Farewell to Manzanar, a memoir by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston, is a compelling and insightful look into the past. In 1941, approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans were evacuated into ten internment camps. The author, one of the people placed in the camps, tells of the times of hardship and discrimination during World War II. Grappling with issues ranging from loyalty between countries to food and housing to family separation, this book will give you a look into how a large family facing hard times perseveres through it and gets back to where they once were before they were knocked down. When people think of World War II, most think of the Holocaust and the discrimination and oppression of Jews. They think of how Germany’s cruel leader tortured innocent people. But most people won’t think of the hatred Americans felt towards the Japanese after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. And not only the hatred they felt towards Japanese people living in Japan, but hatred towards Japanese Americans, too. Because of the bombing, the United States government considered every Japanese resident of the United States suspicious. The government moved their very own Japanese citizens, people contributing to their country, into camps out of fear that these Japanese Americans were working with Japan. The amount of discrimination the Japanese Americans faced before and after evacuating was astronomical. Most people never think about this. But after reading Houston’s book, everyone will see, buried in history, the injustice that Japanese Americans faced throughout this era. This book made me see the harsh reality of the world. Even years after the camps were shut down, people still looked down on the Japanese. They thought they were strange and kept their children away from them. It was hard for Jeanne to make friends in high school and hard for her to embrace her culture. For me, as someone who is of a different culture than most of the United States population, it angers me to see these actions of hatred towards the Japanese. This book should forever serve as a reminder to the nation to never do this again, to never lock someone up or suspect someone solely based on their race. Through seeing how this rash action driven by fear affected so many children and families in a bad way, everyone should learn to never judge a book by its cover. Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1973. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Saturday Newsletter: July 10, 2021
Ember Cube (oil pastel) by Cyrus Kummer, 10 (St. Louis, MO) and published in the July/August 2021 Issue of Stone Soup A note from Ryan A Little Bit About Me Since this is my first newsletter as the editorial intern for Stone Soup’s Editor-in-Chief Emma Wood, I wanted to take a moment to briefly introduce myself. I’m a rising junior at the University of Richmond, where I’m double-majoring in Journalism and Leadership Studies. I currently reside in my hometown of Chicago, a few blocks away from the mailbox where I submitted my first Stone Soup story, which appeared on the “Honor Roll” of the September/October 2016 issue. Aside from being a passionate writer and avid reader, I enjoy running in my neighborhood, playing soccer, and going on walks with my friends and parents. Writing Activity Now that the Fourth of July has come and gone, we find ourselves immersed in the middle of the summer. Characterized by its longer days and warmer nights, this stretch of the year is effectively captured by Cyrus Kummer’s pastel drawing Ember Cube—its vibrant orange tones evoke the sweltering heat of summer. There is something comforting about the heat, enveloping you in a warm hug the second you step out your front door. As you head out, I urge you to grab the latest edition of Stone Soup and flip the pages to the first few chapters of The Other Realm by Tristan Hui, the 2020 winner of the Book Contest. The novel, which chronicles two friends battling familial conflict and discovering the meaning of home, engages readers from the beginning with descriptive details of the rooms within their respective homes. This week, I invite you to write about your favorite place, whether it be a room in your home, a store in your town, or a family-favorite vacation spot, and capture the small details in the environment. Think about the sounds in the location—can you hear a whisper of voices nearby or the cars rumbling past? Notice if there are any specific aspects within the place that you wouldn’t find elsewhere—is there paint missing on the walls from hanging photographs or are there rings on the coffee table left behind by mugs filled with warm beverages? Write down everything you observe there. You can use your written description to fill in the setting for a longer story or novel, or it can stand on its own as a brief vignette or poem. Till next time, Book Contest 2021 For information on submitting to the Stone Soup Book Contest 2021, please click here. To submit your manuscript, please visit our submittable site. Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Ismini, 12, wrote a glowing five-star review of V.E. Schwab’s 2020 historical fantasy novel The Invisible Life of Addie Larue. Make sure to read April’s (13) review of Marissa Meyer’s 2016 novel, Heartless, a speculative prequel to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Priscilla, 8, wrote about her experience seeing Machu Picchu viscachas for the first time. Anirudh, 13, wrote a brilliant and fastidious essay on the history of socialism from the Age of Reason to the Cold War Calling all 9-14-year-olds to Virtual Summer Camp! It’s not too late to join our summer classes with Young Inklings–we have a few spaces left in all our July classes. Each interactive writing camp runs for two hours per day, Monday through Thursday, with plenty of prompts and activities for you to take away and use outside class, too. Have fun writing and learning with us this month! July 12-15 (starting this Monday!) – join our founder and original teacher William for his Playwriting class July 19-22 – practice creative Food Writing with Jane (grab a lemon and click the image on the right to try a sample activity) July 26-29 – learn from two generations who have started journals before in Start Your Own Literary Journal – with Stone Soup ’20—21 intern Anya & Jane July 26-29 – get a new perspective on Creative Writing Through Art with Jiang From Stone Soup July/August 2021 from The Other Realm By Tristan Hui, 15 (Menlo Park, CA) Illustrated by Rosemary Brandon, 10 (Nashville, TN) Chapter One Continued All About the Two Realms introduced the concept that there was more than one realm in existence, that there was another realm below the one in which Montero sprawled, made up of people similar to humans but not entirely the same. This was possibly the detail that sank the idea—no one in Montero was ready to welcome an alien race to their city. According to Dr. Colton, if you believed in both realms, it was possible to travel between them when a black moon coincided with a low tide—and in the lower realm, it was common knowledge that the upper one existed. Dr. Arnold Colton and his book were banned from Montero and the surrounding region almost immediately after its release, the publishers pulled out of their contract with the city’s library, and most anyone who had previously been fascinated by this new worldview stowed the book hastily somewhere dark and never spoke of their infatuation with it again—but Henry Morroe felt no shame in taking instruction from a banned book, and neither did his daughter. It was said that this realm held an island that provided the perfect star-charting vantage point, with spectacular views of a few planets not yet known to the people of Montero. The sleek black rock rose up out of the water and gave way quickly to dense forest—not a grain of sand to be found, despite the vast desert that stretched out across the strait. Apparently, this enclave was no tropical vacation spot but the trade capital of the realm and abuzz with all nature of activities. People of all shapes and sizes flocked to the isle to sell a variety of colorful, extraordinary goods, and many of them liked it so much that they simply stayed. The capital city
