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World War II
 "Shikata Ga Nai" - That's Just the Way It Is, Part 1

"Shikata Ga Nai" - That's Just the Way It Is, Part 1
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   3.01

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    backside, matter-after, puffy, sagebrush, Shikata, showers, storefront, aisle, thoughts, scraps, wherever, actually, shocked, grey, cushion, rosebud
     content words:    Aiko Mitsu, Grandmother Suki, Pearl Harbor, Minidoka Relocation Center, Tomorrow Father

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"Shikata Ga Nai" - That's Just the Way It Is, Part 1
By Toni Lee Robinson 		  
1     My Journal: Aiko Mitsu
 
2     June 12, 1942
I should be sleeping, but I can't get this day out of my head. We have come hundreds of miles. We are in a completely strange place. Of all the things I could be thinking, I keep remembering Yasu's doll. Yasu is my little sister, four years old. She is sleeping beside me right now, folded up like a sad little rosebud. Her face is puffy from crying.
 
3     When we were trying to get ourselves and our baggage on the bus, Yasu dropped her cloth doll. It was the one that Grandmother Suki sent her from California. It was dressed in a pretty red silk kimono. Yasu carried it everywhere. She always slept with it cuddled in her arms. When she dropped it, she tried to tell us, but no one listened. We were all too busy trying to do what the soldiers were telling us.
 
4     The soldiers weren't mean, really, but with their guns, they looked scary. They herded us in long lines onto the busses. When we were in our seats, I looked down. Yasu sat silently, tears running down her face. When I finally understood about the doll, I got up and went to the door of the bus. I explained the problem to the soldier standing there.

Paragraphs 5 to 13:
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