Displacement

Displacement (2020) is a young adult graphic novel by Kiku Hughes, in which the author blends stories from her family, historical fact, and fiction to tell the story of a young Japanese American woman, also named Kiku, who finds herself traveling through time to experience the Japanese incarceration camps during World War Two. Displacement is Hughes’s debut graphic novel, published by First Second, a graphic novel publisher known for showcasing diverse and marginalized voices. Displacement addresses the historical reality of incarcerated Japanese immigrants and Japanese American citizens in camps during World War Two, and the complex issues of immigrant identity and heritage, and generational trauma that arose from this injustice. Like the main character of Displacement, Kiku Hughes is a third-generation Japanese American (Sansei). Her grandmother was a violinist who was incarcerated with her family at Topaz during World War Two. As a result, their family, including Kiku Hughes’s mother, did not learn the Japanese language and lost many cultural traditions from their Japanese heritage.

Kiku Hughes works as a cartoonist and illustrator, with work appearing in anthologies such as Beyond Anthology and Alloy Anthology. Her stories center on issues of identity and LGBTQ+ romance, and feature what she calls “compassionate sci-fi” (Author Bio, Cover Copy). Displacement is her first graphic novel. It received Honor Book status in the Youth Literature category of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Awards.

This guide refers to the 2020 paperback edition published by First Second.

Content Warning: This guide and source material address issues of racial discrimination and injustice, including unjust incarceration, physical and mental cruelty, and an “off-screen” racially-motivated killing. It also discusses generational trauma and its far-reaching consequences.

Plot Summary

The protagonist Kiku briefly recounts her time travel experiences, which she calls “displacements.” The setting moves to 2016, when Kiku is 16. Kiku and her mother visit Japantown in San Francisco from Seattle, looking for the house Kiku’s grandmother lived in before World War Two. They find that the house had been replaced by a mall. Kiku’s mother explores the mall while Kiku waits outside on a bench. Suddenly, fog surrounds Kiku and when it clears, she finds herself in a different place. She is in a theater where a young Japanese girl plays the violin. Someone calls the girl Ernestina Teranishi. She exits the theater and perceives that she is in a past era. The fog returns and she is back on the bench in her own time.

Thinking she must have been dreaming, Kiku does not tell her mother. She asks what her grandmother’s name was: Ernestina Teranishi. Kiku knows from stories that her great-grandparents were Japanese immigrants, that her grandmother Ernestina was a violinist, and that they were all taken to the Japanese incarceration camps during the war.

The next morning, Kiku finds herself “displaced” again. She stands in line with other Japanese Americans, an armed military guard standing by. Kiku realizes the federal government is removing all the Japanese people from the city. She falls and scrapes her knee. She returns to her own time. When she sees her scraped knee, she realizes she is not dreaming but traveling through time.

Returning to Seattle, Kiku believes the displacements will end. She lies in the grass in her yard as her mother’s radio plays Donald Trump’s anti-immigration speeches. The fog returns and she is taken with a group of Japanese Americans to Tanforan Assembly Center, which has become an internment camp. Kiku shares a room with another woman, Aiko Mifune. Aiko Mifune is Nisei (second-generation Japanese American), like Kiku’s grandmother Ernestina. Kiku thought the Nisei were quiet and cooperative, but Aiko is rebellious and protests their unjust treatment. The Nikkei (Japanese American community) work to create a life in the barracks. They start a school, plant vegetables and flowers, and even hold dances. Kiku makes friends with another girl her age, May Ide. Kiku also takes art lessons with Miné Okubo, who encourages her to draw everything she sees as a record of their experiences.

An older Issei (first-generation Japanese American), Mr. Matsuzawa, gives Kiku a gift: a small hand-carved wooden artist’s brush, with her name written on it. Kiku treasures it, partly because she remembers from her own time that Ernestina also received a wooden toy gift: a small violin. Kiku’s mother still has this at home.

The community is moved to the Topaz Relocation Camp in Utah. Kiku now lives with a family of three women: Haruko Yoshimoto and her two daughters, Emiko and Sachiko. Haruko’s husband was a teacher who was arrested; they do not know what has happened to him. In Topaz, the food is bad, the water is undrinkable, the buildings are not fit for shelter. As in Tanforan, the Nikkei work hard to improve their living conditions.

The US government sends out a “loyalty” questionnaire that all the incarcerated Japanese over the age of 17 must fill out. Those who answer “correctly” might get opportunities to enlist in the US military. Kiku and her friends consider the choices. Some answer yes and some no. Those who answer no are labeled dissidents and troublemakers and removed to a different camp called Tule Lake. Aiko answers no and Kiku never sees her again.

One night, the guards kill an older Issei. They claim he was trying to escape, but the Nikkei do not believe this. The administration refuses to let them hold a funeral so the workers strike. After nine days, the administration allows them to hold a funeral. Kiku realizes that the trauma of this murder has been preserved in the stories told to her by her mother.

Some people receive sponsorship from white-owned businesses to leave the camp and move to the east coast. Some hope to enlist in the army soon. Kiku is afraid to leave the camp: outside she would have no family, no friends, and no connections to her own time. When she learns that Ernestina is leaving the camp with a sponsorship to attend Juilliard, she tries to speak to her. When she tries, the fog rises and she is home. Though she spent over a year in the past, she comes home to the same moment she left.

Kiku decides to tell her mother about the displacements. Kiku’s mother says the same thing happened to her when she was younger, but she never told Ernestina. They talk about Ernestina and what happened to her after she left the camp. As they talk, they travel together to New York City in the 1960s to watch Ernestina. Kiku’s mother tells Kiku the details of Ernestina’s life.

The fog clears and they return home. Kiku and her family research the camps, and what happened to the friends Kiku made there. As anti-Muslim and anti-immigration prejudice grows in America, fueled by Trump’s speeches, they join other Japanese Americans to protest racial injustice. Kiku concludes that the traumas their community experienced can help them fight for justice for other marginalized groups.