Unbreakable – Perfect Picture Book Friday

How can anyone who sees this cover not shudder at our past? The stark reality of sending off families, our own citizens, to incarceration camps. Solely because they were Japanese Americans. That cover! The boy’s face is turned toward the reader, his eyes frozen in a long distance stare as he tries to understand what is happening. His impeccably-dressed family stand behind a barbed-wire fence, holding what’s left of their belongings in their hands. This image projects uncertainty and despair, so we can be prepared for what follows.

But the beginning of the story rewinds to the fateful day of change. It starts with a stone, a symbol of strength.

Minoru Tonai collects rocks on his way home from school. He tucks the best ones in his pocket to show Papa. 

When Min sees a strange car parked in front of his house, he forgets his treasures.

There’s immediate tension. Readers need to turn the page to find out who this car belongs to.

This masterful spread presents two views of the same moment, one looking into the room where Min’s father is being questioned, and one showing Min’s face as he listens in on the conversation. The FBI agents want to know whether Min’s father is a spy because he traveled to Japan and gave their relatives money. The agents are grasping at straws.

And when his father argues that he’s nearly deaf and is only a grocer, the reader understands just how far out on a limb these agents are willing to go to accuse him of being a spy.

Page turn. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and the tension ratchets up. Min’s father packs a bag. Agents come for him, saying “We just want to talk to him. He’ll be back.” But he doesn’t come back. Friends of Min’s family write letters to support his release. Nothing helps. Min’s mother runs the store, but people don’t want to buy groceries from a Japanese family, even though they put a sign in the window declaring that they’re Americans. And then the directive is issued to all Japanese Americans, stating they are to go to detention centers. In the case of Min’s family, their first stop is a HORSE STALL at the Santa Anita racetrack.

A HORSE STALL. Philosophers and those who study societal atrocities will tell you that the slippery slope of treating other humans inhumanely begins with minor slights that become increasingly demeaning to the point where another human being is viewed as “less than human,” an animal, or waste product. Such was the fate of Min’s family. And such is the fate of those currently incarcerated in U.S. deportation centers. The fate of those murdered and then slandered by those in power. It is one component of the fascist (and racist) playbook.

Collecting stones plays a role in this story as a connection between father and son and as a symbol of strength, strength that helps human beings survive hard times. Although most of the story is factual, the thread related to the stones has been somewhat fictionalized to provide a cohesive element to the story. The author explains this in the back matter.

Min’s family and his father were eventually released, but it wasn’t until the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 that those who were wrongly incarcerated received any kind of restitution: $20,000 per family member and a formal apology from the U.S. government. While this is better than nothing, this is a pittance for the years of their lives spent behind barbed wire, their loss of freedom, and the loss of homes, belongings, and businesses.

I’ll stop there. This very personal and heartfelt story is beautifully told and illustrated. And, ultimately, the ending brings light to the darkness with its focus on strength, resilience, and a family’s determination to rebuild their lives. But the family’s faces, staring straight at the reader in the final illustration, show that the years of incarceration have taken their toll. It is haunting, as it should be.

Minoru Tonai lived until 2023 and spent much of his life volunteering to keep the memory of this horrific injustice on the record, so that it would never happen again. (Though it is happening again.) This book is one way for that record to live long past his lifetime. Congratulations to co-author Jolene Gutiérrez and illustrator Chris Sasaki for helping Min tell his story in such an eloquent and moving way. This book releases on April 7, 2026.

Activities:

Visit Jolene Gutiérrèz’s website and download the educator guide.

Write a poem about the qualities of a stone vs. the qualities of the human heart. How are the two similar? How are they different?

As a school or classroom project, fold a thousand origami cranes (a symbol of hope and peace) and mail them to your representatives along with letters in support of everyone’s civil rights, no matter their immigration status.

Title: Unbreakable: A Japanese American Family in an American Incarceration Camp

Author: Minoru Tonai and Jolene Gutiérrez

Illustrator: Chris Sasaki

Publisher: Abrams, 2026

Themes: WWII, Japanese incarceration, injustice

Ages: Elementary school and older

For more perfect picture book recommendations, please visit Susanna Hill’s website.