Thin Wood Walls

Thin Wood Walls by David Patneaude was published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 2004. A historical fiction novel for young adult readers, Thin Wood Walls explores the experience of incarceration through the eyes of an 11-year-old Japanese American boy during World War II. The novel depicts themes of hope, family, resilience, and xenophobia, or bigotry against individuals from other countries. Thin Wood Walls is a Washington Reads Selection and a Mark Twain Award nominee. It is Patneaude’s second young adult novel.

Plot Summary

Joe Hanada is an 11-year-old Japanese American from Washington state and the first-person narrator of the novel. He likes writing, baseball, and playing marbles with his friend Ray. Joe’s life is turned upside down when Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in 1941. His father is immediately arrested for being a leader in the local Japanese American community. Joe’s parents and grandmother are Issei, first-generation Japanese immigrants who are not allowed to own property or gain American citizenship. Joe and his older brother Mike are Nisei, second-generation and American-born citizens. Without citizenship, and with xenophobia against Japanese Americans at an all-time high, Joe’s father has little legal recourse to defend himself against his unjust arrest.

The Hanadas deal with life without Mr. Hanada as many of their neighbors and peers spit at them and call them racial slurs. Though the Hanadas are not the enemy, they are punished for Japan’s attack. When the United States joins World War II, the American government imposes oppressive policies on the Japanese American community. Japanese American individuals are barred from working, bank accounts are frozen, and a curfew is set only for Japanese Americans. The Hanadas’ home is searched for contraband. Joe endures this abuse with the help of his best friend Ray, a white boy who’s harassed for sticking by him.

President Franklin Roosevelt passes Executive Order 9066, which gives the military and government the right to forcibly relocate Japanese Americans. The Hanadas are forced to pack up what belongings they can carry and sell the rest. They are shipped off to Pinedale then Tule Lake, concentration camps set up for Japanese Americans. The conditions at these camps are prison-like. They live in shabby barracks, battle difficult temperatures, and have makeshift schools. The injustice of their situation stews their anger, but they have no choice but to wait patiently for the war to end.

After a couple of years in incarceration, the Hanadas and the other prisoners are given a loyalty form to complete. Questions 27 and 28 are notoriously tricky. Question 27 asks if they would take up arms in the war for the United States. Question 28 asks if they will give up their Japanese citizenship. For young Nisei like Mike and Joe, the answers are clear: Yes. For others, like Mike and Joe’s grandmother, the questions pose a problem. The Issei can’t gain US citizenship; therefore, answering “yes” to question 28 means becoming stateless.

When Mike turns 18, he joins the army to prove his loyalty to America. Joe grows increasingly fearful of the future. He tries to occupy his mind with journal entries and through writing haikus. He has hopes that he, like other Japanese Americans he knows, can receive a sponsor that will help free his family from Tule Lake and set them up with a job and home in Oregon.

Mike ships off to Europe to fight for the Americans in World War II on the same day that Mr. Hanada miraculously returns to the family, reuniting with them in Tule Lake. Joe is happy to have his father back, but the dreariness and injustice of being imprisoned for years in the camp has hurt his sense of self. He receives notice that the Hanadas have received a sponsor. This good news is tempered by sad news from the war: Mike has died saving a troop of stranded American soldiers. Joe opens his brother’s journal, hoping for one last piece of Mike. He discovers that Mike had also been writing haikus in the days before his death.

Content Warning: The novel depicts the forcible relocation of individuals of Japanese descent and the racism and prejudice directed toward Japanese Americans and Japanese citizens in America during WWII. This guide quotes a slur against Japanese individuals.