This Light Between Us: A Novel of World War II

In the morning, everyone is covered with dust that blew in through cracks in the wall during the night. The bathrooms—communal, with no division between toilets—are dismal. Amongst the evacuees, the older immigrants’ survival instincts kick in, and Alex and Frank help to plug some of the cracks in the walls of their barrack. New busloads of evacuees arrive, and Frank, a natural leader, helps them. Alex is relieved because it breaks up Frank’s moodiness.

Spring passes, and the heat of the desert summer sets in. During these first few months, there is nothing to do. Alex watches Frank’s vigor burn away as his brother begins hanging out with other bored, angry young men.

Alex sends a letter to Charlie on July 17. He is worried because he has not heard from her in months. He describes the miserable conditions in Manzanar, telling her that family units are beginning to break down and that he barely recognizes Frank anymore. Alex goes to the post office every day and finally receives a letter, but it is not from Charlie. Instead, it is from Crystal City Internment Camp in Texas.

Late at night, Alex wakes Frank up. The letter from Crystal City says that the petition for Mr. Maki’s release is denied. Frank is annoyed and does nothing to alleviate Alex’s fears. He will not even turn over to look at Alex, who says that he will lie to their mother and tell her that there is still hope for their father’s release. Frank tells him to shut up and grow up, and Alex is stunned. When Frank finally turns over, his face looks harder than Alex has ever seen it. Alex asks Frank what he does every day, and Frank ignores him.

Alex finally receives a letter from Charlie. He feels resurrected by the knowledge that she is alive. He reads the letter, dated June 10.

In the letter, Charlie describes how her family friend, Monsieur S., gives her a package containing 10 of Alex’s letters. She says she is relieved and overjoyed that Alex is alive but dismayed by what he has been through. Things have gotten worse for Jews in Paris as well; all Jews now have to wear a yellow Star of David at all times. She sees it as a mark of shame and feels the most shame when she runs into others wearing it. Her father and Monsieur S. argue; Mr. Lévy wants to remain in Paris, but Monsieur S. claims that Nice is safer. There are rumors of roundups and concentration camps. That night, Alex sees Charlie in a dream, her image constructed by the comments she has made about her appearance over the years.

Crossing the blisteringly hot grounds, Alex finds a job listing for a waiter position in the staff cafeteria, one of the only air-conditioned buildings in Manzanar. He needs money to pay for the cost of sending letters to Charlie. After a brief interview, he gets the job.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Maki has aged rapidly. She overworks herself at a camouflage net factory in the hopes that it will get her husband released. She constantly asks where Frank is, for her son is frequently absent. Another letter from Charlie arrives.

Charlie’s letter is dated July 16. In the letter, Charlie is frightened and is hiding in her father’s factory office until her parents can come get her. The family is finally fleeing to Nice. A tract has been circulating around the ghetto warning the Jews to flee for their lives; it ends with “We must not allow ourselves to be exterminated” (153). That line terrifies Alex when he reads it.

After a late shift at the mess hall, Alex runs into Frank, who tells him to walk with him. Alex is suspicious, but he follows. Frank leads him to a secret meeting presided over Harry Ueno, a popular figure among the Japanese prisoners. They need Alex’s help: newborn babies have been dying, and they suspect that Ned Campbell, the Assistant Project Director of Manzanar, has been stealing sugar intended for baby formula to sell on the illicit market and replacing it with saccharine. They want Alex to use his staff clearance to snoop around the staff area and find out the truth.

Frank tells Alex that it is his chance to redeem himself for working for their captors. He believes that Alex’s decision to work in the mess hall means that he must be fine with how bad life is in the camp. Alex gets angry at this accusation and tells Frank that his rebellious actions are destroying their mother. The brothers nearly start fighting, but Harry steps in.

Frank follows Alex when he leaves, demanding his help in their investigation. Alex asks why they suspect the assistant director and not one of the thousands of prisoners who might want more sugar for their kids or for brewing bootlegged sake. Frank mocks Alex for defending their enemies. When Alex tells him to shut up, Frank responds, “‘Oh, I like your tough-guy act. Your imaginary French girlfriend would be so impressed’” (160). Alex punches Frank in the nose, surprising Frank, and accuses his brother of being a Black Dragon (a nationalist, Japanese sympathizer, one of whom recently threw rocks at their mother). Alex wants nothing to do with the Black Dragons.

Alex keeps his head down at work, although he secretly observes the Campbells, who dine at the cafeteria daily. He is worried sick about Charlie.

Charlie’s next letter is dated October 2. Charlie’s parents are taken away on July 16 in the middle of packing. When Charlie goes to her neighborhood to look for them, she meets members of the Eclaireurs Israelites de France who tell her to come with them. Instead of complying, she goes to the police and is arrested and sent to the Velodrome d’Hiver, where French officials are rounding up Jews. She reunites with her parents, but the conditions in the Velodrome are hellish.



They wait for seven days in the stifling heat without food, water, or bathrooms. The men, including Mr. Lévy, are rounded up and taken away. The women and children are taken to another camp, and then the mothers were taken too. Charlie is traumatized by the knowledge that her own compatriots have betrayed her family.

