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Japantown Mystery #2
Evergreen
A Japanese American nurse navigates the dangers of post-WWII and post-Manzanar life as she attempts to find justice for a broken family in this follow-up to the Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning Clark and Division.
Los Angeles, 1946: It’s been two years since Aki Ito and her family were released from Manzanar detention center and resettled in Chicago with other Japanese Americans. Now the Itos have finally been allowed to return home to California—but nothing is as they left it. The entire Japanese American community is starting from scratch, with thousands of people living in dismal refugee camps while they struggle to find new houses and jobs in over-crowded Los Angeles.
Aki is working as a nurse’s aide at the Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights when an elderly Issei man is admitted with suspicious injuries. When she seeks out his son, she is shocked to recognize her husband’s best friend, Babe Watanabe. Could Babe be guilty of elder abuse?
Only a few days later, Little Tokyo is rocked by a murder at the low-income hotel where the Watanabes have been staying. When the cops start sniffing around Aki’s home, she begins to worry that the violence tearing through her community might threaten her family. What secrets have the Watanabes been hiding, and can Aki protect her husband from getting tangled up in their mess?
Los Angeles, 1946: It’s been two years since Aki Ito and her family were released from Manzanar detention center and resettled in Chicago with other Japanese Americans. Now the Itos have finally been allowed to return home to California—but nothing is as they left it. The entire Japanese American community is starting from scratch, with thousands of people living in dismal refugee camps while they struggle to find new houses and jobs in over-crowded Los Angeles.
Aki is working as a nurse’s aide at the Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights when an elderly Issei man is admitted with suspicious injuries. When she seeks out his son, she is shocked to recognize her husband’s best friend, Babe Watanabe. Could Babe be guilty of elder abuse?
Only a few days later, Little Tokyo is rocked by a murder at the low-income hotel where the Watanabes have been staying. When the cops start sniffing around Aki’s home, she begins to worry that the violence tearing through her community might threaten her family. What secrets have the Watanabes been hiding, and can Aki protect her husband from getting tangled up in their mess?
312 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2023
135 people are currently reading
8312 people want to read
About the author
Naomi Hirahara
57 books763 followersNaomi Hirahara is the USA Today-bestselling and award-winning author of multiple mystery series, noir short stories, nonfiction history books and one middle-grade novel. Her Edgar Award-winning Mas Arai series features a Los Angeles gardener and Hiroshima survivor. Her first historical mystery, CLARK AND DIVISION, which follows a Japanese American family from Manzanar to Chicago in 1944, won a Mary Higgins Clark Award in 2022. Her two other series star a young mixed race female LAPD bicycle cop, Ellie Rush, and a Filipina-Japanese American woman in Kaua'i, Lellani Santiago. She also has written a middle-grade book, 1001 CRANES. In 2025, the history book she co-wrote with Geraldine Knatz, TERMINAL ISLAND: LOST COMMUNITIES ON AMERICA'S EDGE, won a California Book Award gold medal. She, her husband and their rat terrier live happily in her birthplace of Pasadena, California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 235 reviews
December 27, 2023
*3.5 stars rounded up
This is Hirahara's followup to Clark and Division, about the experiences of a Japanese-American family during WWII, but it can definitely be read as a standalone. In the previous book the Itos have been released from the Manzanar detention center and are sent to resettle in Chicago where they learn their beloved oldest daughter Rose, who had gone there ahead of them, has died from an apparent suicide. Devastated, the three remaining family members struggle to settle into this new life in a strange city. Aki, Rose's baby sister, does not believe her sister would kill herself and seeks answers. During the course of the story, Aki studies nursing and marries Art Nakasone, a local Japanese man from a wealthy family, before he joins the war effort.
The second book begins two years later in 1946. The Itos are among thousands of Japanese-Americans who have been allowed to return home to Southern California where they struggle to pick up the strings of their former lives. The Itos are lucky to find jobs and a small house to rent and are happy to learn that their boxed up possessions have been kept safe for them by a local farmer.
While waiting for her husband Art to be discharged from the army, Aki is working as a nurse's aide at the Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights. During one shift, she observes an elderly man who is being examined with suspicious injuries, and recognizes him as the father of her husband's best man from their wedding. Later, when the same man is admitted with a gun shot wound, Aki is determined to figure out what is really going on. But when Art returns home, he is none too pleased with her suspicions and questioning, seeming to have secrets of his own.
This is a really interesting look at what Japanese-Americans went through during these early post-war months. The unfairness of how they were treated is front and center. They were fortunate to have a close circle of friends to call upon for support and friendship in times of need. As usual during hard times, some people turn to a life of crime to get ahead and that's where Aki looks to find some answers.
Many thanks to my local public library for providing me with a hardcover copy of this new novel to read. Where would we be without our libraries?
This is Hirahara's followup to Clark and Division, about the experiences of a Japanese-American family during WWII, but it can definitely be read as a standalone. In the previous book the Itos have been released from the Manzanar detention center and are sent to resettle in Chicago where they learn their beloved oldest daughter Rose, who had gone there ahead of them, has died from an apparent suicide. Devastated, the three remaining family members struggle to settle into this new life in a strange city. Aki, Rose's baby sister, does not believe her sister would kill herself and seeks answers. During the course of the story, Aki studies nursing and marries Art Nakasone, a local Japanese man from a wealthy family, before he joins the war effort.
