"Narrated in turn by Emi's two children, Eric and Mariko, her mother, Kaori, and her brother Jack, Why She Left Us crisscrosses the century - from Japanese picture brides and migrant farm workers to internment of Japanese Americans in the Colorado desert to contemporary Los Angeles and Hawaii, where Emi's two children have settled as adults. When fifty years after the war, Mariko applies for reparations from the American government for the family's losses during their internment, she stumbles upon more than one family secret. As she tries to unravel the mystery that shrouds the events of the past, and to find her lost brother, Eric, Mariko must come to terms with her complicity and her own secrets, as well as her feelings of guilt for being the child Emi chose to keep."--BOOK JACKET.