Yasutaro Soga was a 68-year-old newspaper editor when he was arrested after the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941; he would spend the next four years in internment camps and publish a Japanese-language memoir, "Tessaku Seikatsu," in 1948.

Now the first English-language translation of the book, "Life Behind Barbed Wire: The World War II Internment Memoirs of a Hawai'i Issei," is being released by University of Hawai'i Press at a special commemoration at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i, 10:30 a.m. to noon today.

Over the years, many would talk and write about their internment experiences, but Soga's view was unusual in that he was a trained observer (editor of Nippu Jiji, a widely read Japanese-language daily) and that he was a first-generation immigrant. (Most of the voices on this subject have been those of Nisei, second-generation Japanese.)

"Little is written about the internment of Japanese in Hawai'i, and this book greatly adds to that small body of work," said Brian Niiya, the cultural center's resource director, in a press release. "Perhaps more significantly, this account from a distinctly Issei perspective provides a vivid contrast to the many existing Nisei-centered accounts. Soga's book will no doubt challenge many of our beliefs and assumptions about the inner life of the interned Japanese Americans."

This first English-language edition also includes a new introduction by Tetsuden Kashima of the University of Washington, and foreword by Dennis Ogawa of the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

The book was translated by cultural center volunteer Kihei Hirai and others from the organization. Admission to the event is free; the book is $21 for center members, $25 for nonmembers.

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.