Q: How did you come up with the idea for Paper Wishes and for your main character, Manami?
A: I grew up near Manzanar in central California. In spite
of living so close to one of the 10 internment camps, we didn't learn much
about them when I was in school.
I was, however, fortunate to have a classmate whose maternal
grandparents were internees, and his mother told me about her parents'
experiences during the war.
Many years later, I was at the library with my children and
I discovered Heather Lindquist's beautiful book The Children of
Manzanar--filled with photographs and stories of children who had lived there.
I had glimmers of the idea that became Paper Wishes right away.
Q: How did you research the Japanese-American internment
camps, and was there anything that particularly surprised you in the course of
your research?
A: I started with internet research--looking for old
newspaper articles and newsreels. I re-visited Manzanar which is now a national
historic site. For those who cannot visit Manzanar in person, it offers a
wonderful virtual museum that is worth checking out.
Using their resources, I researched supply lists, maps,
letters, calendars, and so on. These provided details about the setting and the
timeline of events in the story.
The most useful resources in terms of the actual story
itself came from oral history interviews. The Bainbridge Island Japanese
American Community's website has several interviews, as well as photographs and
film clips.
Through their website, I discovered Densho, an organization
committed to telling the story of Japanese Americans during WWII. Their
archives include over 800 film oral histories and thousands of artifacts,
including photographs, journals, letters, and so on.
I knew that children lived at Manzanar, but I was shocked to
learn that half of those imprisoned were children. Who imprisons children? I
wondered. Who remains silent while it happens?
Q: The relationship between Manami and her dog, Yujiin, is
one of the key elements of the novel. Why did you choose this as an important
theme in the book?
A: When I speak to children about my novel, they invariably want
to know more about Yujiin. Manami is easy to love, and I've learned from
children that it is her relationship with Yujiin, and, later, her loss of
Yujiin, that makes her relatable.
Like Manami, they have lost pets. I knew as I was writing
that Yujiin was a symbol for all that had been taken from Manami.
I wanted to tell a story that very young children could
read, and so I wrote Paper Wishes with a third grade audience in mind. Most
schools and students I hear from are in third, fourth, and fifth grade. And the
questions they always ask are "What happened to Yujiin?" and
"Will Manami ever get to go home?"
Q: This is your first novel. Did you find you have a
different writing process with fiction than nonfiction?
A: Yes, absolutely different. Writing nonfiction is easier
for me because it's highly structured. The system that seems to work for me
when I write fiction is to free-write for 20 or 30 pages or so. At that point,
I have to do some basic outlining so that I know where the story is going.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: More historical fiction! I love the research.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: The paperback of Paper Wishes is coming out in May 2017.
I can't wait to see how the cover has been updated.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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