Pamela Rotner Sakamoto, author of “Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds” will be attending Tucson Festival of Books on the University of Arizona mall. “The true story of a Japanese American family that found itself on opposite sides during World War II—an epic tale of family, separation, divided loyalties, love, reconciliation, loss, and redemption—this is a riveting chronicle of U.S.–Japan relations and the Japanese experience in America. After their father’s death, Harry, Frank, and Pierce Fukuhara—all born and raised in the Pacific Northwest—moved to Hiroshima, their mother’s ancestral home. Eager to go back to America, Harry returned in the late 1930s. Then came Pearl Harbor. Harry was sent to an internment camp until a call came for Japanese translators and he dutifully volunteered to serve his country. Back in Hiroshima, his brothers Frank and Pierce became soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army.”
Pamela Rotner Sakamoto
She will be on panel discussions on the WWII Japanese American Internment on March 11, 10 a.m, (Gallagher Theater in the UA Student Union ) and on Race Relations on March 12, 10 a.m., and WWII Internment & the Holocaust on March 12, 2:30 p.m. (UA Library, Special Collections)
See our Calendar for more details.
“Fluent in Japanese, Pamela Rotner Sakamoto lived in Kyoto and Tokyo for seventeen years. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Amherst College, she holds a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Sakamoto is an expert consultant on Japan-related projects for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and has taught in the University of Hawaii System. Currently, she teaches history at Punahou School in Honolulu. “Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds During World War II” is her first trade book.”
Also coming to Tucson Festival of Books are two authors writing specifically on the WWII Japanese American internment camps:
Richard Cahan, author of
Richard Cahan by Jason Marck
“Un-American: The Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II”,
Cahan is “a journalist who writes about photography, art, and history. He worked for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1983 to 1999, primarily serving as the paper’s picture editor. He left to found and direct CITY 2000, a project that documented Chicago in the year 2000. Since then, he has authored and co-authored more than a dozen books, including “Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows.”
and Richard Reeves, author of
Richard Reeves by Patricia Williams
“Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II”
Reeves is “Senior Lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, is an author and syndicated columnist whose column has appeared in more than 100 newspapers since 1979. He has received dozens of awards for his work in print, television and film. Reeves has published more than twenty books, translated into more than a dozen languages.”
Both authors will be on the March 11 WWII internment panel with Pamela Sakamoto at 10:00 a.m.
Reeves joins Sakamoto again on the March 12 panel at 2:30 p.m. on “Asking Why: WWII Internment and Holocaust”. See our Calendar for details.
