My interest in Amache was rekindled many years after I visited the site when I read Robert Harvey’s outstanding book Amache: The Story of Japanese Internment in Colorado During World War II. That book inspired me to write Tallgrass and eventually Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I wrote Tallgrass, my adult novel, published in 2007, I considered telling the story from the standpoint of a Japanese girl interned in the camp. I decided that would be presumptuous, however, since I’m not Japanese. But Amy Lennex, my editor at Sleeping Bear Press, persuaded me to tackle it. Thanks, Amy, and thanks for the questions and suggestions that made this a better book. And thanks, Danielle Egan-Miller and Joanna MacKenzie, for encouraging me to write a second children’s book. Nobody ever had better agents.
I am indebted to Robert Harvey, whose Amache: The Story of Japanese Internment in Colorado During World War II rekindled my interest in relocation camps. Kayoko Morton was kind enough to critique the manuscript and tell me where I had gone wrong with Japanese culture. Among other things, she taught me that Japanese women use wet, crumpled newspaper when sweeping floors and that they drink tea from cups, not bowls.
My thanks to Carl Iwasaki, whose book Japanese American Resettlement through the Lens: Hikaru Carl Iwasaki and the WRA’s Photographic Section, 1943–1945 chronicles the lives of Japanese who left the camps. During my fifty-plus-year friendship with Carl, I’ve learned much from him. And I am especially grateful to Forrest Athearn for insisting that Roy should come through the war safely.
Thanks to my family—Bob, Dana, Kendal, Lloyd, and Forrest—for understanding this second childhood.
ABOUT SANDRA DALLAS
Sandra Dallas is a New York Times best-selling author whose novels include True Sisters, Prayers for Sale, and Tallgrass. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her writing including the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Wrangler Award, the Women Writing the West Willa Award, and the Western Writers of America Spur Award. Her first book for young readers is The Quilt Walk. Sandra Dallas lives in Denver, Colorado.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Table of Contents
Chapter Two: Pop and the FBI
Chapter Three: The End of Scouting
Chapter Four: A Horse-Stall Hotel
Chapter Five: Tallgrass
Chapter Six: Rice and Fruit Cocktail
1943 Chapter Seven: Poor Mrs. Hayashi
Chapter Eight: Making Friends with the Enemy
Chapter Nine: New Neighbors
Chapter Ten: Buying a Tank
Chapter Eleven: Solving Two Problems
Chapter Twelve: Roy and the Royals
Chapter Thirteen: A Christmas Tree for Carl
1944 Chapter Fourteen: The Tallgrass Sky Quilt
Chapter Sixteen: Pop’s Story
Chapter Seventeen: A Second-Class American
Chapter Eighteen: Pop and the Royals
Chapter Nineteen: Roy Joins the Army
Chapter Twenty: Ruth Picks the Winners
Chapter Twenty-One: What’s Wrong with Tomi?
1945 Chapter Twenty-Two: The Contest
Chapter Twenty-Three: Why Pop Came to America
Chapter Twenty-Four: Roy’s Letter
Chapter Twenty-Five: Tomi’s Essay
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Winner
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Why I Am an American
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Tomi Meets the Governor
Acknowledgments
About Sandra Dallas
Guide
Cover
Title
Copyright
Table of Contents
1942