The story is based upon real events in these prison camps during WWII and, as I said, it is written with confidence and clarity. In this way, she gets by, makes a friendship with her young teacher and tries to remember what life was like before. She only draws, communicating just through her paintings. She does not talk anymore because of her shock. Everyone else around Manami seems to just about cope with their new incarceration, but she does not. This is a tragic, horrible moment and, from this point, we are catapulted into Manami’s distraught emotions of leaving her dog behind and we experience the life of a prison camp through these emotions. They are taken to a desert prison-village with thousands of other Japanese-Americans (most of whom are US citizens and wrongly imprisoned), but Manami’s little dog, Yujinn, is not allowed to go. The story centres around little Manami, and her family, as they are forced by soldiers to leave their home on the American Bainbridge Island, just after Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. But, because Lois has been, it makes the story of Manami – a Japanese-American prisoner of war – all the more involving, easy to read and more powerful. Paper Wishes by Lois Sepahban is a beautiful little book is written with such brevity and precise wording that, on occasions, it’s hard to believe a writer could be so ruthless with their words.
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