Rising Sun, Falling Star by Vickie Hall blog tour , review & giveaway

Rising Sun, Falling Star

Different eyes and skin
Mock me from the mirror’s light
Enemy am I.

Dec 7, 1941
Today my life changed forever . . . I am no longer considered American, but by shear heritage I am now the hated enemy . . .
The lives of Kenji and Aiko Onishi and their American-born children are about to unravel when the United States is thrust into war with Japan. Confronted by insurmountable prejudice and fear, the family is ripped from their California home without just cause by the American government and sent to an assembly center “for their own protection.”
Forced to live in deplorable circumstances, every aspect of their lives regulated and controlled, the Onishi’s freedoms are stripped from their grasp as they struggle to survive behind barbed wire. It isn’t long before the mind-numbing confinement and feelings of helplessness begin to pit the family against one another.
When sent to a relocation camp in the center of the Utah desert, they’re beset by ever increasing emotional and physical challenges, and Aiko is faced with her greatest yet: to mend the broken spirits of her family, or risk losing them forever.
Based on true and tragic events that transpired during World War II, Rising Sun, Falling Star is a heart-rending story of one family’s struggle to survive uncalculated loss and emotional destruction.

My Review Rising Sun, Falling Star by Vickie Hall

4 STARS

Before hearing about this book I can only remember hearing about what happened once to the Japan American people. Sadly I really did not understand at all what it was about and what happened to so many innocent people.

This book was hard to read in so many ways. It told what happened to the fictional family Kenji and Aiko Onishi and their three children. Based on what happened to many people. It was hard for me to connect with the characters. I knew it would not be a easy book to read. I kept saying well that would not happen now, we know better, but do we? I think about 9/11 and anti Iran, Iraq, Afghan or the cold war anti Russia. It is easy to say us against them.
This tells how all of a sudden the Japanese/American citizens were now the enemies. That is was now okay to spit on them, round them up, destroy their property, take their homes, and make them pay for what the leaders of their former Country actions did.
How it kept going worse to worse before it got better. How some people turned negative, others tried to change by protesting, others by sacrificing. They could not change what was happening now but how they let them be affected they could change.

Kenji and Aiko had a nice house. Two boys and a girl. Mr. Onishi was proud that his children were American. He had his own business. Aiko had a good job in a flower shop. Little by little everything was taken from them by greedy people, by thoughtless ones.

Excerpt

Ken leaned over the window display to get a better view. Two men in dark suits exited the vehicle and went into the building next door. They didn’t look like the sort of men who drove a panel truck. The hair on the back of his neck prickled to attention. He stepped outside but kept himself back, just inside the doorway.

Ken held his breath as the two men escorted Gary Fujita from the building and ordered him inside the truck. When they opened the door, Ken saw other men sitting inside, Japanese men, with an armed guard standing between them. His blood turned to ice. He fought the urge to rush to the aid of his friend, to demand his release, but he didn’t want to end up in the truck as well.

“Where is your probable cause?” Gary demanded.

“Being Japanese is probable cause,” one of the men replied, shoving Gary inside.




They were first taken to a race track, lived worse conditions than the horses. Later they were sent to Topaz out by delta. The conditions were not great. I can picture just how hot and dry it got in the summer. No air condition, no fans, no thick walls and tall trees.( right now about an hour away from Topaz on Jun.13 it is 83degrees at 4:30) It is hot and that's with fans. Winter would really get cold their.)

Toward the end I was crying hard. The story did end on hope. These stories about the history different people faced is important to learn about so we don't keep making the same errors over and over again. They are
not easy to face and read about. But they did happen and some happened not so far from where I live now. Lets not let it happen again.

Author Vickie Hall

Vickie is a native of Utah, but growing up, lived in the states of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Nebraska. When she’s not writing, she’s composing music, or shopping with her sister. She loves animals of all kinds and camping with her family. Her favorite pastime is watching old movies on TCM, and unashamedly has a crush on Cary Grant.

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