The premise of Secret Harvests is what caught my attention and inspired me to request this book. In December, I read a historical fiction about the Japanese incarceration in the U.S. during World War II and it opened my eyes to a part of U.S. history that I didn’t know much about. So when I saw this book, I was excited to read a memoir that talked more about that time. I was also intrigued by the storyline of Masumoto’s aunt and was curious to see what her experience was like living in a facility for people who are disabled.

I am going to make a list of the themes that were interesting because there were so many.

the hardships of Japanese immigrants coming to the U.S.
immigrant assimilation and the loss of culture
Japanese incarceration camps – the loss of what Japanese farmers had worked to build the struggle to rebuild a life after being released
Japanese American soldiers who served during WWII
experiences of minority farmers and migrant workers in California
access to medical care and services to poor and/or minority populations
prejudices against people with disabilities
the treatment and care of patients in wards or institutions
exploration of family history, facing history that people want to forget, and family legacy
What I did’t like

There were still a few things about Secret Harvests that I struggled with. It felt like there were too many threads to follow throughout the book that made it feel disjointed. The focus of the story jumped around constantly. The author also asked too many rhetorical questions in the book. Many things that he wrote were repetitive. There were times I felt like was reading the same thing over and over again. Perhaps these issues could have been avoided with more editing.