Updated at 2:02 p.m., Tuesday, November 20, 2007
WWII memoir by Hawaii issei released in English
Advertiser Staff
Yasutaro Soga was a 68-year old newspaper editor when he was detained 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 Keisatus," in 1948.Now the first English-language translation of the book, "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 Dec. 1.
Over the years, many would talk and write about their internment experiences, but Soga's view was unusual in the fact 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.)
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 nonmembers.
Information: 945-7633, e-mail info@jcch.com or go to www.jcch.com.
