Matsuda's new book

© 2015 Lawrence Matsuda and Matt Sasaki

Since Lawrence (Larry) Matsuda let me include his moving poem, "Too Young to Remember," from his collection published in A Cold Wind from Idaho (2010), he has produced three new books. The latest, Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers, includes illustrations by Matt Sasaki and features an interview with Tosh Yasutake, the brother of Mitsuye Yamada. Yamada wrote the essay, "Minidoka Revisited" for my book.

Larry's book release is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 12, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Nisei Veterans Committee Memorial Hall in Seattle. Books will be available for purchase from the Nisei Veterans Committee Foundation. I don't have a copy yet but I'm getting one. The cost is $35 plus $5 shipping. Profits will be donated to NVC and the Wing Luke Asian Museum.

Jerry Large, a columnist for The Seattle Times, wrote a piece last week, "Book about Nisei soldiers casts new light on our history."

And, if you haven't seen the collaboration between Larry and Roger Shimomura, get a copy of Glimpses of a Forever Foreigner: Poetry and Artwork Inspired by Japanese American Experiences (2014) available from Amazon.com.

The infamous day of Dec. 7, 1941

Oil, 2-9 quarts each day, still seeps from the USS Arizona Memorial, an eerie and solemn reminder of the rusting, sunken battleship where 1,177 sailors and marines were instantly killed on the "day that will live in infamy" – President Roosevelt's description of the surprise attack by a Japanese Strike Force in airplanes and midget submarines on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, that began at 7:55 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941.

More than 60 years later as I interviewed Japanese Americans for the book, Minidoka: An American Concentration Camp, it seemed that every person who lived through that day could still remember exactly where they were and what they were doing. Mitsuye Yamada, a young adult then, wrote a compelling first person essay for the book and shared some her memories of Dec. 7, 1941, what happened to her father, and the time her family spent in Idaho's Minidoka War Relocation Center. 

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