [
"Family – blessing or curse",
"Motherhood",
"Power of the past",
"Role of women"
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"genre": [
"Historical Fiction"
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"told from the perspectives of four characters: a Nisei man, two Sansei, and an Issei woman"
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"availability": [
"Widely available"
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"Some sexual content"
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"geography": [
"Los Angeles, California",
"Hawai'i"
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"chronology": [
"1920s to 1990s"
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"facility": [
"Granada (Amache) [4] - Amache, Colorado",
"Santa Anita [23] - Arcadia, California"
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"databox-Books": {
"title": [
"Why She Left Us"
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"author": [
"Rahna Reiko Rizzuto"
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"country": [],
"language": [],
"series": [],
"genre": [
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"publisher": [
"HarperCollins"
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"pubdate": [
"1999"
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"mediatype": [],
"pages": [
"295"
],
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"isbn": [
"0060193700 9780060193706"
],
"worldcatlink": [
"<a class=\"external free\" href=\"http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40489331\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40489331</a>"
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"rg_title": [
"Why She Left Us"
],
"rg_creators": [
"Rahna Reiko Rizzuto"
],
"rg_pov": [
"told from the perspectives of four characters: a Nisei man, two Sansei, and an Issei woman"
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"rg_geography": [
"Los Angeles, California",
"Hawai'i"
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"body": "<div class=\"mw-parser-output\">\n <div id=\"databox-Books\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n Title:Why She Left Us;\nAuthor:Rahna Reiko Rizzuto;\nIllustrator:;\nOrigTitle:;\nCountry:;\nLanguage:;\nSeries:;\nGenre:Fiction;\nPublisher:HarperCollins;\nPubDate:1999;\nCurrentPublisher:;\nCurrentPubDate:;\nMediaType:;\nPages:295;\nAwards:;\nISBN:0060193700 9780060193706;\nWorldCatLink:\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40489331\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40489331\n </a>\n ;\n </p>\n </div>\n <div class=\"floatright\">\n </div>\n <div class=\"rgonly\">\n <!--\"rgdatabox-CoreDisplay\" removed-->\n <div id=\"rgdatabox-Core\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n RGMediaType:books;\nTitle:Why She Left Us;\nCreators:Rahna Reiko Rizzuto;\nInterestLevel:Grades 9-12; Adult;\nReadingLevel:;\nGuidedReadingLevel:;\nLexile:;\nTheme:Family – blessing or curse; Motherhood; Power of the past; Role of women;\nGenre:Historical Fiction;\nPoV:told from the perspectives of four characters: a Nisei man, two Sansei, and an Issei woman;\nRelatedEvents:;\nAvailability:Widely available;\nFreeWebVersion:Yes;\nPrimarySecondary:;\nHasTeachingAids:No;\nWarnings:Some sexual content;\nDenshoTopic:;\nGeography:Los Angeles, California; Hawai'i;\nChronology:1920s to 1990s;\nFacility:Granada (Amache) [4] - Amache, Colorado; Santa Anita [23] - Arcadia, California;\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <p>\n A 1999 novel by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto that follows the Okada family from the 1920s to the 1990s and includes their incarceration at the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Santa_Anita_(detention_facility)\" title=\"Santa Anita (detention facility)\">\n Santa Anita Assembly Center\n </a>\n and\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Amache_(Granada)\" title=\"Amache (Granada)\">\n Amache\n </a>\n as well as the experiences of two\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Nisei\" title=\"Nisei\">\n Nisei\n </a>\n who serve in the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/442nd_Regimental_Combat_Team\" title=\"442nd Regimental Combat Team\">\n 442nd Regimental Combat Team\n </a>\n . The novel is structured as a series of vignettes told from the points of view of four characters.\n <i>\n Why She Left Us\n </i>\n was honored with an American Book Award in 2000.\n </p>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Synopsis\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Synopsis\">\n Synopsis\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n <i>\n Why She Left Us\n </i>\n tells the multigenerational story of the Okada family spanning their prewar years as California farmers, their wartime incarceration in the Santa Anita Assembly Center and at Amache, and the postwar lives of the family members in Los Angeles and in Hawai'i. The focus of the novel is on Emi, a Nisei who bears two children out of wedlock—one just prior to the war, the other born in a horse stall at Santa Anita—putting the first up for adoption and later refusing to care for him after her mother takes him back from the adoptive family. The story is told in twenty-four chapters, each a vignette of the family's life from the 1920 to 1990 and from the point of view of one of four characters, all of whom only know part of the story: Jack, Emi's younger brother, physically crippled from his stint in the 442nd; Eric, the son left behind who pines for his mother as a child and become a petty criminal as a young adult; Mariko, the daughter Emi chose to raise who discovers the secrets in her family history through applying for\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Redress_movement\" title=\"Redress movement\">\n redress\n </a>\n after the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Civil_Liberties_Act_of_1988\" title=\"Civil Liberties Act of 1988\">\n Civil Liberties Act of 1988\n </a>\n ; and Kaori, Emi's\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Issei\" title=\"Issei\">\n Issei\n </a>\n mother, who speaks to Mariko in the first person from beyond the grave.