When she is fourteen, and Katie ten, Lynn becomes ill with lymphoma and ultimately dies. Katie believes that Lynn is a "genius" and listens as her sister encourages her to look beyond tomorrow. Takeshima work double shifts, Katie and her younger brother, Sammy, are left in the care of their older sister Lynn. The working conditions are almost intolerable at the hatchery, and the Takeshima children experience prejudices at school, but the small community of Japanese families band together and support one another in their daily lives. Uncle Kutsuhisa helps them move into a small apartment complex where other Japanese families live, and they begin a long struggle toward saving money to purchase a house of their own. Katie Takeshima is about to enter kindergarten in the 1950s, when her parents close their Oriental foods grocery store in Iowa and move to Chesterfield, Georgia to work in a chicken hatchery.
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