BOOKMARK
Images tell story of AJA neighborhood

By Wanda Adams
Advertiser Books Editor

Generations: A Japanese American Community Portrait; oversize, hardbound, $45

This limited-edition collection takes a Life magazine approach to the history of San Francisco's beloved Nihonmachi ("Japantown"): Photos and brief copy blocks begin with a 1919 community picnic and end with the renovation of a neighborhood torn apart by forced internments during World War II and later by condemnation of many landmarks in the 1960s.

The profiles of individuals, families and businesses that emerge will be of interest to Hawai'i readers for the similarities and differences between the experiences of four generations of Japanese Americans here and in the Bay Area.

The book is well-designed, and like the Life magazine of old, invites you to return to the photos, noticing new details, wondering about the lives of those in the pictures.

The book is being distributed in Hawai'i by Watermark Publishing and will reach stores this week. It's also available online from the Japanese American National Museum store: www.janmstore.com.