Wild Daisies in the Sand: Life in a Canadian Internment Camp

ISBN 13: 978-1-896300-51-1
240 pages, paperback
Fall 2002

Non-Fiction | Asian Literature

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about this book

Wild Daisies in the Sand reopens a chapter in Canadian history. This book is a series of diary entries beginning in 1941, when author Tom Sando was imprisoned in concentration camps, first in Petawawa and then Angler, Ontario—a young Japanese Canadian imprisoned only because he was willing to stand and fight for his rights as a Canadian. The Japanese Canadians relocated to Petawawa and Angler were imprisoned in maximum security penitentiaries: compounds encircled by three layers of barbed wire fences, and under constant surveillance by rifle-armed guards stationed in watchtowers. These people were not prisoners-of-war or even criminals, but Canadian civilians deemed dangerous by the Canadian government because of their race.

Wild Daisies in the Sand is a unique first-hand look at a part of the Japanese internment that many Canadians are still unfamiliar with. Tom Sando relates his story of loneliness, fear, and eventually friendship and hope, candidly and with careful thought.