WASHINGTON, D.C. — Approximately 15,000 people gathered June 25 at the National Mall here for the first-ever Unity March, organized to draw attention to the dramatic spike in hate crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander Community. The enthusiastic young crowds gathered against the backdrop of the Capitol Building in the sweltering humidity of a […]
Archives for July 2022
Asian Americans call for multiracial solidarity at first-ever unity march
July 25, 2022 by Leave a Comment
More than miso soup
July 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment
JAPANESE SOUPS: 66 NOURISHING BROTHS, STEWS AND HOTPOTS By Keiko Iwasaki (North Clarendon, Vt.: Tuttle Publishing, 2021, 128 pp., $16.99, hard cover) When asked to name or identify a Japanese soup, you’ll probably think of miso, but can you think of many more? In her book, “Japanese Soups,” Keiko Iwasaki shares 66 different soups, all […]
‘Brilliant’ work relies on oral histories of JA hibakusha
July 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment
AMERICAN SURVIVORS: TRANS-PACIFIC MEMORIES OF HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI By Naoko Wake (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021, 408 pp., $29.95, hard cover) In 1974, Betty Mitson and I co-edited a modest and virtually self-published and crudely fabricated book titled “Voices Long Silent: An Oral Inquiry into the Japanese American Evacuation.” It was conceived and developed […]
Bento-making 101
July 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Ultimate Bento: Healthy, Delicious and Affordable 85 Mix-and-Match Bento Box Recipes By Marc Matsumoto and Maki Ogawa (North Clarendon, Vt: Tuttle Publishing, 2020, 168 pp., $19.99, hard cover) As a mother who currently has to make lunch five days a week for a child, I saw the cover of this book and was immediately ready […]
An extensive and accessible approach to Japanese food
July 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Japan: The Cookbook By Nancy Singleton Hachisu (London and New York: Phaidon, 2019, 464 pp., $49.95, hard cover) The first thing you will note about this cookbook is its sheer size. The recipes Nancy Singleton Hachisu has compiled through her time in Japan spans regions, time periods and occasions, and is extensive. This cookbook includes […]
Documenting activism as ‘a form of radical care and love’
July 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment
CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICAN ACTIVISM: BUILDING MOVEMENTS FOR LIBERATION Edited by Diane C. Fujino and Robyn Magalit Rodriguez (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2022, 336 pp., $30, paperback) “Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation” is an important anthology, the first of its kind, to examine contemporary Asian American activism that focuses on praxis through […]
The untold story of a South Dakota Nisei veteran
July 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment
A Place for Harvest: The Story of Kenny Higashi By Lauren R. Harris, illustrated by Felicia Hoshino (Pierre, S.D.: South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2022, 32 pp., $19.95, hard cover) Many of us are familiar with Executive Order 9066. More than 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast were forced to leave their […]
The sound of redemption
July 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment
THE PERFECT SOUND: A Memoir in Stereo By Garrett Hongo (New York: Pantheon Books, 2022, 544 pp., $30, hard cover) The poet, Garrett Hongo, recounts his life in “The Perfect Sound,” a lengthy, detailed and beautifully written tome that follows his journey as a barefoot boy born in Hawai‘i, to his tenured faculty position at […]
A ‘vibrant,’ non-linear approach to Asian America’s histories
July 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment
ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORIES OF THE UNITED STATES By Catherine Ceniza Choy (Boston: Beacon Press, 2022, 206 pp. $26.95, hard cover) In the mid-1990s, while teaching history classes at California State University, Fullerton, I was asked to join a professor from the Education Department in designing an academic minor curriculum for the university’s new Asian American […]
Interrogating the memoir of a resister
July 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment
BEYOND THE BETRAYAL: The Memoir of a World War II Japanese American Draft Resister of Conscience By Yoshito Kuromiya, edited by Arthur A. Hansen (Louisville, Colo.: University Press of Colorado, 2022, 234 pp. $34.95 hard cover) Be sure to read the Endnotes to Yosh Kuromiya’s new posthumous memoir. They’re half the fun of reading this […]
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