Socialism Reexplained: Age of Reason to Cold War
Anirudh Parthasarathy, 13 (San Jose, CA) Socialism Reexplained: Age of Reason to Cold War Anirudh Parthasarathy, 13 History of Socialism In order to understand socialism as a whole, we have to understand how nineteenth century capitalism worked, the critiques of uncontrolled capitalism, and the reasoning behind the call for a more equitable economic system that eventually led to the birth of both socialism and communism. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, feudalism and absolute monarchism were abolished with people wanting more liberty, self-determination, democracy, and individualism. These ideals started becoming popular during the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which in turn led to the Age of Reason, French Absolutism, and English Constitutionalism. In England, eventually, people were tired of being subjugated by an authoritarian government. Whether the oppressors were a monarch, members of an aristocracy, or even the parliament and government officials, the British people wanted true liberty, eventually leading to a revolution that destroyed the feudal system. England became the first democratic/republican and capitalist country the world had seen since antiquity. Many people probably hoped this new system of governance would be better than the anti-humanistic authoritarian feudal system. They were wrong. England practiced a form of uncontrolled libertarian capitalism in which there was no government intervention. Because of this, nineteenth century England had a small, extremely wealthy capitalist class who owned all the organizations and economic resources—such as land and capital—while the majority were an extremely poor working class who worked very low-paying jobs with terrible conditions. The workers often worked in monotonous jobs for long hours and with wages so low they lived in extreme poverty, while the capitalist class got all the profits and luxury derived from the hard work of the workers! First Socialists This extreme inequality frustrated many people including many intellectuals/philosophers, who became the first socialists. Some of the very first socialists were known as utopian socialists. Such socialists advocated for things like collective ownership of the means of production and enterprises, government intervention (or sometimes even central planning of the economy and of production), solidarity among the working class, a more equitable distribution of wealth, and general empowerment of workers. Another group called the chartists advocated for universal male suffrage (not nearly as impressive as universal suffrage in which females also have a vote). Utopian socialism started with Henri de Saint Simon and then continued with Charles Fourier, Pierre Joseph Proudhon (one of the first anarchists and one who declared “property is theft”), Pierre Leroux, and Robert Owen. Another more far-left brand of socialism called revolutionary socialism believed that rather than creating a socialist system through the cooperation of the workforce, government, and the wealthy, it was up to the workers to launch a revolution in order to completely overthrow the capitalist government and replace it with a socialist system. Communism is a type of revolutionary socialism, but communism and revolutionary socialism aren’t the same because there are other types of revolutionary socialism, some of which have anarchist ideals. A prominent socialist community was the Paris Commune created in 1871. The Paris Commune was designed to benefit the poor and working class over the wealthy. The Paris Commune secularized politics and education, provided subsidized food and housing, created a minimum wage, required private firms to have a delegation elected by the workers, recognized freedom of the press, and made all people legally equal. However, the Paris Commune only lasted for two months and ten days before it was crushed. Despite all the confusion and varying ideas on how to implement socialism, all those socialists were opposed to capitalism and believed the economic system was fundamentally doomed. One problem they believed capitalism had is its competitive nature which led to the continual driving down of profits. For example, suppose one business sells yogurt at $10 while a different business is willing to sell yogurt with the same or perhaps better quality at the much cheaper price of $7. Most people would buy from the cheaper business. The Socialists believed that eventually competition would lead to a decrease in profits to a level that businesses could barely eke out a profit. They also argued that businesses competed to sell their products at the same time workers competed to sell their labor. Socialists argued that this competition among workers was what caused workers to be paid only what they needed in order to afford the most basic food and housing and nothing more. They pointed out that as businesses started making less profits, they’d compensate by paying the workers even less wages until eventually only the most essential workers would be kept with the rest being laid off. Eventually, businesses that weren’t able to keep up would go out of business, causing even more unemployment among both the working and capitalist classes. At this point, socialists believed that either serious reforms or an outright revolution were needed to end capitalism and usher in an era of socialism. Among other reasons, this hasn’t happened in practice in the west because capitalism has been reformed to include elements of welfare and regulation, which has helped reduce inequality. But socialism is unsustainable over time. Drawbacks of Socialism Overall, proponents of socialism argue that it leads to equality, economic security, production for use rather than profit, and the kind of system in which people selflessly contribute to society according to their ability and receive all their needs. As a famous socialist slogan says, “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs”. However, critics of socialism argue that the system is based on faulty principles and is too utopian to actually happen, and that ultimately the inherent inefficiencies of socialism will lead to major economic problems, with socialism suffering mainly from the motivation and knowledge problem. First, we must understand the motivation problem. One major problem with socialism is that it doesn’t truly reward people with tangible rewards for going beyond the minimum. For example, most people aren’t JUST working in their jobs