The second book begins two years later in 1946. The Itos are among thousands of Japanese-Americans who have been allowed to return home to Southern California where they struggle to pick up the strings of their former lives. The Itos are lucky to find jobs and a small house to rent and are happy to learn that their boxed up possessions have been kept safe for them by a local farmer.
While waiting for her husband Art to be discharged from the army, Aki is working as a nurse's aide at the Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights. During one shift, she observes an elderly man who is being examined with suspicious injuries, and recognizes him as the father of her husband's best man from their wedding. Later, when the same man is admitted with a gun shot wound, Aki is determined to figure out what is really going on. But when Art returns home, he is none too pleased with her suspicions and questioning, seeming to have secrets of his own.
This is a really interesting look at what Japanese-Americans went through during these early post-war months. The unfairness of how they were treated is front and center. They were fortunate to have a close circle of friends to call upon for support and friendship in times of need. As usual during hard times, some people turn to a life of crime to get ahead and that's where Aki looks to find some answers.
Many thanks to my local public library for providing me with a hardcover copy of this new novel to read. Where would we be without our libraries?
June 16, 2023
Naomi Hirahara's Evergreen is billed as mystery (and yes, there's a mystery at its heart), but in reality it's a complex and beautiful exploration of life within a vilified minority community and the struggle to be perceived as "ordinary" and to be granted the rights of full citizenship.
The central character, Aki, and her family were held in the Manzanar internment center for Japanese Americans/enemy aliens during World War II. The internment ended two years ago. The family subsequently lived in Chicago (where Aki's older sister died) and has now returned to Los Angeles where they lived before the war.
Not exactly where they lived before—their former home is now occupied by others, but they have found a place for themselves in a different neighborhood. Thousands of Japanese Americans who haven't found housing are living in resettlement centers while trying to rebuild their prewar lives. Some of these resettlement centers offer safety and a relatively comfortable existence. Others are far worse than the internment camps were, with inadequate housing and a lack of basic necessities like running water and proper bathrooms. In addition, the end to the war has not brought an end to the popular view of Japanese Americans as the enemy
Aki now works as a nurse's aid in a Boyle Heights hospital that primarily serves Japanese Americans. Almost everyone around her—doctors, nurses, and patients alike—is recovering from the internment. Aki married in Chicago before she, her husband, and her parents made the move west. Being a newlywed in a home shared with parents is awkward, but also a relative privilege. Aki's husband has begun working as a reporter for a community newspaper. His coworkers are polished journalists with well-informed, complex views on current politics, both local and national, which Aki finds intimidating.
When Aki helps care for a patient who clearly has suffered repeated beatings, but who minimizes his injuries, she begins to worry about his safety. It turns out that this patient is the father of Babe, her husband's best friend from the army. Babe is the one who dropped the camera, leaving Aki and her husband with no wedding pictures. He's a small-time gangster and womanizer. In other words, Babe is not someone upon whom Aki is likely to look kindly. Worrying that Babe may be responsible for her patient's injuries, Aki begins investigating. Then, she learns that Babe is wanted by the police.
The narrative built around the question of Babe's probable responsibility for his father's injuries provides the main impetus for the plot's action, but more than the specifics of that case, what makes this novel resonant and powerful are the many portraits of individuals in this rebuilding community. There's a doctor who has put off retirement to continue providing care for his community; an orphaned friend from Manzanar who is considering a religious career; the younger brother this friend is raising and hoping to gain custody of; friends from Chicago who are becoming wealthy leaders in Los Angeles while drifting apart; a lawyer trying to help Japanese American business people regain ownership of businesses that they lost during the internment period; the African Americans who worked in the defense industry and moved into what was once a Japanese American neighborhood.
Hirahara provides readers with a rich mix of perspectives, so that readers understand not just Aki's journey, but the journeys of those around her as well. The novel is remarkably gentle given the material it covers, gentle in that it focuses on day-to-day life, where *being* is the focus as much as is *doing.* Aki comes to see her own world more complexly, gradually becoming politically active and beginning to question her assumptions about others.
Hirahara offers character-driven writing that's panoramic in scope and built around a mystery that becomes a quest for justice. Whether you're looking for a mystery set in an interesting context or a fictional exploration of internment and its cultural and financial impacts, you'll be delighted with Evergreen. I hope I'll be able to spend a great deal more time with Hirahara's Aki in the future.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
The central character, Aki, and her family were held in the Manzanar internment center for Japanese Americans/enemy aliens during World War II. The internment ended two years ago. The family subsequently lived in Chicago (where Aki's older sister died) and has now returned to Los Angeles where they lived before the war.
Not exactly where they lived before—their former home is now occupied by others, but they have found a place for themselves in a different neighborhood. Thousands of Japanese Americans who haven't found housing are living in resettlement centers while trying to rebuild their prewar lives. Some of these resettlement centers offer safety and a relatively comfortable existence. Others are far worse than the internment camps were, with inadequate housing and a lack of basic necessities like running water and proper bathrooms. In addition, the end to the war has not brought an end to the popular view of Japanese Americans as the enemy
Aki now works as a nurse's aid in a Boyle Heights hospital that primarily serves Japanese Americans. Almost everyone around her—doctors, nurses, and patients alike—is recovering from the internment. Aki married in Chicago before she, her husband, and her parents made the move west. Being a newlywed in a home shared with parents is awkward, but also a relative privilege. Aki's husband has begun working as a reporter for a community newspaper. His coworkers are polished journalists with well-informed, complex views on current politics, both local and national, which Aki finds intimidating.
