The Two Foolish Cats by Yoshiko Uchida

The Two Foolish Cats            Yoshiko Uchida


In this adaptation of a Japanese folktale, Yoshiko Uchida beautifully describes the greedy nature of two cats who learn a great deal from their own foolish behavior.  When one thinks of a classic children's tale, a story like this should come to mind. With colorful illustrations as well as fablistic characters, children are drawn to this book, as I saw with my own daughter who read the book as soon as I was finished with it; she loved it.  Of course, like most folktales, this story also has a moral:  act silly and greedy and you will pay a hefty price.  I think this is a good lesson for both children and adults alike to consider.

Still, this particular book by Uchida is not characteristic of other writings.  After researching her, I discovered that many of her other books discuss the Japanese-American plight, particularily during and after the World War II era.  In fact, in her book, The Invisible Thread, Uchida describes her own life of growing up in Berkely, California, as a Nisei--a second generation Japanese American--and her family's internment in a Nevada concentration camp during World War II.  Futhermore, her novel Journey Home depicts the life of a Japanese-American girl and her family after their release from an American concentration camp. Admist anti-Japanese feelings of fear, mistrust, and violence, this young girl and her family must try to rebuild their lives.

I plan on reading one of these books to find out more about this issue because I, like many other people, was basically unaware than such things occured in my own country.  When the words concentration camp are uttered, I have always thought of the atrocities committed by the Nazis to the Jewish people.  However, although nowhere near as severe as that, Japanese-Americans were definitely mistreated themselves during this era, a fact unbeknown to many Americans such as myself. 

Still, like other authors such as Laurence Yep, by reading the writings of such authors as Uchida, American students will be able to learn about a culture much different than their own, and, hopefully, develop both an appreciation and an understanding of these diverse cultures.