Charlie tries her best to be strong by helping the younger children. Monsieur S. arranges for her to be taken to a camp with lighter security. He smuggles her into a secret hiding place along with a Sinti family. The mother gives her pieces of magic paper and claims that if Charlie writes a person’s name on it, she will appear before them like a ghost. She tells Alex that she might try this someday and warns him not to be alarmed if she suddenly appears before him.

The second letter is from October 3. Charlie describes an exciting night in which she cannot sleep and so takes the enormous risk of leaving the shelter and walking around Paris. The city is completely lifeless. She walks to the Sorbonne, the university she dreams of attending, but it makes her feel like a ghost. She remembers Alex’s instructions for how to make a Japanese paper lantern; she makes one out of some discarded poems and candles that she finds on a bench and watches her creation float down the Seine. She imagines it finding its way across the ocean to Alex.

Alex is gutted with worry and concern for Charlie. He dashes to the post office to mail her a reply before it closes. However, the postal worker gives him some unwelcome news: all of his recent letters to Charlie have been returned to sender.

A well-dressed young man named Ray Takeda who works as the editor-in-chief for the Manzanar Free Press newspaper, stops Alex outside and informs him that the Nazis have invaded the Vichy zone in France—the area where Monsieur S. does business and hides Charlie. Ray tells Alex that mailing letters to France will be impossible until the war is over. Charlie’s most recent letters were likely already in transit when Germany invaded. Ray leaves, and Alex feels as though “his supply line of oxygen suddenly cut off” (173).

A request from a senior staffer gives Alex an opportunity to go into the walk-in refrigerator, and he snoops a little for some information to use as a peace offering to Frank but finds nothing. However, he later discovers a trap door in the staff mess hall floor. Looking inside, he finds the contraband that Frank and Harry suspected: sacks of sugar and jars of milk. Alex reports the discovery to Frank.

Unrest breaks out among the imprisoned as word spreads. The police presence increases, but this only leads to further agitation.

Four men burst in the Makis’ barracks after midnight to apprehend Frank. Harry Ueno has already been arrested and taken to prison in Independence, California on false accusations of being involved in a gang assault. (In reality, it is because Harry has evidence to expose the corruption in camp.)

Harry’s arrest causes unrest in the camp due to his popularity. Anger toward Ned Campbell and the Manzanar administration intensifies, along with hostility toward certain fellow prisoners who are “accused of being sellouts, stool pigeons, and, most derogatory of all, inus (dogs)” (179). The Manzanar authorities double down on the growing unrest by sending in military police (MPs). Hundreds, then thousands of prisoners assemble for an impromptu public meeting where they vent their outrage. They march toward the gates where they are confronted by Director Ralph Merrit and a heavily armed battalion of MPs and guards.

The crowd becomes more restless. Merrit gives in and agrees to move Harry Ueno to the Manzanar jail, but this is not enough—the Japanese prisoners want him freed. Later, anger reaches a peak and the crowd storms the jail, trying to free Harry. However, he refuses to leave without Merrit’s permission and walks back into his cell.

Merrit is afraid and cowardly. He declares martial law, calling in troops. Captain Martyn Hall tries to get the crowd to disperse. Hall orders his soldiers to expose the crowd to tear gas, but the wind blows it away. The crowd begins throwing insults, sand, and even rocks at the MPs. Hall calls for more tear gas, and one of the soldiers fires his gun at the crowd causing pandemonium to ensue as all the soldiers open fire. Alex gets hurt, but it is not a bullet wound. He finds Frank, and they help a young man and former schoolmate of Frank’s named James Kanegawa to reach the barracks. Alex is shocked that his own compatriots would actually shoot at them.

Alex returns to work five days after the Manzanar riot. He is disgusted by the soldiers laughing and carrying on as if everything were normal while James Kanegawa and another young man, James Ito, lie dead and buried. Alex’s rage builds as he serves the soldiers spaghetti, and he throws the plates on the table, slopping sauce onto the soldiers. One of the soldiers asks Alex, whom he sees as an upstart kid, just who he thinks he is, and Alex fires back, “Don’t call me kid. Call me James Ito. Call me James Kanegawa’” (194). Director Merrit intervenes before the soldiers can assault Alex, and Alex quits on the spot.

Winter is so harsh that it makes the prisoners miss the heat of summer. Alex is wracked by guilt: another petition for his father’s release has been denied, and he wonders if his behavior at the cafeteria is to blame for this setback. He worries constantly about Charlie and feels himself and the other prisoners becoming calloused inside.

Alex goes to see the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Sandy Soto, a girl from church. He is reluctant at first, but he is soon enraptured by the film’s depiction of Paris. He is struck by a strange feeling and leaves without explanation partway through. He then wanders out into the evening, following where the strange sensation takes him.

On the other side of the barbed wire, he sees the apparition of a girl in a blue dress, her features indistinct. For a moment, their eyes meet, and then the girl vanishes, leaving no trace. Heartbroken, Alex calls out Charlie’s name. Alex rushes home to reread Charlie’s letter describing the magic paper she was given. He attempts to sketch Charlie’s face on the page of his sketchbook that he has long reserved for her photograph. After several attempts, he produces a satisfactory sketch.