When Aki helps care for a patient who clearly has suffered repeated beatings, but who minimizes his injuries, she begins to worry about his safety. It turns out that this patient is the father of Babe, her husband's best friend from the army. Babe is the one who dropped the camera, leaving Aki and her husband with no wedding pictures. He's a small-time gangster and womanizer. In other words, Babe is not someone upon whom Aki is likely to look kindly. Worrying that Babe may be responsible for her patient's injuries, Aki begins investigating. Then, she learns that Babe is wanted by the police.
The narrative built around the question of Babe's probable responsibility for his father's injuries provides the main impetus for the plot's action, but more than the specifics of that case, what makes this novel resonant and powerful are the many portraits of individuals in this rebuilding community. There's a doctor who has put off retirement to continue providing care for his community; an orphaned friend from Manzanar who is considering a religious career; the younger brother this friend is raising and hoping to gain custody of; friends from Chicago who are becoming wealthy leaders in Los Angeles while drifting apart; a lawyer trying to help Japanese American business people regain ownership of businesses that they lost during the internment period; the African Americans who worked in the defense industry and moved into what was once a Japanese American neighborhood.
Hirahara provides readers with a rich mix of perspectives, so that readers understand not just Aki's journey, but the journeys of those around her as well. The novel is remarkably gentle given the material it covers, gentle in that it focuses on day-to-day life, where *being* is the focus as much as is *doing.* Aki comes to see her own world more complexly, gradually becoming politically active and beginning to question her assumptions about others.
Hirahara offers character-driven writing that's panoramic in scope and built around a mystery that becomes a quest for justice. Whether you're looking for a mystery set in an interesting context or a fictional exploration of internment and its cultural and financial impacts, you'll be delighted with Evergreen. I hope I'll be able to spend a great deal more time with Hirahara's Aki in the future.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
October 15, 2023
4 stars
This is book two in the Japantown Mysteries - but still about the Ito family. An American Japanese family that relocated out of the Manzanar internment camp after being imprisoned after Pearl Harbor was bombed. The first book Clark and Division was about their internment and directly after being release to Chicago. This book, 2 years later, takes them back to Los Angeles, where they had originally lived.
Clark and Division was about Rose the eldest daughter, this book features Aki, the youngest daughter and her new husband. Back from the war front her husband, Art, is loyal to Babe, who he served with. However Aki is very leery of Babe and doesn't appreciate his involvement with her husband. When Babe's father is murdered Aki wants to find out the truth - was Babe involved? Secrets are never good in a marriage - and this goes for Art and Aki's marriage also.
I think I liked the first book, Clark and Division, a bit better. Both books were based on real people and some real circumstances. However the first book told more historical fact about the Japanese internment and how they tried to rejoin their communities after their release. This second book was more of a fiction story - that could have been about just about anyone during that time frame. However, for a second book this one was very good. Often second books of a series are rushed, have bad endings and lack the intensity of the first books. This book had all the above, it was just not as historically factual as the first book.
Not sure if Hirahara plans to continue this series, but I will look for her next book regardless.
This is book two in the Japantown Mysteries - but still about the Ito family. An American Japanese family that relocated out of the Manzanar internment camp after being imprisoned after Pearl Harbor was bombed. The first book Clark and Division was about their internment and directly after being release to Chicago. This book, 2 years later, takes them back to Los Angeles, where they had originally lived.
Clark and Division was about Rose the eldest daughter, this book features Aki, the youngest daughter and her new husband. Back from the war front her husband, Art, is loyal to Babe, who he served with. However Aki is very leery of Babe and doesn't appreciate his involvement with her husband. When Babe's father is murdered Aki wants to find out the truth - was Babe involved? Secrets are never good in a marriage - and this goes for Art and Aki's marriage also.
I think I liked the first book, Clark and Division, a bit better. Both books were based on real people and some real circumstances. However the first book told more historical fact about the Japanese internment and how they tried to rejoin their communities after their release. This second book was more of a fiction story - that could have been about just about anyone during that time frame. However, for a second book this one was very good. Often second books of a series are rushed, have bad endings and lack the intensity of the first books. This book had all the above, it was just not as historically factual as the first book.
Not sure if Hirahara plans to continue this series, but I will look for her next book regardless.
May 12, 2023
Evergreen by Naomi Hirahara shines a light on the post-war struggles of Japanese American citizens as they return to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles and try to rebuild their lives. The forced relocation to internment camps is over, but not the suffering of those who are still put into crowded refugee camps as they deal with the loss of property and ongoing racism. Hirahara brings all this into sharp focus as Aki Ito and her family, freshly moved from Chicago, begin their new lives. Aki suspects that her husband's best friend from the 442nd Regimental Combat team is involved in criminal activities. As she uncovers deeply buried secrets, danger creeps closer to her and her family. The crime story is riveting, but what really impressed me was how the difficult transition from both combat and internment are portrayed with such heartfelt fervor. The passages concerning the grief and sadness of elderly Japanese Americans who endured years of internment, only to return to find their old live vanished, are still with me. Highly recommended.
