THE SHOWGIRL AND THE WRITER

Mueller offers a memoir in three parts chronicling her unusual childhood; her friendship with Mary Mon Toy, the titular showgirl; and her search for truth about the past.

When the U.S. government imprisoned people of Japanese heritage in internment camps in 1942, it tore families apart. Fifty-two years later, a remarkable friendship developed in which the camps’ legacy of trauma was still evident. In Part One of this remembrance, the author guides readers through her childhood as one of the few white children born in the internment camps. Her father, a conscientious objector, organized the prisoner-operated cooperative stores in California’s Tule Lake Camp, and her mother was a teacher there. The author writes that she later hid her past at the camp from others, just as she hid her mother’s Jewishness from antisemitic neighbors and her father’s political activism from those who might disapprove: “I’ve often wondered if my country’s failure to atone for the crime I was born into contributed to my creating my alternate persona,” she says. In Part Two, Mueller shifts the setting to New York City, where she met Mary Mon Toy, a charming Japanese American woman whose persona was as fictitious as the characters she played on Broadway. The two women’s lives intertwined, and Mueller supported Mon Toy through her final days; Mon Toy died in 2009 at the age of 93. In Part Three, Mueller uncovers the traumas that Mon Toy, whose given name was Mary Watanabe, suffered as an interred American citizen, and as an Asian American performer in America. Mueller presents readers with a frank investigation of the effects of internment on individuals and on American society; along the way, she effectively adds context and insights from a range of historical texts and academic papers, noting how repercussions have reverberated through time. She uncovers truths about herself, as well, exploring the similarities and differences of her and Mon Toy’s experiences. The book feels excessively detailed in places and somewhat longer than it needs to be. Still, it’s an insightful and worthwhile read.

An earnest personal reflection on the wide-ranging effects of World War II-era internment camps.