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Displacement, written and illustrated by Kiku Hughes, chronicles the story of Hughes’s grandmother, Ernestina Teranishi, during her incarceration at Topaz.

What I liked:

• Hughes does an astute and gracious job of illustrating the experience of JA incarceration. The relatively simple shapes and restrained use of line seem to echo the quiet desolation and scarce resources of the camps. Hughes also uses facial expressions to great effect, illuminating her characters’ thoughts in many panels without overusing dialogue.
• The tender moments of friendship and queer love depicted in Displacement quietly but unmistakably highlight aspects of JA incarceration that may not always make it into so-called ‘mainstream’ JA-authored narratives. I appreciate Hughes’s contribution to diversifying the historical narrative and I hope to see an increase in queer-centered stories as more openly gay/queer nikkei creators find opportunities in mainstream US publishing.
• Hughes’s deepening relationship with her mother over the course of the book, as well as her description of her family’s research on the camps, provides a thoughtful, nuanced portrayal of intergenerational JA experiences. It is likely a familiar story for any JA who has ever tried to trace their family history. Although there are variations of this story in many JA books, Hughes’s honest, searching self-reflection throughout the process of learning about her family made her version particularly poignant to me. In fact, Hughes’s honesty throughout the story, including her straightforward admission of her lack of knowledge about the camps while she experiences the displacement, is one of my favorite aspects of this book. I would be interested in knowing if nikkei readers who are just learning about their own family’s experiences of JA incarceration find comfort in Hughes’s words, perhaps feeling Hughes has provided them with a space in which to be ignorant, confused, or upset, without fearing criticism.

What I learned:

• My own relatives were incarcerated as a family, so I had never really considered the experience of single young nikkei who were sent to camp with no familiar faces to support them. As Kiku herself wonders for a frantic instant in the camp, what happened to these young people when the camps closed? Did they find white sponsors and/or nikkei families willing to support them? Were there many instances of non-Japanese people of color stepping forward to support these individuals? I’ve added these questions to my running list for future TBR selections.

Questions I had:

• Hughes’s use of the ‘displacement’ phenomenon to place herself in her grandmother’s story was fascinating, especially given how the narrative remained firmly rooted in apparent historical realities, rather than becoming infused with an SFF flair. Although I love SFF, I’m not sure it is the best genre for depicting narratives of JA incarceration, and I appreciate how Hughes’s narrative and artistic choices kept Ernestina’s experiences grounded in a recognizable historical setting. How did Hughes come to this concept of displacement? In hindsight, is Hughes satisfied with her own choices?
• As a mixed nikkei person and, in her own words, white-passing, how does Hughes situate herself and her work in the existing body of nikkei literature? Specifically, has Hughes encountered any barriers in the nikkei community because of her appearance and/or background, or, conversely, does she feel certain opportunities were more easily accessible to her because of her appearance and/or background? Based on her experiences, how would Hughes describe the role of white privilege and/or the white default, as linked to the model minority myth, in contemporary nikkei communities? In her opinion, what more (if anything) might the nikkei community do to create safe and supportive spaces for mixed nikkei creators?

Follow-up:

• I would love to read more of Hughes’s work, especially any works pertaining to nikkei history.