October 5, 2023
1t's 1946, and Aki and her family are trying to get their lives back together after internment in the Manzanar camp. Her husband Art is still abroad in the service. Aki is working as a nurse's aide in the LA Japanese hospital when an old man is admitted--she recognizes that he is the father of Babe Watanabe, the man who served with her husband and was best man at their wedding. She's suspicious of Babe when the old man is murdered. Could he be mixed up with some bad people? Is her husband Art involved, too? I like historical fiction backed by extensive research, and this author has not only done research into the time period and culture, but has also written a great mystery with well-drawn characters.
August 22, 2023
This is such a fascinating series covering a period in history I don’t see covered very often in fiction and I love to learn about. Naomi Hirahara does a fantastic job bringing the post-WWII era to life and showcasing how difficult it was to be treated as an equal as a Japanese-American, clawing your way back after everything you worked so hard for was taken away from you. I also enjoyed learning about the Japanese customs that Aki and her community have incorporated into their everyday lives, holding onto their traditions and finding a way to meld them into a new life. The characters are so well crafted that I can feel Aki’s anxiety as she tries to find her way in an unfamiliar community, getting used to her new town and her new marriage. I loved this book and can’t wait for the next.
December 30, 2024
I've been a fan of Naomi Hirahara's mysteries for years and am glad to see that she's finally getting the attention she deserves. Hirahara does not write the same book, over and over again. She creates new worlds or provides new insights on familiar worlds, asks hard questions but always offers hope and light.
The two books in her Japantown series are thought-provoking, meticulously researched, and morally compelling. As in her debut, Summer of the Big Bachi, her Japanese characters are broken people, haunted by the trauma of World War II, who struggle to do the right thing.
The two books in her Japantown series are thought-provoking, meticulously researched, and morally compelling. As in her debut, Summer of the Big Bachi, her Japanese characters are broken people, haunted by the trauma of World War II, who struggle to do the right thing.
February 8, 2023
Clark and Division is the intersection in Chicago where many of the Japanese who had been sent to internment camps had been located after WWII. Aki Ito and her family had made their home there. We met them in "Clark and Division" by the same author.
Evergreen is a street in Los Angeles where many have now relocated from Chicago. Evergreen is a long street, and its people have varied relationships, hopes, dreams, disappointments, fears. There is still prejudice toward the Japanese. Aki [Ito] Nakasone and her family were no longer the Itos of Tropico; they now live in Boyle Heights.
From the Introduction to the book:
“While we were gone, the military dismantled our fishing village in Terminal Island.
While we were gone, schools and cities buried our Japanese community gardens.
While we were gone, Dutch immigrants looked after our flower market in downtown Los Angeles.
While we were gone, Black defense workers from the Deep South, having no other place to live, moved into empty buildings of Little Tokyo.
While we were gone, beloved classmates mourned our absence.
While we were gone, thieves plundered our storage units.
While we were gone, Baptist churches rented our temple buildings.
While we were gone, our competitors took over our farming operations and produce markets.
While we were gone, friends wrote letters asking the government to release our Issei fathers from alien detention centers.
While we were gone, White Memorial Hospital birthed babies in our hospital in Boyle Heights.
And then, after four years, we returned”
In the Spring of 1946, Aki and her husband Art get themselves involved in the lives of some friends and acquaintances, and are conflicted. Where should their loyalties lie? Whom can they trust?
Mr. Watanabe, an elderly man, is murdered; Art knows his son, Hammer. Art works at the local Japanese newspaper; Aki works at the Japanese Hospital. There are memories of The camps, Zoot suits, Time spent in the US Army, The produce business that was taken by the government under the laws of Escheat, while its owners were detained. Gangsters are now in Little Tokyo. The KKK. The San Mark is a shoddy hotel. There is racism.
Published by Soho Press, 2023
Evergreen is a street in Los Angeles where many have now relocated from Chicago. Evergreen is a long street, and its people have varied relationships, hopes, dreams, disappointments, fears. There is still prejudice toward the Japanese. Aki [Ito] Nakasone and her family were no longer the Itos of Tropico; they now live in Boyle Heights.
From the Introduction to the book:
“While we were gone, the military dismantled our fishing village in Terminal Island.
While we were gone, schools and cities buried our Japanese community gardens.
While we were gone, Dutch immigrants looked after our flower market in downtown Los Angeles.
While we were gone, Black defense workers from the Deep South, having no other place to live, moved into empty buildings of Little Tokyo.
While we were gone, beloved classmates mourned our absence.
While we were gone, thieves plundered our storage units.
While we were gone, Baptist churches rented our temple buildings.
While we were gone, our competitors took over our farming operations and produce markets.
While we were gone, friends wrote letters asking the government to release our Issei fathers from alien detention centers.
While we were gone, White Memorial Hospital birthed babies in our hospital in Boyle Heights.
And then, after four years, we returned”
In the Spring of 1946, Aki and her husband Art get themselves involved in the lives of some friends and acquaintances, and are conflicted. Where should their loyalties lie? Whom can they trust?
