Article
GET /api/3.0/articles/The%20Invisible%20Thread%20(book)/?format=api
{ "id": "The Invisible Thread (book)", "doctype": "articles", "links": { "html": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/The%20Invisible%20Thread%20(book)/?format=api", "json": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/api/3.0/articles/The%20Invisible%20Thread%20(book)/?format=api" }, "title_sort": "invisiblethread", "description": "Memoir for young adult readers by the acclaimed children's book author that covers her charmed childhood in Berkeley, California, and her wartime incarceration during World War II.", "rg_rgmediatype": [ "books" ], "mediatype_label": "Books", "mediatype_icon": "fa-book", "rg_interestlevel": [ "Grades 3-5", "Grades 7-8", "Grades 9-12" ], "rg_genre": [ "Memoir", "Children's" ], "rg_theme": [ "Immigrant experience", "Growing up – pain or pleasure", "Expression through art", "Facing darkness", "Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice" ], "rg_readinglevel": [ "Grades 3-5", "Grades 7-8" ], "rg_availability": [ "Widely available" ], "categories": [ { "title": "Arts" } ], "topics": [], "authors": [ { "title": "Brian Niiya", "json": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/api/3.0/authors/Brian%20Niiya/?format=api", "html": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/authors/Brian%20Niiya/?format=api" } ], "sources": [ { "id": "en-invisiblethread-1", "json": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/api/3.0/sources/en-invisiblethread-1/?format=api", "html": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/sources/en-invisiblethread-1/?format=api" } ], "title": "The Invisible Thread (book)", "source_ids": [ "en-invisiblethread-1" ], "published_rg": true, "modified": "2020-06-09T18:20:18", "databoxes": { "rgdatabox-Core": { "rgmediatype": [ "books" ], "title": [ "The Invisible Thread" ], "creators": [ "Yoshiko Uchida" ], "interestlevel": [ "Grades 3-5", "Grades 7-8", "Grades 9-12" ], "readinglevel": [ "Grades 3-5", "Grades 7-8" ], "guidedreadinglevel": [], "lexile": [ "1060L" ], "theme": [ "Immigrant experience", "Growing up – pain or pleasure", "Expression through art", "Facing darkness", "Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice" ], "genre": [ "Memoir", "Children's" ], "pov": [ "Told from first-person perspective of Nisei woman" ], "relatedevents": [], "availability": [ "Widely available" ], "freewebversion": [ "Yes" ], "primarysecondary": [], "hasteachingaids": [ "No" ], "warnings": [], "denshotopic": [], "geography": [ "Berkeley, California" ], "chronology": [ "1920s to 1940s" ], "facility": [ "Topaz (Central Utah) [1] - Delta, Utah", "Tanforan [15] - San Bruno, California" ] }, "databox-Books": { "title": [ "The Invisible Thread" ], "author": [ "Yoshiko Uchida" ], "illustrator": [], "origtitle": [], "country": [], "language": [], "series": [], "genre": [], "publisher": [ "Julian Messner" ], "pubdate": [ "1991" ], "currentpublisher": [], "currentpubdate": [], "mediatype": [], "pages": [ "136" ], "awards": [], "isbn": [], "worldcatlink": [ "<a class=\"external free\" href=\"http://www.worldcat.org/title/invisible-thread-an-autobiography/oclc/698022390\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.worldcat.org/title/invisible-thread-an-autobiography/oclc/698022390</a>" ] } }, "rg_title": [ "The Invisible Thread" ], "rg_creators": [ "Yoshiko Uchida" ], "rg_pov": [ "Told from first-person perspective of Nisei woman" ], "rg_freewebversion": [ "Yes" ], "rg_geography": [ "Berkeley, California" ], "rg_chronology": [ "1920s to 1940s" ], "rg_hasteachingaids": [ "No" ], "body": "<div class=\"mw-parser-output\">\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:The Invisible Thread;\nCreators:Yoshiko Uchida;\nInterestLevel:Grades 3-5; Grades 7-8; Grades 9-12;\nReadingLevel:Grades 3-5; Grades 7-8;\nGuidedReadingLevel:;\nLexile:1060L;\nTheme:Immigrant experience; Growing up – pain or pleasure; Expression through art; Facing darkness; Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice;\nGenre:Memoir; Children's;\nPoV:Told from first-person perspective of Nisei woman;\nRelatedEvents:;\nAvailability:Widely available;\nFreeWebVersion:Yes;\nPrimarySecondary:;\nHasTeachingAids:No;\nWarnings:;\nDenshoTopic:;\nGeography:Berkeley, California;\nChronology:1920s to 1940s;\nFacility:Topaz (Central Utah) [1] - Delta, Utah; Tanforan [15] - San Bruno, California;\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div id=\"databox-Books\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n Title:The Invisible Thread;\nAuthor:Yoshiko Uchida;\nIllustrator:;\nOrigTitle:;\nCountry:;\nLanguage:;\nSeries:;\nGenre:;\nPublisher:Julian Messner;\nPubDate:1991;\nCurrentPublisher:;\nCurrentPubDate:;\nMediaType:;\nPages:136;\nAwards:;\nISBN:;\nWorldCatLink:\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.worldcat.org/title/invisible-thread-an-autobiography/oclc/698022390\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.worldcat.org/title/invisible-thread-an-autobiography/oclc/698022390\n </a>\n ;\n </p>\n </div>\n <p>\n Memoir for young adult readers by the acclaimed children's book author that covers her charmed childhood in Berkeley, California, and her wartime incarceration during World War II.