Alex looks at his sketch of Charlie every day. He searches everywhere for another sign of her but finds nothing. Sometimes he thinks that he imagined her apparition, and the fear that she is dead lurks in his nightmares. Desperate for news of the outside world, Alex remembers Ray Takeda and the Manzanar Free Press. He rushes to the paper’s office and pounds on the door until Ray lets him in. Alex asks Ray about what is happening in France, and Ray reluctantly tells him about rumors of Jewish families being sent to undisclosed locations and of executions. Alex manages to convince Ray to let him work as an unpaid intern, for keeping up with the news, no matter how inaccurate or disturbing, is his only way of staying connected with Charlie.

Alex goes to the office early every day to clean, prepare coffee for Ray and the other reporters, and to read the news in search of any snippet of information about France and Europe’s Jewish population. Information is scant. Alex reads public opinion polls showing that most Americans want issei and nisei populations to be deported after the war. There is also strong support for the idea of forbidding any further immigration from Japan once the war is over. Later, Ray tasks Alex with distributing flyers of a new proclamation from President Roosevelt. An all-Japanese American military division is being assembled as a means for the imprisoned Japanese individuals to prove their loyalty. Thinking of the public opinion poll, Alex dumps the majority of the flyers into the latrine.

The army sends top brass to speak to the prisoners about the new Japanese American Military unit. The first two speakers are unconvincing, but Sergeant Ben Kuroki, a Japanese American who enlisted by pretending that his last name was Polish, captures the crowd’s attention. He speaks of his time fighting Nazis alongside white soldiers who became like brothers to him. He goes on to tell the crowd that enlisting is an opportunity for them to see the world and fight for America without having to pretend that they are anyone other than themselves.

People in the crowd ask the presiding lieutenant a barrage of questions. Alex raises his hand and asks if enlisting would help to get his father transferred from Crystal City. The lieutenant replies that he will personally see to it. Somewhere in the crowd, Frank asks why they should fight for America after all that has been done to them, and why they should trust that their lands, property, and citizenship will not be stripped from them after the war. The lieutenant replies that the 14th Amendment will protect them. (The 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution states, in part, that “no law shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” but when the lieutenant tries to quote it, Frank cuts him off and recites the amendment precisely. The stark contrast between the letter of the law and the dire situation of the American citizens who are imprisoned causes the crowd to erupt.

Alex leaves the assembly. Frank catches up to Alex, and they argue about the merits of enlisting. Frank tells Alex that his little brother is not suited for war, that he will only die, and the shock will kill their parents. Alex is angry, but he cannot disagree with Frank.

Alex finds a magazine on Ray’s desk opened to an article titled “The Massacre of the Jews.” It details the atrocities that the Nazis are committing against Europe’s Jewish population. Already two million have already been murdered, and most of France’s Jewish population has been deported. Ray comes in and tries to talk to Alex, but Alex flees.

Outside, he is overwhelmed by nausea and vomits. The description of the atrocities plagues him, and he walks and walks to try to find relief, ignoring the pain in his feet and legs and his hunger and thirst. He walks until night falls, pausing briefly outside a teenage dance in one of the mess halls, where people party unconcerned by distant news of slaughter and persecution.

Alex suddenly feels the same peculiar feeling that he experienced during The Hunchback of Notre Dame, when Charlie first appeared to him. He follows this feeling until he gets caught up in a sudden dust storm. When the storm clears, he finds himself in Rose Park, which is still under construction.

Alex sees Charlie standing on the bridge. Her hair has been shorn unevenly, she looks malnourished, and the number 14873 is tattooed on her wrist. Although Charlie described herself as plain in her letters, Alex sees that she is wrong. He thinks she is beautiful, especially the fire in her eyes. They try to touch each other, but Charlie begins to fade. She whispers in his head that he must find her.

Alex is haunted by his vision of Charlie. He tries to write it off as a dream, but it was too real to dismiss. He toys with the idea of enlisting in the military so that he will have a chance of finding her. Alex is alarmed by how much his mother has aged in the absence of Mr. Maki. He thinks she is dying. When he witnesses a man who was imprisoned at Crystal City suddenly return to his family, Alex is reminded of the lieutenant’s promise and decides to enlist.

Alex tells Mrs. Maki that he is enlisting. She is shocked and saddened that he will be leaving in five days. He tells her that if he did not enlist, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

Frank returns in the middle of their conversation. He is disgusted with Alex’s decision. He mocks Alex and tells him that he is going to die on the battlefield. His last words to Alex are, “You won’t last an hour” (236). The scene of their parting will haunt Alex in the months and years to come.

Frank does not come to see Alex when he departs for boot camp. Mrs. Maki says she wanted to make Alex a seninbari, a traditional Shinto amulet given to departing warriors, but Alex has not given her enough time. Instead, she gives him an omamori, a simple wooden amulet, as a good luck charm. She hopes that one of the camouflage nets she made in the factory will protect him. Alex boards the bus with the other enlistees; they are all churning with inner conflict.