An education through books

In my last post, I mentioned David Takami's book, Divided Destiny: A History of Japanese Americans in Seattle (1998). This was the first book I read about the incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans. It serves as a fine example of the types of projects made possible by the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, established as part of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. A CLPEF network website states the "CLPEF mission is to educate the public about the lessons to be learned from the internment." 

I was curious about Takami's connection to the forced relocation story. I emailed him with a few questions. He responded and explained his mother was from Honolulu. She came to Los Angeles to study fashion design while living with family friends and ended up in the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California for six months. "Growing up we knew that fact but she never talked about it at length," he wrote. "There was a book in our family library, America's Concentration Camps [1967], by Allan Bosworth that I read as a child. I learned much more about the incarceration in high school [Punahou School in Honolulu] and college [University of Washington in Seattle]. His formal education included lessons on this topic while mine did not. 

Our exchange reminds me of the vital role books play in education and that I need to read my copy of Bosworth's book. 

Book reviewed in the Seattle Times

David Takami reviewed my book for the Seattle Times. I thought his comments were thoughtful and well informed, generous in his description and overview of Minidoka: An American Concentration Camp.

Takami, the book reviewer, also authored Divided Destiny: A History of Japanese Americans in Seattle (1998). I first read this book, an "expanded" version of a catalog for an exhibition in 1992 at the Wing Luke Asian Museum, when I lived in Seattle. 

As I worked on the book mock-up for Minidoka, I reread Divided Destiny and noted it in the bibliography. On my copy, there's still a yellow Post-it on the cover. Four pages are noted along with brief descriptions of what I wanted to remember such as "p. 59 Boys eat wieners," which was a photo of three young boys eating in a Minidoka mess hall during their incarceration. Takami also mentions the picture in his review. (See pages 108-109 of the Minidoka book.)

My copy of the book by David Takami. 

I was surprised to see the review was posted, in part, under the "International" heading of India's Times of Mumbai website. 

Once again, I looked at Takami's book. Ron Chew, then executive director of the Wing Luke Asian Museum, wrote in the foreword: "David – in his patient, efficient manner – synthesized endless mounds of information generated by the exhibit and other sources into a crisp, readable text."

Takami's book review was another exampIe of his ability to absorb and synthesize. I certainly appreciate his book review.

As a final aside, I don't know Takami from my own past affiliation as a staff photographer for the Seattle Times.