The third chapter, from the boy's perspective, chronicles the three years the family spends at the internment camp in Topaz, Utah.

The fourth chapter, told from the combined perspectives of the boy and girl, tells of the family's return home and their efforts at rebuilding their lives as well as their experience in the post war milieu of anti-Japanese discrimination.

Writing for The New York Times, literary critic Michiko Kakutani stated "though the book is flawed by a bluntly didactic conclusion, the earlier pages testify to the author's lyric gifts and narrative poise".

[2] Sylvia Santiago of Herizons magazine described Otsuka's writing style as "scrupulously unsentimental", thus "creating a contrast to the sensitive subject matter".

[3] O: The Oprah Magazine said the novel was "a meditation on what it means to be loyal to one's country and to one's self, and on the cost and the necessity of remaining brave and human".