Picture Bride: A Novel by Yoshiko Uchida

by Yoshiko Uchida

Overview

Carrying a photograph of the man she is to marry but has yet to meet, young Hana Omiya arrives in San Francisco, California, in 1917, one of several hundred Japanese “picture brides” whose arranged marriages brought them to America in the early 1900s.

Her story is intertwined with others: her husband, Taro Takeda, an Oakland shopkeeper; Kiku and her husband Henry, who reject demeaning city work to become farmers; Dr. Kaneda, a respected community leader who is destroyed by the adopted land he loves. All are caught up in the cruel turmoil of World War II, when West Coast Japanese Americans are uprooted from their homes and imprisoned in desert detention camps. Although tragedy strikes each of them, the same strength that brought her to America enable Hana to survive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295976167
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	05/28/1997
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	970L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

What People are Saying About This

Barry Gifford

Yoshiko Uchida is the foremost Japanese American woman writer of our time. Picture Bride is a tender, painful, exquisitely written novel.... A very serious and important book.

Editorial Reviews

A moving tribute. . . . A rare insight into the hearts and minds of Japanese immigrant women and the important role they played in the establishment and survival of ethnic family and community life in America.

San Francisco Chronicle - Judy Yung

With insight, pathos, and deep understanding, the author, in her graceful, dignified way, dares to expose Hana as a long-suffering, independent, assertive woman who is frustrated and stifled as she struggles to adjust to a hostile culture that is blind to her sense of values.

Western American Literature

With insight, pathos, and deep understanding, the author, in her graceful, dignified way, dares to expose Hana as a long—suffering, independent, assertive woman who is frustrated and stifled as she struggles to adjust to a hostile culture that is blind to her sense of values.

-Western American Literature