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.

Book News Inc.

Scott Gipson, publisher of Caxton Press, forwarded me an email today from Eithne O'Leyne, the editor of Book News, Inc. in Portland, Oregon. Minidoka: An American Concentration Camp was included in the final issue of Reference & Research Book News (Dec 2013).

I was unfamiliar with Book News so looked up the company's website. The home page provides this description: "Book News prepares concise, descriptive reviews of new books in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities for librarians and other buyers of scholarly books. We cover titles from hundreds of English-language publishers worldwide, and we license our material to a wide range of booksellers, aggregators and database publishers."

Connections

One of my new year's resolutions is to make blog posts more regularly.

When the book was first released and Lucius Horiuchi (pp. 31-33) received his copy in the mail, he phoned to say he knew Frances (Yonemura) Yamamoto (pp. 204-205). He saw her photograph in the Minidoka book and learned she married and remained in Idaho. He said she was known as "Frannie" back when they were high school students. Lucius said he was hospitalized when he was in Minidoka and had to miss school. He recalled that she came to visit him.

When I saw Fran in Boise last November, she mentioned Lucius called her and they had a nice, long talk. It reminds me of the many connections that were made during the incarceration, then as the book was being made and now, as new connections continue to form.

Happy new year!

Start of 2014, end of 2013

With the start of the 2014, I wanted to review the events surrounding the book's 2013 release.

Sat. Sept. 21 - Seattle
The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle hosted the first reading and signing in the Tateuchi Story Theatre. Paul Kogita surprised me with a beautiful handmade sign made of wood his father had saved from his family's incarceration in Minidoka (see Sat. Sept. 28 note). Many friends and people in the book were in attendance including Fumiko Hayashida, 102(!), and her daughter, Natalie Ong. Natalie took these pictures and emailed them over. Thank you, Natalie, plus all of the guests, and Vivian Chan, Hanh Pham and Michelle Kumata of the Wing Luke.

© 2013 Natalie Ong

Fumiko Hayashida, left, and me

© 2013 Natalie Ong

Left to right: Herb Tuchiya, Yosh Nakagawa and Tom Ikeda

Sat. Sept. 28 - Seattle
The book release "celebration" was held in the Microsoft Auditorium in the downtown Seattle Public Library. Art Wright and the debut of his Minidoka book trailer video along with Mitsuye Yamada, author of Camp Notes and Other Writings (1998) and Larry Matsuda, author of A Cold Wind From Idaho (2010), joined me for this special event.

Among the guests were many people featured in the book; family members traveled from New York, Michigan, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, California and Washington state; Robert Sims, history professor emeritus from Boise State University and his wife, Betty, flew in from Boise; Daniel Burge, a senior research scientist at the Image Permanence Institute at RIT in Rochester, New York, happened to be in town and came to the event with his sister; as well as friends from newspaper days. Karen Maeda Allman of Elliot Bay Book Company, handled book sales.

The camera I brought to the event is sitting on the podium.  I was unable to talk and take pictures so Clint Maruki, my cousin's son from SoCal, let me post his photos. Thank you, Clint, and everyone who attended and participated!

© 2013 Clint Maruki
Paul Kogita's handiwork, the Minidoka sign in the background, added to the festivities at this second Seattle event.

© 2013 Clint Maruki

Megumi Schacher, right, made three ikebana arrangements during a 30-minute demonstration in the  Microsoft Auditorium. More of her creations can be seen on her website:

http://www.ikebanabymegumi.com/

© 2013 Clint Maruki

Megumi studies in the Sogetsu School of Ikebana and travels to Japan several times a year to stay current with the latest designs and ideas.

© 2013 Clint Maruki

Sun. Nov. 10 - Portland

Art Wright, photographer and videographer extraordinaire, organized a book event in Portland at Sandra's Splendorporium, an amazing creative space in southeast Portland. Larry Matsuda joined me, again, along with Linda Tamura, author of Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence (2012), for this collaborative reading and video presentation of Art's Minidoka book trailer to an audience of friends and friends of friends. Todd Mayberry of Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center sold books at the event and numerous volunteers helped Art pull everything together from chairs to sushi. A huge thank you to Art and company.

© Teresa Tamura
Art Wright

Sat. Nov. 16 - Boise

Special thanks goes to Amanda Halverson and Scott Gipson at Caxton Press who coordinated a book signing at Rediscovered Bookshop at 180 N 8th St. in Boise for me and made sure books arrived on time to all of these events. I appreciate everyone at Caxton for their hand in making this book possible, as well as to the University of Nebraska Press for their help with publicity and distribution.