\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Background_and_Reaction\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Background_and_Reaction\">\n Background and Reaction\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Author Rahna Reiko Rizzuto was born and and raised in Hawai'i, growing up the Big Island, the daughter of Japanese American mother and Caucasian father. She attended Columbia University, graduating with a degree in astrophysics.\n <i>\n Why She Left Us\n </i>\n was inspired by Rizzuto's discovery of her own family's wartime incarceration and \"by a\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Camp_pilgrimages\" title=\"Camp pilgrimages\">\n pilgrimage\n </a>\n I made to the internment camp where my mother and her family lived during World War II,\" she writes in the book's acknowledgements. She adds that \"it was informed by many generous Japanese Americans who shared their stories with me.\"\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n [1]\n </a>\n </sup>\n She subsequently authored an acclaimed memoir,\n <i>\n Hiroshima in the Morning\n </i>\n (New York: The Feminist Press, 2010) and has published essays and short stories in many print and online publications including the\n <i>\n Los Angeles Times\n </i>\n , Salon.com, and\n <i>\n Mothers Who Think\n </i>\n . She teaches creative writing at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont.\n </p>\n <p>\n Reviews were almost uniformly positive, with reviewers noting the \"tensile, vigorous prose, as unsparing as the story she tells\" and calling it a \"remarkable \" and \"moving first novel\" even the lone negative review (\"The story makes heroic efforts to come alive and engage but, fine prose aside, just doesn't\") calls it \"well-crafted.\"\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n [2]\n </a>\n </sup>\n Several reviewers note the novel's complicated structure, with Sara Saffian largely positive review in the\n <i>\n New York Times Book Review\n </i>\n concludes that \"reading the book is akin to assembling a jigsaw puzzle as the picture gradually emerges. But the multiple voices render the narrative choppy, at odds with the simple, lyrical beauty of the language itself...\"\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref3_3-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref3-3\">\n [3]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <p>\n In an article on successful first novelists,\n <i>\n Library Journal\n </i>\n notes that \"Sparked by grassroots enthusiasm, this book went into a second printing and made the\n <i>\n San Francisco Chronicle\n </i>\n and\n <i>\n Denver Post\n </i>\n best sellers lists.\"\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref4_4-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref4-4\">\n [4]\n </a>\n </sup>\n It was named one of the best books of 1999 by the\n <i>\n Honolulu Advertiser\n </i>\n and in 2000,\n <i>\n Why She Left Us\n </i>\n was named one of seventeen recipients of the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref5_5-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref5-5\">\n [5]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <div id=\"authorByline\">\n <b>\n Authored by\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Brian_Niiya\" title=\"Brian Niiya\">\n Brian Niiya\n </a>\n , Densho\n </b>\n </div>\n <div id=\"citationAuthor\" style=\"display:none;\">\n Niiya, Brian\n </div>\n </div>\n </div>\n</div>\n",
"moreinfo": "<div class=\"section\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n For More Information\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Author's website:\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.r3reiko.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.r3reiko.com/\n </a>\n .\n </p>\n <p>\n Goddard College site:\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.goddard.edu/people/rahna-reiko-rizzuto-ba\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.goddard.edu/people/rahna-reiko-rizzuto-ba\n </a>\n .\n </p>\n </div>\n</div>",
"reviews": "<div class=\"section\" id=\"Reviews\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Reviews\">\n Reviews\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Anderson, Beth E.\n <i>\n Library Journal\n </i>\n , July 1999, 135–36. [\"A remarkable first novel; highly recommended.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n <i>\n Kirkus Reviews\n </i>\n , July 15, 1999, 1076–77. [\"The story makes heroic efforts to come alive and engage but, fine prose aside, just doesn’t.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n Pearl, Nancy,\n <i>\n Booklist\n </i>\n , August 1999, 2028. [\"… Rizzuto’s moving first novel explores four members of the Okada family, alternately telling their stories.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n <i>\n Publishers Weekly,\n </i>\n June 14, 1999, 47–48. [\"Rizzuto expertly heightens the drama of the Okada family’s saga with her tensile, vigorous prose, as unsparing as the story she tells.