"A Jar of Dreams"--a book by Yoshiko Uchida

     This story takes place in California during the time of the Great Depression.  Eleven-year-old Rinko and her Japenese family struggle with extreme prejudice from people in their surrounding community.  Rinko feels shame from the all the teasing that kids at school put upon her.  Even Mr. Starr who runs the local laundry center yells things at her and her brother such as, "Get out of here you Jap kids."  Things start to change when Rinko's Aunt Waka from Japan comes to visit for the first time ever.  When Rinko's mother decides to try to earn money by doing other people's laundry from her basement, Mr. Starr harrasses the family, trying to make them go out of business.  He even kills the family's beloved dog.  Aunt Waka convinces Rinko's father to go to the laundry and tell Mr. Starr how he feels and that he has no intention of stopping the small laundry business that Rinko's mother has worked so hard for.  Mr. Starr did not like the confrontation, but the family was not harrassed again.  Thanks to Aunt Waka, the whole family, including Rinko, learned to keep their heads up high and not be afraid to pursue their dreams.
     As I read this story, I felt bad for the discrimination pressed upon different minorites such as these Japanese Americans.  Besides the struggle for survival in such a bad economic time, this whole family also had to struggle with the prejudice actions and comments from people in their own neighborhood.  Rinko and her brother Cal had dreams of going to college.  Rinko wanted to be a teacher and Cal wanted to be an engineer.  When it looked like Mr. Starr and his discriminatory antics had cost their mother her laundry business, Cal and Rinko decided it would be futile to go to college because no one would hire them even if they did have a degree.  After Aunt Waka convinced everyone to never give up and stand up for the things you want in life, Cal and Rinko gained the confidence they needed to pursue their own goals.  Aunt Waka gave them self-respect and motivation during her short visit to America. 
     What I liked best about this story is that it teaches the reader that nothing can stand between you and your dreams.  At the end of the story, Rinko talks about walking tall and without shame now that she knows what it is to be proud of herself.  Aside from her jar of money for college, she also has a jar for her dreams, like for her dream going to Japan and visiting her Aunt Waka one day. 
     Yoshiko Uchida has also written other works depicting the struggles of Japanese American families.  They include:  Journey Home, The Bracelet, The Best Bad Thing, Journey to Topaz, and Desert Exile:  The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family.
     I look forward to reading more of Uchida's works.  I was not fully aware of the extreme discrimination that Japanese Americans endured before reading some of her novels.  Her books teach self-respect, different aspects of Japanese culture, and the effects of perserverance.