Mr. Watanabe, an elderly man, is murdered; Art knows his son, Hammer. Art works at the local Japanese newspaper; Aki works at the Japanese Hospital. There are memories of The camps, Zoot suits, Time spent in the US Army, The produce business that was taken by the government under the laws of Escheat, while its owners were detained. Gangsters are now in Little Tokyo. The KKK. The San Mark is a shoddy hotel. There is racism.
Published by Soho Press, 2023
August 17, 2023
This and the book that preceded it are weird for me... I really enjoy them while I'm reading them, but once they're done, I find it very hard to recall anything about them. It's like they're erased from my mind. I do know that after I read the first one, I was in Chicago riding the L, and when they announced the stop at Clark/Division, I craned my neck out the window to look around like I was on a sightseeing tour. So something must stuck with me. Hopefully this one sticks around a bit longer, because once again I really DID enjoy it (even if the same lead character getting wrapped up in yet another murder for a third book might be stretching believability...)
September 11, 2023
I am shocked that I am the only one to give this poorly written, boring, sophomoric novel one star and that’s being generous! If she was trying to tell the story of how the Americans treated the Japanese- American citizens during WW11 she missed the target by trying to make it also a quasi murder mystery. Her characters were weak, her story telling juvenile, and the whole book a snore. Read history if you want to learn about the Internment Camps and the horrible treatment of the Japanese American citizens. Geez, what passes for literature these days!
July 7, 2024
Good exploration of post-WWII Los Angeles from the American Japanese perspective. How painful and challenging it was for them as they all came back to resettle when their homes, possessions, property had been taken from them during the war. The town is also full of returning GI's and black Americans getting out of the South and not enough housing for all. The mystery was imperfect, but the characters, setting and history were very well done!
January 14, 2024
What I like the most about this series is its setting in the Japanese American community during WWII and the years after. The action centres on nurse’s aide Aki Ito and her family. It’s two years post-war now, and after their wartime incarceration, then resettlement in Chicago, Aki and her family have finally been allowed to return home to California. But of course nothing is as they left it—Aki and everyone in her community is starting from scratch, living in miserable, crowded conditions as they try to make a place for themselves in crowded Los Angeles. Aki is shocked to realize that the elderly injured, possible abused, man brought in to the hospital where she works is the father of her husband’s best friend, Babe Watanabe, and when there’s a murder at the low-income (OK, fleabag) hotel where the Watanabes are living, she does some digging to prevent her husband being swept up in the investigation.
August 6, 2023
The Ito family has been cleared to return to their former home in Los Angeles, after years at Manzanar and their dreary stay in Chicago. Aki is now Aki Nakasone, and is waiting for her GI husband to return from Europe. She's disappointed when his best friend and best man at their wedding Babe Watanabe shows up instead--first of all, he isn't her Art, and second of all, she's afraid he means trouble. As she makes her way through the returning Japanese, the African-Americans who came to California to do war work, and the Jews, who are moving from East Los Angeles to West Los Angeles, where there's no enough decent housing for everyone and the Mob tries to make money any way they can, she uncovers secrets and realizes that she's jumped to too many conclusions about too many of the people she knows. Aki does a lot of growing up in the second episode of this series.
September 8, 2023
Sorry to say ,didn't love this book at all.
Didn't like the story , I couldn't wait to finish it.
I was totally bored with it.
Didn't like the story , I couldn't wait to finish it.
I was totally bored with it.
September 1, 2023
Fills in some holes in my knowledge about Japanese Americans after ww2.
While I knew about the camps, i also admit to never even thinking that we were drafting these people to serve in Europe.
Found via Fresh Air. Probably would have been better If read after the first in the series but does not completely suffer.
While I knew about the camps, i also admit to never even thinking that we were drafting these people to serve in Europe.
Found via Fresh Air. Probably would have been better If read after the first in the series but does not completely suffer.
June 18, 2024
I enjoyed this book because of the further insight I gained about our treatment of the American Japanese at the internment during WW2. Another sad time in our country's history. The plot was not believable ad far as I was concerned but it did hold my interest to see the resolution.
July 26, 2024
Second of her books in this series. They are easy and interesting to read. Although nothing real monumental happens in her novels, I will continue to read. Very interesting description of the life of the Japanese in America around World War Two.
September 9, 2023
Interesting mostly for the historical setting and the depiction of life for Japanese Americans in Southern California in the immediate post-World War II era. As a mystery, it is only average.
October 15, 2023
Not as good as the first but still good.
November 14, 2023
I liked the first Japantown Mystery a tad better than Evergreen, but both were very interesting reading. I learned a lot about the internment and the aftermath from each of them as well as enjoying the mystery.
March 17, 2024
displacement of Japanese Americans during and after WW. Good research. Too much emphasis on the failed wedding pictures. 2nd in a series
May 17, 2024
3.25/3.5
January 25, 2026
A very interesting mystery set in Los Angeles after WWII. The family has left Chicago after being sent there (that story in the first mystery in the series) after being released from the concentration camp for Japanese Americans during WWII and returned to their former hometown. They and African Americans were treated badly by our country even after the war.
September 27, 2024
Sometimes slow-paced writing, brilliant on the history, involving the lives of Issei and Nissei families in LA. Interesting to pick up some Japanese terms, and her references to previous writers in the genre. It is LA, after all.
November 21, 2025
Set in East Los Angeles, Aki Ito solves a crime as she works as a health care provider after she and her family have been released the Japanese internment camp they'd been sent to during those dark years of being an imprisoned American citizen.
