Clark and Division

A problem for me as a book reviewer on Amazon and Goodreads is the use of the 3 star rating. Out of five stars, the ratings of 4 or 5 stars connote a “positive” rating, and 1, 2, and 3 stars mean a “negative” rating. I think the 3 stars should be a “neutral” rating, which would for mean a book I did......more

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara was a well researched historical fiction novel about one Japanese American family that had been living in Tropico, California prior to December 7, 1941. That day, the day that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, would change the lives of the Ito family forever. Mr. Ito ha......more

Not for me. I am from the Chicago area, so the setting of the book — eponymous title, Clark and Division, are streets in Chicago — attracted me to it. The mystery novel had its time period as shortly before and after the US entered World War Two in which Japanese Americans were interred in camps in......more

When I was in my first year of college in California, one of my housemates, a graduate student, casually mentioned that he had been sent to a Japanese detention center during World War Two. He briefly elaborated and then shut down.I was stunned.I was new to California and had never heard anything ab......more