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Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family (Oregon Reads) | 
 enlarge | Author: Lauren Kessler
Publisher: Oregon State University
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $12.89
You Save: $6.06 (32%)
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 13495
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 0870714171
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780870714177
ASIN: 0870714171
Publication Date: October 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 9 to 12 days
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Product Description
Stubborn Twig is a classic American story, a story of immigrants making their way in a new land. It is a living work of social history that rings with the power of truth and the drama of fiction, a moving saga about the challenges of becoming an American. Masuo Yasui traveled from Japan across the other Oregon Trailthe one that spanned the Pacific Oceanin 1903. Like most immigrants, he came with big dreams and empty pockets. Working on the railroads, in a cannery, and as a houseboy before settling in Hood River, Oregon, he opened a store, raised a large family, and became one of the areas most successful orchardists.As Masuo broke the race barrier in the local business community, his American-born children broke it in school, scouts and sports, excelling in most everything they tried. For the Yasuis first-born son, the constraints and contradictions of being both Japanese and American led to tragedy. But his seven brothers and sisters prevailed, becoming doctors, lawyers, teachers, and farmers. It was a classic tale of the American dream come trueuntil December 7, 1941, changed their lives forever. The Yasuis were among the more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry along the West Coast who were forced from their homes and interned in vast inland relocation camps. Masuo was arrested as a spy and imprisoned for the rest of the war; his family was shamed and broken. Yet the Yasuis endured, as succeeding generations took up the challenge of finding their identity as Americans. Stubborn Twig is their storya story at once tragic and triumphant, one that bears eloquent witness to both the promise and the peril of America.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Should be required reading for all Americans December 31, 2008
This was my book club book this month. Good thing. Otherwise I might not have 1) chosen it...I don't tend to pick up history nonfiction books for my reading, and 2) gotten through the dense first few chapters. I'm so glad I kept reading. Kessler does an amazing job of pulling together an incredible amount of research and interviews to clearly show the history and culture of Japanese immigrants moving to our country as well as their experience here, in the past and up to current time -- all through the lens of one large extended family. I'd certainly heard about the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII...but I had no idea of the full extent of what that meant. I think every American should read this book so that we don't ever allow that kind of treatment of our citizens again. This book may well have you reevaluating your own sense of right and wrong and what it means to be prejudiced. And it will have you thinking about your own background & history.
Kathie Hightower, co-author of Help! I'm a Military Spouse -- I Get a Life Too! 2d Edition
Japanese-Americans in Hood River, Oregon ?? March 12, 2001
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I found this book while browsing in the stacks one day. I had no idea that Japanese had been imported to build the Railroads in the Northwest during the late 19th and early 20th centuries (this was because Chinese were not available... laws had been passed making their immigration to the US illegal), and mainly ONLY MEN. It was a real eye-opener (I have seen NO such information ever in any US History book I read in school, and I am born and educated in the US -- graduated from UC Berkeley). This book is very easy to read and become engrossed into. I could not do anything else in my spare time other than work on finishing reading this. It goes a long way to filling in much of the missing pieces with Japan of US History before, during, and after WWI and WWII. Most US Citizens NEVER heard of Min Yasui, a newly minted Lawyer and Japanese-American US Citizen (by birth) from Hood River, Oregon, who decided to challenge Executive Order 9066 by deliberately disobeying it, getting arrested, charged, convicted, and put into Solitary Confinement for the duration of WWII even as the US Supreme Court ruled against him regarding the Constitutionality of it. And, yes folks, Executive Order 9066 could be reissued today, against anyone (even you), without Due Process. You too could be treated just like the Yasui's, ripped out of your job and home, have your bank accounts frozen, told you had 48 hours to pack and could only bring what you personally could carry with your hands and nothing more... and then lose your property and home when you could not pay the property taxes (because your Bank Accounts had been frozen by the Federal Government). You say you're a US Citizen? So were the Yasui's (except for Min and his wife, who were prohibited by Federal Law from ever becoming Naturalized Citizens -- a Law that was not changed until 1958!! Whites could, and Blacks after the Civil War in 1865 were added to the list. But Asians were never mentioned anywhere. It didn't say they could not, but it didn't say they could either. It just didn't say... and so the US Supreme Court ruled that Asian Immigrants were EXCLUDED from ever becoming Naturalized US Citizens. Hard to believe? Read about how the Yasui's coped with this issue. And the next time you eat an apple from a box marked HOOD RIVER, OREGON... you will know "the Rest of the Story... ". This book should be Required Reading for anyone taking or even remotely interested in US History.
 A Families Courage April 6, 2000
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I just finished reading The Stubborn Twig today. I love to spend hours in bookstores looking for different kinds of books and am pretty quick at purchasing what I know I will like. This book intrigued me just by the title - it went right to the top of the pile of books that I brought home that day. I started reading it right away. The story deals with how the Yasui family copes with the trials and daily living of being different. It also gives a look into how they at times fit in with their white (hakujin) neighbors and no one noticed. The story is both touching and exciting as the reader goes through the generations of Yasui's and how they feel about the world around them. I think that Ms. Kessler did a very good job of telling the story of each family member while weaving them into the importance of the famliy as a whole. I too come from a large family with generations of history. It has inspired me to start better record-keeping for my own children and the ones to come. I never knew of the reasons behind the internment of the Japanese Americans during the war. This book not only gives facts and history but the details of how real people had to cope to survive. I recommend this book to anyone interested in history, and an admirable approach to finding the courage to start over in life.
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