Together in Manzanar The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp
Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp by Tracy Slater, published by Chicago Review Press on July 8, 2025, is a poignant exploration of a family’s struggle during a tumultuous period in American history. This 312-page book delves into the experiences of Elaine Yoneda, a child of Russian Jewish immigrants married to a Japanese American man, as she faces harrowing choices amid the backdrop of World War II and the internment of Japanese Americans.
Readers will find a narrative that highlights the complexities of identity and loyalty as Elaine grapples with the implications of her decisions for her family. The book presents the Yonedas’ challenges, including the impact of internment on their mixed-race children and the broader societal issues of equality and freedom during a time of conflict. Together in Manzanar sheds light on the historical context of the U.S. concentration camps, offering insights into the personal and collective struggles faced by those affected.
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“A World War II homefront action that many Americans would like to forget.” — Kirkus Reviews
“This cinematic and propulsive family saga casts a riveting spotlight on an ignominious episode in U.S. history.” — Publishers Weekly
On a late March morning in the spring of 1942, Elaine Yoneda awoke to a series of terrible choices: between her family and freedom, her country and conscience, and her son and daughter.
She was the child of Russian Jewish immigrants and the wife of a Japanese American man. On this war-torn morning, she was also a mother desperate to keep her young mixed-race son from being sent to a US concentration camp. Manzanar, near Death Valley, was one of ten detention centers where our government would eventually imprison every person of Japanese descent along the West Coast–alien and citizen, old and young, healthy and sick–or, in the words of one official, anyone with even “one drop” of Japanese blood.
Elaine’s husband Karl was already in Manzanar, but he planned to enlist as soon as the US Army would take him. The Yonedas were prominent labor and antifascist activists, and Karl was committed to fighting for what they had long cherished: equality, freedom, and democracy.
Yet when Karl went to war, their son Tommy, three years old and chronically ill, would be left alone in Manzanar–unless Elaine convinced the US government to imprison her as well.
The consequences of Elaine’s choice did not end there: if she somehow found a way to force herself behind barbed wire with her husband and son, she would leave behind her white daughter from a previous marriage.
Together in Manzanar tells the story of these painful choices and conflicting loyalties, the upheaval and violence that followed, and the Yonedas’ quest to survive with their children’s lives intact and their family safe and whole.
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