GARDEN OF STONES addresses the more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans who lived in concentration camps across the United States during the Second World War. Families were imprisoned en masse by the government for unfounded suspicions of cavorting with enemy armies, or allegedly engaging in spy activities to assist the Axis Powers. In the last half-decade, Manzanar (the concentration camp at the center of this novel) became the most well-known facility of its kind and was designated a National Historic Site.
The creation of these internment camps was an unfortunate, illogical and meaningless act, a purely negative response to Pearl Harbor and the direct result of an order perhaps not fully considered by Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was later questioned by Congress along with two American Presidents, eventually leading to official apologies issued for public actions that can only be acknowledged today as exceptionally regrettable and based on overt racial prejudice. For the families imprisoned, a formal apology must have meant little. The loss of dignity and culture was incalculable, and the tangible losses of lives and financial ruin were not ameliorated. In a war that focused largely on issues of morality, Americans seemed to be guilty of similar attitudes at home.
"GARDEN OF STONES is a remarkable work of fiction based on solid facts and a plausible scenario about a family that is quite engaging and unique. The book and writing are immediately engrossing and engage the reader’s sympathies deeply."
This novel spans more than a 30-year period from just before the attack on Pearl Harbor to the ’70s, beginning in L.A. and funneling through a family’s private grief, fear and agony as a mother and daughter yearn to escape daily anguish and bondage --- all for a country that has returned none of their deepest commitments and loyalties. This is an exceptionally patriotic family who, like most others, were p