\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 The book is evenly divided between Uchida's prewar and wartime/postwar life. The first eleven chapters cover her idyllic childhood in Berkeley with her older sister Keiko and her kind and relatively prosperous parents (her father works for a Japanese trading company in San Francisco). She writes about friends and relatives, school, her early attraction to books and writing, and the disconnect between her badly wanting to be \"American\"—but being largely excluded from mainstream American life due to racial discrimination—and her \"Japanese\" cultural upbringing. The second half of the book covers her and her family's wartime forced removal and incarceration: her father's arrest and internment after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the indignities of life in a\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Tanforan_(detention_facility)\" title=\"Tanforan (detention facility)\">\n Tanforan\n </a>\n horse stall and at\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Topaz\" title=\"Topaz\">\n Topaz\n </a>\n , and eventual\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Resettlement\" title=\"Resettlement\">\n resettlement\n </a>\n to continue her education at Smith College in Massachusetts. The main narrative of the book ends with her first day on the job as a schoolteacher in a Quaker-run school in Philadelphia after graduating with an M.Ed. from Smith. A brief epilogue recounts her trip to Japan that led her to embrace her Japanese side and that drove her to write \"the kinds of books I'd never had as a child\" for the Sansei, and ends with a summary of the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Redress_movement\" title=\"Redress movement\">\n Redress Movement\n </a>\n and the need to keep the story alive. The book also includes an eight-page photographic insert.\n </p>\n <p>\n Uchida explains the significance of the title image early in the book, describing \"a long invisible thread would always bind Mama and Papa to the country they had left behind.\" She goes on to add that \"that thread seemed to wind just as surely around Keiko and me as well\". As literary scholar Rocio G. Davis writes, \"[t]he eponymous thread—the shifting meaning of her relationship with the land of her parents—becomes a leitmotif in the autobiography.\"\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 </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <div class=\"section\" id=\"Additional_Information\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Additional_Information\">\n Additional Information\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Author\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Yoshiko_Uchida\" title=\"Yoshiko Uchida\">\n Yoshiko Uchida\n </a>\n (1921–92) was a pioneering\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Nisei\" title=\"Nisei\">\n Nisei\n </a>\n author of children's books, all of which included Japanese or Japanese American characters. She was the first Japanese American author to write children's books specifically on the Japanese American wartime incarceration, starting with\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation (book)/\" title=\"Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation (book)\">\n Journey to Topaz\n </a>\n </i>\n (1971). She published an incarceration memoir titled\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Desert Exile (book)/\" title=\"Desert Exile (book)\">\n Desert Exile\n </a>\n </i>\n in 1982. Relative to that book,\n <i>\n The Invisible Thread\n </i>\n includes more about both her prewar life and her life after leaving the concentration camps, and her epilogue is informed by the successful movement for reparations that took place in the decade between the books.\n </p>\n <p>\n Observed reviews were uniformly positive, with reviewers citing the impact of the writing, the depiction of the incarceration, and the countervailing presence of humor. Matthew Teorey writes that the \"stories are so personal and the characters are so realistic that a reader cannot help but identify and empathize,\" while Phyllis Graves admires the \"clear, smoothly written style.\" Of the incarceration, Zena Sutherland writes that Uchida attains \"a sharper focus [relative to Journey to Topaz and sequels] on those horrors and on the emotional anguish that accompanied physical stress and deprivation\" while Graves calls these depictions \"an eye-opener\" and \"thought-provoking and important for giving young people a firsthand account of our inhumanity to others.\" Phyllis G. Sidorsky cites the \"elements of humor and warmth that provide balance to the life of this woman who was to write more than 30 memorable books for children.\"\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 </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 Chen, Fu-jen, and Su-lin Yu. \"Reclaiming the Southwest: A Traumatic Space in the Japanese American Internment Narrative.\"\n <i>\n Journal of the Southwest\n </i>\n 47.4 (Winter 2005): 551–70.\n </p>\n <p>\n Davis, Rocio G. \"Ethnic Autobiography as Children's Literature: Laurence Yep's\n <i>\n The Lost Garden\n </i>\n and Yoshiko Uchida's\n <i>\n The Invisible Thread\n </i>\n .