Evalina Cassano, an Italian-American awakens to the news that over sixty Japanese Americans living in Los Angeles have been voluntarily relocated to Manzanar in Southern California. When Evalina expresses her concern to her mother that all the Japanese, even those born in America such as the Hamasaki children will also be forced out, her mother tries to reassure Evalina that they are safe. But Evalina is concerned because she has been secretly seeing Taichi Hamasaki, whose family supplies the produce to Alessandro's, the Casanova family restaurant.
Distraught, Evalina heads down to the market on the waterfront. But the Hamasaki's green Chevy truck is not there and someone else occupies the space where their table is usually set. This leads Evalina to take the ferry to Alameda.
Taichi's family live on a farm in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. On the same morning, Taichi's family is visited by FBI agents who search their home. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Taichi's family burned everything they owned that tied them to Japan including letters, family photographs, Japanese books and kimonos. Taichi's family is in the process of packing suitcases because they are moving to his Aunt Chiyu's home.
Evalina phones Taichi and they meet at the dock. Before he leaves to see Evalina, Taichi's older sister Aiko forces him to tell her about his secret relationship with Evalina. She was also in a forbidden relationship with a Caucasian and suffered a miscarriage. When Evalina and Taichi meet, she admits her fear for him. Taichi reveals that his family has reallocated their land back to their neighbours, the Medinas while they are away. The bombing of Pearl Harbor has changed all of Evalina and Taichi's future plans. Evalina has earned a scholarship to attend University of California Berkeley and they hoped Taichi would be able to do the same. The war has also changed the future for others too; Taichi's best friend Diego Medina will not enlist in the U.S.Navy and Eva's best friend Gia LaRocca is planning to marry her boyfriend Lorenzo.
Several days later, Taichi and his father Katsumi make their last delivery to the Cassano's restaurant. During this meeting, Taichi passes a note to Evalina asking her to meet him at Lafayette Park. The two have an emotional meeting, with Evalina giving Taichi her address, begging him to write and let her know what's happening. The Friday afternoon before they are due to leave, Taichi visits Evalina's home, expecting her to be alone. Instead her mother greets him and with Evalina the two say their goodbyes. Taichi reveals that they will be evacuated on Tuesday, likely to Manzanar. In a private moment, Evalina learns the Hamasaki family will leave from the civic center at noon. After Taichi leaves, Evalina's mother offers her sympathy and understanding, but Evalina is not sure how much her mother understands about her relationship with Taichi.
On Tuesday April 7, Taichi and his family arrive at the civic center to leave San Francisco. They find a long line of other Japanese American families, overseen by guards. A group with the First Congregational Church hands out sandwiches and water. It is hot and tiring waiting. Aiko spots Evalina, who as promised has come to see them. Just before he boards the bus, Evalina promises Taichi that she will wait for him and will write him.
The next morning Evalina is furious at the coverage of the "evacuation" in the local newspapers. Meanwhile Taichi and his family arrive at Manzanar and come to realize that the camp is not ready for them. As the months pass by and life goes on for Evalina, Taichi begins to wonder if they can really continue their relationship. Will he ever leave the camp? While Evalina continues to advocate for the Japanese Americans, Taichi finds himself drawn into a deadly revolt that costs a friend his life and endangers his own family.
Discussion
Within These Lines tackles the shameful imprisonment of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II in response to hysteria over the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Japanese Americans were displaced from their homes and businesses, and placed in prison camps merely because they looked like the enemy. In this well-crafted novel, Morrill weaves together the forbidden relationship between two American teens and the events of the Japanese internment to portray the reality of life at this time.
Evalina Cassano is an Italian-American whose family has a past history of involvement in the Mafia in Chicago. She forms a strong attachment to Taichi Hamaskai, a first generation Japanese-American boy whose family supplies her family's restaurant with fresh produce. The two teens keep their relationship secret not only because they suspect their families won't approve but also because interracial marriages are illegal in California. The realization that Taichi and his family will be sent away, is devastating to both teens.
Morrill uses Evalina to express the injustice of the government actions. Unlike many of her fellow Americans, Evalina's relationship with Taichi helps her to view Japanese Americans differently, not as potential enemies but as loyal Americans who have the same dreams and desires as any other American. When Evalina visits Taichi at Manzanar and experiences the reality of the internment camp, she is further angered by the injustice of the camps and the mistreatment of these American citizens.