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n Rozzo, Mark,\n <i>\n Los Angeles Times Book Review\n </i>\n , Sep. 26, 1999, 10. [\"Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, in this enigmatic and engaging novel about three generations of a splintered Japanese American family wisely leaves the mystery that drives her story intact, even as she explores it from every possible angle.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n Saffian, Sarah,\n <i>\n New York Times Book Review,\n </i>\n Aug. 29, 1999, 21. [... reading the book is akin to assembling a jigsaw puzzle as the picture gradually emerges. But the multiple voices render the narrative choppy, at odds with the simple, lyrical beauty of the language itself…\"]\n </p>\n </div>\n</div>",
"footnotes": "<div class=\"section\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n Footnotes\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <div class=\"reflist\" style=\"list-style-type: decimal;\">\n <div class=\"mw-references-wrap\">\n <ol class=\"references\">\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Rahna Reiko Rizzuto,\n <i>\n Why She Left Us: A Novel\n </i>\n (New York: HarperCollins, 1999), vii.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n <i>\n Publishers Weekly\n </i>\n , June 14, 1999, 47; Beth E. Anderson,\n <i>\n Library Journal\n </i>\n , July 1999, 136; Nancy Pearl,\n <i>\n Booklist\n </i>\n , Aug. 1999, 2028;\n <i>\n Kirkus Reviews\n </i>\n , July 15, 1999, 1077.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref3-3\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref3_3-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Mark Rozzo,\n <i>\n Los Angeles Times Book Review\n </i>\n , Sept. 26, 1999, 10; Sarah Saffian,\n <i>\n New York Times Book Review\n </i>\n , August 29, 1999, 21.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref4-4\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref4_4-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Barbara Hoffert with Ann Burns, \"Booming Business,\"\n <i>\n Library Journal\n </i>\n , March 15, 2000, 54.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref5-5\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref5_5-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n \"The American Book Awards / Before Columbus Foundation\" on the American Booksellers Association website, accessed on March 2, 2013 at\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.bookweb.org/btw/awards/The-American-Book-Awards---Before-Columbus-Foundation.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.bookweb.org/btw/awards/The-American-Book-Awards---Before-Columbus-Foundation.html\n </a>\n .\n </span>\n </li>\n </ol>\n </div>\n </div>\n <!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCached time: 20230613175613\nCache expiry: 86400\nDynamic content: false\nComplications: []\nCPU time usage: 0.026 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.034 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 434/1000000\nPost‐expand include size: 8207/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 1614/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 5/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0/100\nUnstrip recursion depth: 0/20\nUnstrip post‐expand size: 2252/5000000 bytes\nExtLoops count: 0\n-->\n <!--\nTransclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)\n100.00% 21.529 1 -total\n 13.68% 2.945 1 Template:Reflist\n 10.90% 2.347 1 Template:RGDatabox-Core\n 9.77% 2.104 1 Template:Databox-Books\n 6.71% 1.444 1 Template:AuthorByline\n 6.26% 1.347 1 Template:Published\n 6.11% 1.316 1 Template:FindAtIA\n 6.09% 1.312 1 Template:publish-rgonly\n-->\n <!-- Saved in parser cache with key encycmw:pcache:idhash:2390-0!canonical and timestamp 20230613175613 and revision id 29959\n -->\n </div>\n</div>",
"findatia": "<div class=\"section\" id=\"Find_in_the_Digital_Library_of_Japanese_American_Incarceration\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Find_in_the_Digital_Library_of_Japanese_American_Incarceration\">\n Find in the Digital Library of Japanese American Incarceration\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n <b>\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/{{{Identifier}}}\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n Why She Left Us\n </a>\n </b>\n </p>\n <p style=\"font-size:8pt;line-height:1.5;color: #aaa;\">\n This item has been made freely available in the\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/details/digital-library-of-japanese-american-incarceration\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n Digital Library of Japanese American Incarceration\n </a>\n , a collaborative project with\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://archive.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n Internet Archive\n </a>\n .\n </p>\n <p>\n <br/>\n Might also like\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Letters to Memory (book)/\" title=\"Letters to Memory (book)\">\n Letters to Memory\n </a>\n by Karen Tei Yamashita;\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/A Bridge Between Us (book)/\" title=\"A Bridge Between Us (book)\">\n A Bridge Between Us\n </a>\n by Julie Shigekuni;\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Garden of Stones (book)/\" title=\"Garden of Stones (book)\">\n Garden of Stones\n </a>\n by Sophie Littlefield\n </p>\n </div>\n</div>"
}