Unbreakable: A Japanese American Family in an American Incarceration Camp is a spectacular picture book memoir about the childhood experience of Japanese American activist Minoru Tonai, who died in 2023, co-written by Jolene Gutiérrez (The Ofrenda That We Built), illustrated by animator Chris Sasaki (Home Is a Window).
In 1941, Min is a California boy who enjoys collecting rocks. His life begins to change when FBI agents visit his home, suspecting his greengrocer father of being a spy because of his Japanese ethnicity. After the December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor bombing incites war, FBI agents take Min's father. The boy, his mother, and two siblings are forced to abandon their home, possessions, and dog. Reduced to "family 12803," they're first "herded into a stinking horse stall" at Santa Anita Park, before being incarcerated in Amache Relocation Center in Colorado for the duration of the War.
Tonai and Gutiérrez brilliantly use a personal story to depict the unjust treatment and imprisonment of "more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II." The authors gorgeously capture young Min's doubts, fears, and questions, gifting him agency through an inner narrative. Min's love of stones, a hobby he shares with his beloved father, becomes an affecting motif that signals resilience and strength. Sasaski masterfully controls light and shadow in their digital art, using spare, lilac-hued details--Min's mother's dress, desert blooms--to suggest tenacious hope. Extensive backmatter is appended: standouts include an essay about evolving language and friends' and associates' letters of support for Min's father to the FBI. This formidable trio transforms ignominious history into "something beautiful." --Terry Hong