Truth in the Rivers

Thematically, the book has three distinct sections. The first section considers Howard's early life as a young Japanese American student in the 1940s, living in California with his family. The family is uprooted and relocated following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and placed in the Santa Anita Racetrack facility. From there they are sent to an internment camp in Arizona. The Japanese concept of GANBERE; in the book is brought forth through the resilience and determination of the family to simply make the best of a horrific situation. As a result, Howard emerges as an artistic individual who spends his life acquiring the necessary skills needed to survive in a postwar world. He travels to New York where he seeks the opportunity to enhance his skills as both an artist and an architect. This section attempts to parallel Howard's life with the lives of other young people who are coming of age. The second section of the book entitled Civil Rights addresses the author s experiences as a teacher of Black Studies during the 1960s. During this time he traveled with African American colleagues to the East Coast and the Deep South where he witnessed first-hand the implications of discrimination during that time period as well as at home in the Midwest. The third section of the book entitled Road Trips with Papa brings us to the present and examines the need for all people to teach the children well . The implications and importance of connecting children to a natural world, to the necessary civic and moral issues that they face is accented. The profound result of these connections is that the children, in turn, remind us of the need to know these lessons ourselves. Finally, the ending of the book comes full circle. Highlighted by the essay and poem The Woodshed. Here, the world of a young man from New England is influenced by the relationship that has been built with an older gentleman from New York City. The older man, who is a weekend visitor to the small New England town where the young man lives, wants to learn the ways of rural New England. The concrete outcome of the relationship is the lean-to they build together, a type of woodshed used for storing the tools as well as the ideals and stories of the New England region. The abstract or philosophical outcome is that at some point, the student becomes the teacher. Human resilience, determination in the light of adversity, and the human ability to sustain the creative voice in spite of adversity runs throughout all of the stories.