This collection of 17 short stories deals with the Japanese American experience in the internment camps, the veterans who volunteered to fight in Europe and the Pacific and the possibilities of life beyond the camps and the aftermath of WWII.

The characters–veterans, ex-internees, students, professors, expats–provide the reader with insights into a unique response to human relationships in everyday circumstances. (Drifting down a river on a last fishing trip with a dying friend proves to be an understated human and philosophical capstone to a long life.) Japanese Americans who find themselves in today’s fragmented world as a people swept up in current events and compelled to find their own voice is very much a part of the content of the stories.