Not everyone is born knowing how to grieve, but universally, it’s something that is learned. It’s something that can be passed down through a bloodline, flowing through time. It’s something that can be given to you as an asylum from tragedy, or even something that may just appear one day to follow you around. Tracy Chee’s novel, We Are Not Free, is a fictional yet exploratory piece on grief within a community. The main premise follows 14 Japanese-Americans whom the government forcefully relocated during World War II. All of which were born in the same neighborhood, entitled to the same rights, in the same country. Yet they are accused of being spies in their own community and having alliances with Japan. They all must grieve the loss of their close community.…show more content… The book explores their life in a way that is so realistic, not only to the circumstances, but teenage life in general. This is what makes We Are Not Free an exemplary choice for a curriculum in the interest of teenagers. The work thoughtfully teaches students about how to experience grief within their own lives and about how to prioritize humanity within life. In the case of We Are Not Free, grief presents itself in many forms, from the beginning, everyone must lose everything. The story starts with a jarring look into the life of a 17-year-old boy living in Japantown, San Francisco, right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The whole community, with thousands of people, has just received the order to pack because they will be sent to relocation camps. People have been selling everything from baseball cards to family heirlooms brought from Japan. The order states that relocation will start in a mere 5 days. That’s five days of a week. Five days to pack up our entire lives. They couldn’t even give us a week,” he said. 35) is what Shig says when he finds out he will be moving away from his
