Sparrow

I read a rather depressing novel this last week. I listened to Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse. The author takes on the little discussed subject of Japanese attacks on the Aleutian Islands and what happened to the natives that lived on those islands. The Aleuts were forced, almost like the Japanese of the United States, into camps; "for their protection." The book has a very interesting, piecey style that kind feels like traditional story telling. It tells the story of the evacuation, camp life, the lives that are lived so far from home, and the eventual return to their sometimes destroyed homes and villages. Some towns were to never be repopulated with as many as one in four of the evacuated Aleuts dying of disease while in the camps. The audiobook that I listened to had an additional historical section and an interview with one of the little girls who had been evacuated from the islands.