This mystery is well-told, and so atmospheric. All the places discussed I've lived in, and the author nails it completely. I hope there will be more Aki Ito books. . .and there are more of Naomi Hirahara's other works, so my Cali girl heart gets to go back to those days in the orange groves, gum trees, bougainvillea, pepper trees, poppies and four o'clocks. I can just about smell her pages.
25|52:13L
This mystery is well-told, and so atmospheric. All the places discussed I've lived in, and the author nails it completely. I hope there will be more Aki Ito books. . .and there are more of Naomi Hirahara's other works, so my Cali girl heart gets to go back to those days in the orange groves, gum trees, bougainvillea, pepper trees, poppies and four o'clocks. I can just about smell her pages.
25|52:13L
September 14, 2023
Occurring a few years after the Japanese Interment in the USA this story is a murder mystery but also a description of what Japanese Americans lost and how they were trying to rebuild their lives. I would call this ‘murder lite’, as I felt there was a lack of suspense in regard to the murder but found the description of the Japanese lifestyle and hardships interesting.
June 30, 2023
This book was very informative and it talked a lot about what the Japanese American experience was like after WWII. It integrated historical facts that was relevant to the characters with facts about Japanese culture, along with including definitions to Japanese phrases. It also highlighted how fighting in the war affected the mental health of some characters and how the Japanese internment camps affected the lives of Japanese Americans. This made the story very informative and it was packed with information that oftentimes gets overlooked in history.
The historical aspect of the book was the highlight of 'Evergreen', however the charecters and storyline was a little diminished by the style of writing. The way the book was written made it very fast paced which at times made it hard to keep up. One moment the setting is in the house and the very next it's a new day and the main character is at work but there is no real link between the two scenes. This book didn't have a lot of good transitions and oftentimes you have to really pay attention in order to figure out where in the story the characters are. The characters themselves where somewhat forgettable since they're back stories are second to their use to the main character. Most of the time the secondary charecters get thrown about the book with only a paragraph of their entire life and then they are forgotten the next moment.
The storyline was interesting but it often got jumbled around with and there is a lot of back and forth between the main character wanting to get involved and then not proceeding, to then going full force into the action. This made the main characters ambitions confusing and it was hard to get a good read on what type of person she was.
Overall this was a very informative book but it's charecters and storyline didn't really shine out to me.
The historical aspect of the book was the highlight of 'Evergreen', however the charecters and storyline was a little diminished by the style of writing. The way the book was written made it very fast paced which at times made it hard to keep up. One moment the setting is in the house and the very next it's a new day and the main character is at work but there is no real link between the two scenes. This book didn't have a lot of good transitions and oftentimes you have to really pay attention in order to figure out where in the story the characters are. The characters themselves where somewhat forgettable since they're back stories are second to their use to the main character. Most of the time the secondary charecters get thrown about the book with only a paragraph of their entire life and then they are forgotten the next moment.
The storyline was interesting but it often got jumbled around with and there is a lot of back and forth between the main character wanting to get involved and then not proceeding, to then going full force into the action. This made the main characters ambitions confusing and it was hard to get a good read on what type of person she was.
Overall this was a very informative book but it's charecters and storyline didn't really shine out to me.
August 18, 2023
Thank you to Goodreads for the free drawing copy of this book.
Having read ‘Clark and Division,’ the first book in the Japantown series, I was looking forward to catching up with Aki Ito and her family. Here, we find them resettled back in California after being released from the Japanese interment camp they were forced into after Pearl Harbor.
The author sheds light on such families’ struggles to return to lives in which their homes and businesses were taken over by others, and even though they were ‘freed’ they were still looked at upon with suspicion by many of their white neighbors.
An additional challenge explored here was the economic instability and violence that can occur when already marginalized people are also facing mental health woes brought on by wartime military service.
And as usual, Aki is in detective mode when she encounters a patient with tenuous connections to her family at the hospital where she works. Through much of the book she is detecting on a parallel path to everything and everyone else in her life. Eventually her husband Art gets involved as he is Aki’s connection to this mystery.
One wonders if Aki’s curiosity will continue to bring mysteries into her orbit in future books? Or will it be something that Art the newspaperman comes up with first next time??
Having read ‘Clark and Division,’ the first book in the Japantown series, I was looking forward to catching up with Aki Ito and her family. Here, we find them resettled back in California after being released from the Japanese interment camp they were forced into after Pearl Harbor.
The author sheds light on such families’ struggles to return to lives in which their homes and businesses were taken over by others, and even though they were ‘freed’ they were still looked at upon with suspicion by many of their white neighbors.
An additional challenge explored here was the economic instability and violence that can occur when already marginalized people are also facing mental health woes brought on by wartime military service.
And as usual, Aki is in detective mode when she encounters a patient with tenuous connections to her family at the hospital where she works. Through much of the book she is detecting on a parallel path to everything and everyone else in her life. Eventually her husband Art gets involved as he is Aki’s connection to this mystery.
One wonders if Aki’s curiosity will continue to bring mysteries into her orbit in future books? Or will it be something that Art the newspaperman comes up with first next time??
