Displacement

The first and most significant theme of the graphic novel is the concept of Generational Trauma and the Power of Memory over communities and families, many decades after a traumatic event has occurred. This idea is the driving inspiration for the story and influences every scene. This theme appears in the figure of Kiku’s grandmother, Ernestina, who haunts the narrative just as she haunts Kiku’s family. Ernestina’s experiences as a survivor of the Japanese incarceration camps affect the way she raises her family after World War Two, including the decision not to teach her children the Japanese language, or to participate in Japanese cultural heritage. Her decision is a direct response to the trauma endured in the camps and the lesson she and the entire Japanese American community learned about how dangerous it is to inhabit an immigrant identity in the US (leading to the second theme). Thus, the remembered trauma of that event, both on the individual and community level, impacts Kiku and her mother’s (and sister’s) lives, often in ways they are not conscious of.

It is significant that Ernestina does not speak a word of dialogue in the graphic novel.