Initially, Evalina writes numerous letters to government officials including General DeWitt as well as to newspaper editors in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Her letters to newspapers have been signed anonymously. initially expresses her views against the internment to parents and friends. When her mother refers to the evacuees as "Japanese", Evalina points out that "the majority of the Japanese Americans who are being evacuated" have "....done nothing except be born to parents who have Japanese heritage. And most of their parents would have become citizens long ago, except that our government has denied them that option since the 1920s."
At college Evalina's activism on the internment question spills over into her Comparative Politics class taught by Professor Blake. Despite her having visited two of the camps, Evalina receives a poor grade on her paper discussing the Japanese internment. When Evalina confronts Professor Blake about her mark, it is clear he considers her a Japanese sympathizer and later on tells her she is young and misguided. Over time however, Evalina becomes not only more vocal but also more courageous about speaking up for the rights of Japanese Americans. When Grace Bishop asks Evalina to write an article she decides it's time to sign her name. Evalina had told herself that she would be taken more seriously if people did not know she was an Italian American teenage girl. But she finally admits that she has been afraid. "I have felt afraid of people knowing that it was me, Evalina Cassano, who wrote those angry words. Afraid of being laughed at, ridiculed, told that I should just be quiet and feel grateful. Told that I'm too young to understand or too Italian to be a real American...I feel afraid of people knowing that this fight I'm fighting isn't just about the evils of racism, but that it's personal to me...." Evalina begins signing her name to her writing....
Morrill captures the era with her realistic portrayal of 1940's America attitudes and customs, especially as they related to Americans of Asian heritage. While Evalina's parents are more accepting and compassionate towards Japanese Americans, Evalina encounters others who are not. For example, her best friend's mother, Mrs LaRocca derogatorily refers to Japanese Americans as "Japs", and states, "I know I'll feel a lot better when they've been cleared out....Not that there aren't nice Japs among them, but why risk it?" This view encapsulated many Americans thoughts on the their fellow Americans of Japanese heritage. Morrill also highlights the common Caucasian tendency to lump all people from Asia together. When Evalina arrives at the market and discovers the Hamasaki's are not there she also notices that Mrs. Ling has posted a sign at her table that reads "We Are Chinese". Mrs. Ling tells Evalina that she has posted the sign because, "Some white people get confused. They think we are the enemy."
As expected, the newspapers of the time propagandized what was being done to Japanese Americans. Evalina is furious when she reads the account of the evacuation because it is portrayed as something joyful, with "the air of an outing." The public is told that military guards were there to protect the Japanese Americans from curious onlookers when in reality the soldiers were guarding the evacuees as though they were dangerous. "Was I at the same place as this moronic journalist? Because I saw no victory signals. No broad smiles. No bobbing heads. And the only raised thumb was mine to reassure my friend that I was okay. What a load of propaganda. In America! In my own newspaper!" Evalina wonders how many Americans will think that for the Japanese Americans, this will be a fun experience. "He made having your property seized and being loaded onto a bus while surrounded by military police sound like heading off for some kind of vacation!"
The reality of life in the internment camps is seen through Taichi's narratives. The camp consists of crudely constructed houses that in reality are barracks. There are armed guards to greet them. The barrack "floors are bare planks, coated in a layer of sand that's blown up and in. The only thing separating us from the other families already living in the barrack are the olive-colored blankets like those we're holding in our hands draped from the roof beams. One bare lightbulb dangles over each apartment, which I can see because of the open rafters." There are few working toilets, little privacy, and strange food.
Morrill describes the humiliation and shame the evacuees feel through the character of Taichi. When Taichi sees that his family of five will share a twenty-five by ten foot space for an indefinite period, he thinks, "My heart feels like a fist as it pounds in my chest. This is too much. Too much to take in. Too much to be asked of us. Too much dignity to lose all in twenty-four hours. How can this be real?" During his first night when he has to use the toilet, a searchlight follows him from the barrack to the toilet and continues to light the steps until he reappears, following him back to his barracks. "I lie on my lumpy mattress, hot with shame as the cold Manzanar wind continues through the night." While the average American believed the camps were a place of leisure and plenty, the reality was much different.
The poor living conditions are not the only difficulty as Taichi and his family discover. Although the Hamasaki family is fictional, the conditions described at Manzanar and the riot that occurred there were not. The Black Dragons were are real gang that were pro-Imperial Japan and who attempted to take over the camp.
Morrill's characters are realistic, well crafted. The forbidden romance between Taichi and Evalina, set in the uncertainty of war and displacement serves to successfully draw the reader into the story. If you didn't comprehend the reality of the internment of Japanese Americans, you will after reading Within These Lines. Look for further information about the camps and the events described in the author's About The History in the book's back matter.
Book Details:
Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill
Grand Rapids, MI: Blink 2019
350 pp.
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