July 17, 2023
I often avoid reading books that are sequels. In this case I am glad that I did not. I had no trouble picking up on and identifying with the main character in the story. Along with her I wanted to understand the reason for the injuries and subsequent death of an elderly Japanese man in her care. Even without reading of her time in the detention center for Japanese Americans I empathasized with the many losses she and others encountered. I felt her frustration as she and her family tried to reclaim some semblance of their old life. I was suprised at her boldness in trying to find the truth and worried for her safety and her marriage.
The author's inclusion of many Japanese phrases in the conversations that took place and the narrator's description of the setting added a feeling of authenticity.
My eyes were opened to the reality that life was forever changed for those Japanese Americans placed in detention centers. The war did not end for them when they were allowed to leave the centers.
The author's inclusion of many Japanese phrases in the conversations that took place and the narrator's description of the setting added a feeling of authenticity.
My eyes were opened to the reality that life was forever changed for those Japanese Americans placed in detention centers. The war did not end for them when they were allowed to leave the centers.
April 23, 2024
Ghosts haunt the protagonist of this novel. The character is Aki Ito from Hirahara's earlier book, Clark and Division and the ghosts here are figurative, but powerful. The Ito family has returned to their pre-war home in the Los Angeles area. Their joy at leaving the brutal midwestern winters is dampened by the extreme changes to once familiar environs. “Home” is a ghost, alive only in their memories, a reminder of irretrievable loss. Aki drives by their old house in Tropico. It's now part of a homogeneous upper middle class enclave.
Another ghost is that of Aki's older sister Rose whose shocking death still reverberates in their muted grief. Her ashes sit in a golden urn on the mantel. In this confusing new L.A. with its mosaic of shifting geographies, Aki keeps a photo of Rose protected from the clutter of her purse. “I unzipped the side pocket and there, almost like a talisman, was a high school photo of my dear sister, Rose. No matter where I was, I wanted her close to me.” (p.31)
This sequel to Clark and Division contains no spoilers but builds on the character foundations laid out in the earlier book, creating a stronger emotional connection to them, particularly to Aki who is now married to Art. The advice Art's Aunt Eunice had given now seems prescient. Married life is an adjustment. Expectations of passionate romance begin to give way to the day-to-day practicalities of work and the separate worlds they have come to inhabit. Aunt Eunice had cautioned the headstrong Aki that communication would be key to a strong marriage. Aki's own parents' were in an arranged marriage, devoid of those expectations Aki had been harboring.
Art is newly returned from military service. He has landed a part-time job at the Rafu Shimpo. The job doesn't pay much, but is a start toward his hopes of becoming a full-time journalist. He puts in long hours and has become part of a circle of politically astute columnists. His elation is not enough, however, to dispel the trauma of war and the nightmares he treats dismissively. Aki, unlike Rose, was never politically active and is employed as a nurse's aid at the Japanese Hospital where the effects of poverty, inadequate housing, unsanitary conditions, crowding and dislocation are even more dire than what she witnessed at Manzanar.
When Haruki Watanabe is brought to the hospital with a head injury, Aki discovers Watanabe is the father of Art's best man at their wedding. She already had negative impressions of the man, whom everyone called “Babe” for his baseball prowess, a nod to the great Babe Ruth. She considered Babe uncouth and intrusive. Moreover, he had lost their wedding photos when he accidentally dropped his camera thus ruining the film. Babe and Art had served together in the military where their friendship had grown even closer. Aki sees bruises all over Watanabe's body and suspects Babe of elder abuse. However when she shares her misgivings with Art, he shuts her down in harsh decisive tones. So much for forging lines of communication.
The mystery surrounding Babe's father deepens when he is murdered, and the police are unable to find Babe. Intent on untangling the mystery and proving or disproving Babe's guilt, Aki secretly enlists the aid of a reformed thief with a bad reputation. His name is “Hammer” Ishimine. Hammer had befriended Aki's sister Rose in Chicago and is now in L.A. hoping to obtain legal guardianship of his half-brother Daniel. Aki was surprised to learn Hammer's backstory and had agreed to write a letter of recommendation on his behalf, so she is confident that he will help her without prying into her precarious relationship with Art.
The strength of this novel is its immersive portrayal of injustice, racism and resilience. Aki is shocked by the Winona trailer camp, a place without sewers or electricity where Issei and Nisei languish to either die or survive through criminal enterprise. Roy Tonai, another character from the previous book, is struggling to regain possession of the produce market owned by his family. Even Aki's mother doesn't believe Roy will succeed, but her father, previously employed as a manager at the Tonai market, has pinned his hopes on Roy. At least it is a distraction from the alcoholism he fell into at Manzanar. Before the war, Babe owned the family farm. His legal title has been voided. Properties of other ethnic Japanese are being confiscated by the government in an escheat lawsuit which Aki learns about from Art's journalist friends.
The ethnic Japanese community distrusts the police, judicial system and politicians with good reason. This is a period of widespread corruption. Even Aki reflexively speaks of “us” – meaning non-Caucasians in her assessments. Her inquiries reveal the close sense of connection internees from the same relocation camp feel. Chiyo, a former roommate of Rose's, and Babe were sent to Gila River in Arizona. Chiyo is a veritable stream of information about the camp and its inhabitants.
