Book Description 

Chicago, 1944: Twenty-year-old Aki Ito and her parents have just been released from Manzanar, where they have been detained by the US government since the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, together with thousands of other Japanese Americans. The life in California the Itos were forced to leave behind is gone; instead, they are being resettled two thousand miles away in Chicago, where Aki’s older sister, Rose, was sent months earlier and moved to the new Japanese American neighborhood near Clark and Division streets. But on the eve of the Ito family’s reunion, Rose is killed by a subway train.

Aki, who worshipped her sister, is stunned. Officials are ruling Rose’s death a suicide. Aki cannot believe her perfect, polished, and optimistic sister would end her life. Her instinct tells her there is much more to the story, and she knows she is the only person who could ever learn the truth.

Inspired by historical events, Clark and Division infuses an atmospheric and heartbreakingly real crime with rich period details and delicately wrought personal stories Naomi Hirahara has gleaned from thirty years of research and archival work in Japanese American history.

My Review 

I don’t remember where I heard about this book, but I think I might have found the audiobook in the “Skip the Line” section of Libby. Either way, my interest was piqued. I have somewhat of a personal connection to the story because my grandmother spent the war years in an internment camp in Utah, much like the protagonist and her family. 

Aki and her parents have just arrived in Chicago after being released from their internment camp. They are a long way from their home in California, and they are shocked to learn that the fourth member of their family died the night before. 

The bulk of the book deals with Aki trying to figure out what happened to her sister while simultaneously navigating the unfamiliar and often hostile environment of war-era Chicago, where there is a significant group of Japanese-Americans who have also recently been released from camps. Aki encounters all sorts of interesting people, some of whom she knew back in California before the war. Her sleuthing takes her to all sorts of places—often at great risk to her own safety—but she is determined to find out what happened to her beloved sister. 

Central to the plot is the social structure amongst Japanese Americans. Most of the parents belong to the Issei classification, which means that they immigrated to the United States. They had likely been in the country for almost 20 years when the war began immigration laws restricted the arrival of new immigrants. Aki and the people in her generation are classified as Nisei, which means that they were all born in the United States and grew up straddling the Japanese culture of their parents and the much more Americanized popular culture of their peers. This cultural gap is most evident in the way that Aki’s parents want to move on from the more shameful aspects of Rose’s death whilst Aki wants to find out the truth. 

I would absolutely recommend Clark and Division. This was a satisfying mystery with a fascinating historical component. I’m pleased to discover that there is a sequel to this book, and I am looking forward to reading it in the near future.