TOW #8: The Invisible Thread by Yoshiko Uchida (IRB)

     For the beginning half of The Invisible Thread, Yoshiko Uchida appears to simply be telling her own story of internment during World War II. However, during the second half of the memoir, she begins to build a greater purpose. Ultimately, through The Invisible Thread, Uchida wishes for the new generation to treat others (and specifically Japanese Americans) as "fellow human beings" (132). She also wants most of all for the young people of this time to make sure nothing as terrible as the Japanese internment happens again in America. To get across these messages, Uchida continues to use imagery to show consequences, and she also explicitly states her purpose to strengthen it.
      Uchida (and many others) believes that the main cause of the Japanese internment was racial prejudice. She hopes that the young Americans of this time period can learn to treat each other equally so that racial prejudice can eventually disappear. Uchida's extensive use of imagery demonstrates to her readers the true effects of racial prejudice. Furthermore, it appeals to pathos, as it effectively shows that pain and suffering that Japanese Americans experienced during WWII. This ultimately works to show the consequences of racial prejudice in hopes that it will convince young people not to treat people of different races in bad ways.
     Since Uchida's purpose is clearly very important not only to her but also to anyone treated poorly because of their race, she states it directly to leave a lasting impression on her audience. She writes, "I hope the young people who read these books will ... learn to see Japanese Americans not in the usual stereotypic way, but as fellow human beings" (132). By explicitly stating her purpose, Uchida ensures that readers will understand it and its importance. She also writes, "Most of all, I ask them [the new generation of Americans] to be vigilant, so that such a tragedy [Japanese internment] will never happen to any group of people in America ever again" (133). This is Uchida's final sentence, and it leaves a very strong message in readers' minds as they close the book.
     By demonstrating the consequences of racial prejudice through imagery and explicitly stating her purposes to show readers its importance, Uchida effectively gets across her messages. She shows her audience that if the new generation treats others equally, with any prejudice, they will be able to make sure that nothing like the Japanese internment ever happens in America again.

Yoshiko Uchida:

Yoshiko Uchida wrote many other books about the Japanese internment and Japanese Americans in general, and hoped through all of them to show the new generations of Americans that race should not effect the way people are treated.

(Source: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/38539.Yoshiko_Uchida)