Hirahara uses the camera as a subtle device giving us insight into Babe's personality. Babe was an enthusiastic photographer and had bought himself an expensive camera. Since cameras were forbidden in the camps, it was confiscated. He bought himself a cheaper camera after his release, and his enthusiasm for the hobby motivated his offer to take Aki's wedding photos. Whatever his shortcomings, photography remained important to Babe as Aki later learns.
This was an enjoyable and illuminating follow-up to Clark and Division. As the tragedies unfold, Aki draws us into the question she poses: “I thought back to my sister, Rose, and fierce anger shot through my body. Would either Rose or Mr. Watanabe have met their tragic ends if we hadn't been removed from our homes?” (p.94)
NOTES:
Hirahara mentions several references which she encountered in doing her extensive research for this book. Particularly relevant is this page from Ben Pease's cartography project: http://www.japantownatlas.com/
Another ghost is that of Aki's older sister Rose whose shocking death still reverberates in their muted grief. Her ashes sit in a golden urn on the mantel. In this confusing new L.A. with its mosaic of shifting geographies, Aki keeps a photo of Rose protected from the clutter of her purse. “I unzipped the side pocket and there, almost like a talisman, was a high school photo of my dear sister, Rose. No matter where I was, I wanted her close to me.” (p.31)
This sequel to Clark and Division contains no spoilers but builds on the character foundations laid out in the earlier book, creating a stronger emotional connection to them, particularly to Aki who is now married to Art. The advice Art's Aunt Eunice had given now seems prescient. Married life is an adjustment. Expectations of passionate romance begin to give way to the day-to-day practicalities of work and the separate worlds they have come to inhabit. Aunt Eunice had cautioned the headstrong Aki that communication would be key to a strong marriage. Aki's own parents' were in an arranged marriage, devoid of those expectations Aki had been harboring.
Art is newly returned from military service. He has landed a part-time job at the Rafu Shimpo. The job doesn't pay much, but is a start toward his hopes of becoming a full-time journalist. He puts in long hours and has become part of a circle of politically astute columnists. His elation is not enough, however, to dispel the trauma of war and the nightmares he treats dismissively. Aki, unlike Rose, was never politically active and is employed as a nurse's aid at the Japanese Hospital where the effects of poverty, inadequate housing, unsanitary conditions, crowding and dislocation are even more dire than what she witnessed at Manzanar.
When Haruki Watanabe is brought to the hospital with a head injury, Aki discovers Watanabe is the father of Art's best man at their wedding. She already had negative impressions of the man, whom everyone called “Babe” for his baseball prowess, a nod to the great Babe Ruth. She considered Babe uncouth and intrusive. Moreover, he had lost their wedding photos when he accidentally dropped his camera thus ruining the film. Babe and Art had served together in the military where their friendship had grown even closer. Aki sees bruises all over Watanabe's body and suspects Babe of elder abuse. However when she shares her misgivings with Art, he shuts her down in harsh decisive tones. So much for forging lines of communication.
The mystery surrounding Babe's father deepens when he is murdered, and the police are unable to find Babe. Intent on untangling the mystery and proving or disproving Babe's guilt, Aki secretly enlists the aid of a reformed thief with a bad reputation. His name is “Hammer” Ishimine. Hammer had befriended Aki's sister Rose in Chicago and is now in L.A. hoping to obtain legal guardianship of his half-brother Daniel. Aki was surprised to learn Hammer's backstory and had agreed to write a letter of recommendation on his behalf, so she is confident that he will help her without prying into her precarious relationship with Art.
The strength of this novel is its immersive portrayal of injustice, racism and resilience. Aki is shocked by the Winona trailer camp, a place without sewers or electricity where Issei and Nisei languish to either die or survive through criminal enterprise. Roy Tonai, another character from the previous book, is struggling to regain possession of the produce market owned by his family. Even Aki's mother doesn't believe Roy will succeed, but her father, previously employed as a manager at the Tonai market, has pinned his hopes on Roy. At least it is a distraction from the alcoholism he fell into at Manzanar. Before the war, Babe owned the family farm. His legal title has been voided. Properties of other ethnic Japanese are being confiscated by the government in an escheat lawsuit which Aki learns about from Art's journalist friends.
The ethnic Japanese community distrusts the police, judicial system and politicians with good reason. This is a period of widespread corruption. Even Aki reflexively speaks of “us” – meaning non-Caucasians in her assessments. Her inquiries reveal the close sense of connection internees from the same relocation camp feel. Chiyo, a former roommate of Rose's, and Babe were sent to Gila River in Arizona. Chiyo is a veritable stream of information about the camp and its inhabitants.
Hirahara uses the camera as a subtle device giving us insight into Babe's personality. Babe was an enthusiastic photographer and had bought himself an expensive camera. Since cameras were forbidden in the camps, it was confiscated. He bought himself a cheaper camera after his release, and his enthusiasm for the hobby motivated his offer to take Aki's wedding photos. Whatever his shortcomings, photography remained important to Babe as Aki later learns.
This was an enjoyable and illuminating follow-up to Clark and Division. As the tragedies unfold, Aki draws us into the question she poses: “I thought back to my sister, Rose, and fierce anger shot through my body. Would either Rose or Mr. Watanabe have met their tragic ends if we hadn't been removed from our homes?” (p.94)
NOTES:
Hirahara mentions several references which she encountered in doing her extensive research for this book. Particularly relevant is this page from Ben Pease's cartography project: http://www.japantownatlas.com/
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