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Nisei Voices: Japanese American Students of the 1930s--Then & Now

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In the 1930s Paul T. Hirohata gathered copies of speeches given by forty-nine Nisei valedictorians and published them in a collection called Orations and Essays. Seventy years later, his granddaughter, Joyce Hirohata reviewed the book, this time from an adult perspective, and it "took over her imagination." By her calculations, Ms. Hirohata realized that many of the students would have been part of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and many, although elderly, would still be alive. She began to wonder what had become of them, and thus, her journey to create Nisei Voices: Japanese American Students of the 1930s-Then & Now began.

The result of Joyce Hirohata's ambitious project is a new edition of the book that was recently released. Although her family had not been part of the internment, the author is able to convey a deep sense of empathy toward the Japanese Americans who were among those placed in camps. More importantly, she captures both the reality and complexity of the experience. Some of the students expressed anger and disappointment; others admitted being too young to truly understand the implications of the experience. The range of candid responses included in the book simply underscores the significance of her work.

As she states in the Preface of Nisei Voices, Joyce Hirohata wants "this book to serve as a reminder to never repeat the racist times and hysteria that led to the expulsion and incarceration of people of Japanese heritage during World War II." Reflecting on her own experience of "reliving" this period of history with the Japanese Americans with whom she spoke, Ms. Hirohata comments, "I know that I didn't go through it in the way that they did, but in a funny way, I went through it in my own way." Readers will undoubtedly share that sentiment and feel a unique connection to the students featured in the book. Nisei Voices: Japanese American Students of the 1930s-Then & Now is a lasting tribute to the memory of the author's grandfather as well as a generation of Japanese Americans who overcame a period of profound injustice. Through this "labor of love," Joyce Hirohata has also become a noteworthy "voice" of her generation.

This is a wonderful book for educators, especially English teachers and those teaching either an Ethnic Lit course or a course specific to Asian American Lit. It provides a uniques historical perspective on the Japanese internment that is rarely seen in other books about the internment - the voices of young people contrasted with those same older voices. The research and dedication the author spent on this work shows not only in the quality of the book but also the depth of the scholarship. A wonderful resource book for teachers as well as a fine primary text for a high school or college class.

Joyce Hirohata does an excellent job with the book, Nisei Voices. This books is an expanded version of the original book published by her grandfather. If you have not read this book, you will learn a lot about Japanese-Americans.

NISEI VOICES accomplishes its goal of documenting the lives of Japanese American students during the 1930s and into the tragic period of Japanese internment. It manages to capture the attitudes, subjectivities, and identities that have been lost in fictitious and historiographical accounts of Japanese Americans during the early twentieth century. A valuable piece for Japanese American scholarship.