Ten-year-old Manami did not realize how peaceful her family's life on Bainbridge Island was until the day it all changed. It's 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Manami and her family are Japanese American, which means that the government says they must leave their home by the sea and join other Japanese Americans at a prison camp in the desert. Manami is sad to go, but even worse is that they are going to have to give her and her grandfather's dog, Yujiin, to a neighbor to take care of. Manami decides to sneak Yujiin under her coat and gets as far as the mainland before she is caught and forced to abandon Yujiin.
Devastated by the loss of her beloved pet and by her family's sudden move, Manami finds refuge in drawing pictures of Yujiin and writing promises to take good care of him if only he will return to her. Each morning she hopes he will come back and she sends her promise drawings into the air. Will her family ever be whole again?
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