Weedflower

Weedflower, Cynthia Kadohata’s 2006 historical fiction young adult novel, tells the story of 12-year-old Japanese American Sumiko amid Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and the US government’s ensuing involvement in World War II. Kadohata depicts the conditions of Japanese internment camps from Sumiko’s perspective, providing unique insight and education on the racism that Japanese Americans faced and the US government’s poor decisions.

This guide references the 2009 paperback reprint edition from Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Plot Summary

The novel begins in 1941, a few days before the attack on Pearl Harbor that provokes the US to join World War II. Twelve-year-old Sumiko lives with her aunt, uncle, cousins, grandfather, and younger brother. Her parents died in a car accident when she was seven. She loves tending to the flowers on her family’s farm but feels lonely; as the only Japanese girl in her class, she doesn’t have any friends at school and is too busy helping on the farm to spend time with children in her neighborhood. As the novel begins, Sumiko feels that her loneliness may finally be at an end when her classmate invites her to a birthday party. When she arrives at the party, however, she isn’t allowed to stay because she’s Japanese.