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The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration: Unlocking the Voices of Issei and Kibei Nisei Writers
In this guest post, Frank Abe introduces a selection from the new anthology, The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration, which he co-edited with Floyd Cheung. The book was published this…
Arrested for Selling Poetry: Shig Murao, Howl, and the Erasure of a Beat Scene Bookslinger
Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti are household names among the leftist literati, but you’ve probably never heard the name Shig Murao. You’re not alone. Despite the fact that Shig…
Iron Fences and Pepper Pods: Four Poets at Tule Lake and their Stories
Shootings by guards, martial law, divided loyalties among families, intra-camp conflicts and antagonistic administrators, and mass renunciations of U.S. citizenship all contributed to making Tule Lake—initially one of ten War…
A Peek at Densho’s First Graphic Novel by Molly Murakami
We’re excited to share a new graphic novel by 2021 Densho artist-in-residence Molly Murakami! Tide Goes Out takes an intimate look at the lesser-known history of Terminal Island, a Japanese…
The Unsolvable Mystery of “That Damned Fence”
The barbed wire fence is an enduring symbol of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans. As Hana and Noah Maruyama point out in Episode Three of the Campu podcast, the…
Japanese American Literature Traces Changing Relationships between Nikkei and African Americans Over Time
Co-authored by Brian Niiya and Greg Robinson In our many combined years of doing research on Japanese American history and literature, we each noted a striking fact with regard to…
Lane Tomosumi Shigihara: “Vocal Young Woman”
In this final piece from our 2022 Women’s History Month writing challenge, gosei poet Lane Tomosumi Shigihara shares a haiku inspired by his grandmother’s courage in standing up for her…
Patricia Wakida: “Four Suns, These Issei Women”
The latest addition to our Women’s History Month writing challenge comes from yonsei artist, writer and community historian Patricia Wakida, who shares a photo from her great-grandmother’s 88th birthday and…
Karen L. Ishizuka: “Why, Oh Archive?”
Karen L. Ishizuka is a writer and chief curator of the Japanese American National Museum. In response to our Women’s History Month writing challenge—in which we ask writers to share…
Nine Nikkei Women Writers You Need to be Reading Right Now
We asked writers, teachers, artists, and activists to help curate a special Women’s History Month reading list featuring books by Nikkei women authors. They came up with a phenomenal list…
Brynn Saito: “What exists outside the frame”
Brynn Saito is a Korean American and Japanese American poet, educator, and organizer, born and raised in Fresno, California. In response to our Women’s History Month call for writers to…
Nikiko Masumoto: “How to Wonder”
This Women’s History Month, we asked writers to submit short responses to photographs of women in the Densho archives or in their own family collections. Today’s submission comes from Nikiko…
Lauren Ito: “Arrival As We”
To celebrate Women’s History Month this year, we invited a select group of writers to submit short responses to photographs of women in the Densho archives or in their own…
Yoshiko Uchida’s Remarkable—and Underappreciated—Literary Career
I have long been a fan of Yoshiko Uchida, a Berkeley-based writer best known for her children’s and young adult books about the World War II forced removal and incarceration….
Naomi Hirahara on the Secret Lives of Nisei in Post-WWII Chicago
Award-winning mystery novelist, public historian, and journalist Naomi Hirahara’s new novel, Clark and Division, follows the story of a young woman searching for the truth about her revered older sister’s…
How the Asian American Movement Learned a Lesson in Liberation from the Black Panthers
As a musician, artist, and activist, Nobuko Miyamoto has long used art to create social change and solidarity across cultural borders. Her new memoir, Not Yo’ Butterfly: My Long Song…
Dive into These YA Books on the Wartime Incarceration of Japanese Americans
In recent decades, many new books on the wartime experience of Japanese Americans have filled the shelves of bookstores and libraries. Of this ever-growing new crop of titles, many are…
Read These “Camp” Memoirs for a First-Person Look at Japanese American WWII Incarceration
When we think of Japanese American memoirs of the concentration camp experience, most of us think of a handful of older classic titles first: Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston’s…
Twelve Novels by Japanese American Authors Centered on WWII Incarceration
When we think about literary works that incorporate the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans, most of us probably think of either one of the bestsellers by non-Japanese authors (e.g. Snow…
Five Bestsellers with Japanese American Incarceration Plot Lines
Did you know that at least five novels with Japanese American incarceration plot lines have made national best-seller lists in the past twenty or so years? Densho Content Director Brian…
Book Review: “Relocating Authority” with the Written Word
Densho Content Director Brian Niiya reviews Relocating Authority: Japanese Americans Writing to Redress Mass Incarceration by Mira Shimabukuro (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2015). Join the author and Densho Director Tom Ikeda…