UNBREAKABLE: A Loaded and Heartbreaking Account of Japanese Internment

ABRAMS BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS, 2026

 I have a strong interest in and curiosity about history, in large part because of the STORY in hiSTORY. This picture book relates one such compelling and important story, co-authored by a member of the actual family portrayed and told with only slight variation from the way the experience actually unfolded. UNBREAKABLE: A JAPANESE AMERICAN FAMILY IN AN AMERICAN INCARCERATION CAMP is co-authored by Minoru (Min) Tonai and Jolene Gutiérrez, with illustrations by Chris Sasaki. 

It's my sincere hope that the facts surrounding one of this country's most shameful policies and practices is not unknown to any adult readers, and that most young people will have learned about it by the time they reach elementary school. Whether that's the case or not, this makes a significant contribution to the topic and could be a powerful introduction to the history and important discussions.

I've shared a few other picture book accounts of that history HERE, HERE, and HERE. Others, like ALLEN SAY, have devoted their lives to sharing aspects of this history (personal and national) throughout his long and lauded career. As with Holocaust stories, or any survival stories, each account reveals specifics unique to that individual and family, but also contributes to understanding the patterns of their combined experiences, elements that tell an even bigger story. And TRUTHS.  Each story matters, and, combined, they matter even more.

In the case of this story, the co-author MIN was a child when his father was visited at their home in California, accusing him of being a spy. Min and his siblings were born in the United States, but that offered no protection after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Neither did it matter that his families neighbors and friends offered testament to the family's loyalty to their adopted country. Min's father is taken for investigation and kept from them for years, while Min and his family were forced from their home with limited belongings, no answers, and nothing but hope that they would one day see their father again. 

The literary device used in telling this account was that Min's father gave him a small rock before he was taken, a symbol and reminder to tay strong. This narrative choice emerged from the use of rocks throughout the long internment, to beautify the grounds, to establish order in their surroundAs the war wound down, the closure of the camps and return of Min and his family (including his father) to their homes was as unceremonious as was their removal. 

Back matter describes more details, clarifies the facts, and provides a timeline.The lifelong mission of Min to speak in schools and groups about this part of history is well-documented, and although he died (age 94) before the book's release in 2026, his adult children continue his outreach mission . Although the US government acknowledged the illegality and damage of this policy and practice many decades later, young readers today are digital witnesses to patterns that mirror this discriminatory and illegal practice with many of the same arguments used to justify the actions against immigrants. 

Sasaki is an award-winning animator (Pixar) and picture book illustrator whose command of color, light, shadow, and contrast are powerful and well-suited to this stark story. The figures themselves are tenderly sympathetic but firmly linear and strong. Lines throughout felt suggestive of bars and fencing, whether vertical or horizontal. Even the blinds in the windows with their filtered light foreshadow the horizontal barbed wire wrapping the camp. There is rich fodder for discussions of injustice, xenophobia, fear, and abuse of power, but the quiet strength and dignity of the family (and many others) invites empathy and support. The span of time during which people were incarcerated allowed Min to grow from a preteen to a young man, while his parents aged beyond the calendar years. 

Whether this historic era and heartbreaking incarceration is new or a sadly familiar tale, this book deserves a place on your shelves and in your hearts. I hope you'll read it. Reflect, please, how painfully harmful FEAR is, especially when it is the driver of policy. Notice that those who were implementing the investigations and incarcerations are not shown clearly, reminding me of the masked ICE agents in today's assualts on individual rights. Those who have nothing  to be ashamed of in their choices and actions are not afraid to stand and be seen.