\"\n <i>\n Children's Literature Association Quarterly\n </i>\n 28.2 (2003): 90–97.\n </p>\n <p>\n Teorey, Matthew. \"Untangling Barbed Wire Attitudes: Internment Literature for Young Adults.\"\n <i>\n Children's Literature Association Quarterly\n </i>\n 33.3 (Fall 2008): 227–45.\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 Fazioli, Carol. \"Autobiographies—The Stories Behind the Stories.\"\n <i>\n School Library Journal\n </i>\n , Nov. 2003, 83. [\"Uchida tells here story without bitterness or anger, and relays the joy she felt upon achieving her dream of becoming a teacher and author. She discovered that although she was thoroughly American, her Japanese ancestry shaped her character, as well as her writing.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n Graves, Phyllis.\n <i>\n School Library Journal\n </i>\n , April 1992, 144. [\"Uchida's story is thought-provoking and important for giving young people a firsthand account of our inhumanity to others and providing them with an individual's look at her personal development as a writer.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n Sidorsky, Phyllis G.\n <i>\n Childhood Education\n </i>\n 68.4 (Summer 1992): 248. [\"This is the touching chronicle of Yoshiko Uchida's growing up an facing the pain of discrimination... Although this action [incarceration] forms an important segment of the story, there are also elements of humor and warmth that provide balance to the life of this woman who was to write more than 30 memorable books for children.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n Sutherland, Zena.\n <i>\n The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books\n </i>\n 45.7 (March 1992): 195. [\"Here is a sharper focus [relative to\n <i>\n Journey to Topaz\n </i>\n and sequels] on those horrors and on the emotional anguish that accompanied physical stress and deprivation. Uchida is open about her feelings in a way that will make admirers feel they are friends; as always, she writes with a mastery of style and an implicit respect for her readers.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n Weisman, Kay.\n <i>\n Booklist\n </i>\n , March 1, 1992, 1272. [\"... this will be fascinating reading for history students, Japanese Americans, and fans of Uchida's books.\"]\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 Yoshiko Uchida,\n <i>\n The Invisible Thread\n </i>\n (New York: Julian Messner, 1991), 5; Rocio G. Davis, \"Ethnic Autobiography as Children's Literature: Laurence Yep's\n <i>\n The Lost Garden\n </i>\n and Yoshiko Uchida's\n <i>\n The Invisible Thread\n </i>\n ,\"\n <i>\n Children's Literature Association Quarterly\n </i>\n 28.2 (2003), 94.\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 Matthew Teorey, \"Untangling Barbed Wire Attitudes: Internment Literature for Young Adults,\"\n <i>\n Children's Literature Association Quarterly\n </i>\n 33.3 (Fall 2008), 229; Phyllis Graves,\n <i>\n School Library Journal\n </i>\n , April 1992, 144; Zena Sutherland,\n <i>\n The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books\n </i>\n 45.7 (March 1992): 195; Phyllis G. Sidorsky,\n <i>\n Childhood Education\n </i>\n 68.4 (Summer 1992): 248.\n </span>\n </li>\n </ol>\n </div>\n </div>\n <!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCached time: 20230613175409\nCache expiry: 86400\nDynamic content: false\nComplications: []\nCPU time usage: 0.025 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.033 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 406/1000000\nPost‐expand include size: 7816/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 1747/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 5/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0/100\nUnstrip recursion depth: 0/20\nUnstrip post‐expand size: 1284/5000000 bytes\nExtLoops count: 0\n-->\n <!--\nTransclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)\n100.00% 19.930 1 -total\n 12.08% 2.407 1 Template:Reflist\n 11.65% 2.322 1 Template:RGDatabox-Core\n 10.40% 2.073 1 Template:Databox-Books\n 6.85% 1.365 1 Template:Published\n 6.71% 1.337 1 Template:AuthorByline\n 6.49% 1.294 1 Template:FindAtIA\n 6.41% 1.278 1 Template:publish-rgonly\n-->\n <!-- Saved in parser cache with key encycmw:pcache:idhash:2296-0!canonical and timestamp 20230613175409 and revision id 29875\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/invisiblethreada00uchi\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n The Invisible Thread\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 <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation (book)/\" title=\"Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation (book)\">\n Journey to Topaz\n </a>\n </i>\n by Yoshiko Uchida;\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese-American Internment Camps (book)/\" title=\"Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese-American Internment Camps (book)\">\n Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese-American Internment Camps: Young Reader's Edition\n </a>\n </i>\n by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald;\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/A Place to Belong (book)/\" title=\"A Place to Belong (book)\">\n A Place to Belong\n </a>\n </i>\n by Cynthia Kadohata\n </p>\n </div>\n</div>" }