AMERICAN JAP GIRL

Okumoto offers a creative biography of his Japanese American mother, told through her first-person point of view and drawing on her journals.

In 1925, 3-year-old Tome, the fifth of nine children, was sent away by her parents from Pomona, California, to a farm in Gardena, where she was adopted by her aunt and uncle. After her adoptive father died, her adoptive mother married Kawakita, a man who was raised to become a samurai and embody the corresponding principles of Bushido. It was these principles—self-worth, discipline, and integrity chief among them—that Kawakita emphasized while raising her. In the midst of the Great Depression, as Tome was in bed, stricken by polio, Kawakita told her: “You must look beyond what you cannot see….These times are difficult, but you must go beyond what at first appears impossible.” As the years passed, Tome’s resilience was repeatedly tested. In 1942, the 19-year-old was imprisoned in the Gila River internment camp in Arizona, where she would marry and have her first two children. (The white soldiers and administrators called her “Jap girl,” a slur that recurs throughout the text.) After World War II, she raised her children amid poverty and racism. Still, she cultivated a hope for a future of “balanced humanity,” inspired by the civil rights leaders of the 1960s, and she instilled this hope in her son, this book’s author. Although she was tested by continuous trials, Tome carried the lessons of her adoptive father, and her ikigai—her concept of her unique purpose in life—guided her. Tome died in 2004, but she bequeathed her life story to her son, who’s effectively used her journals, notes, and memories of many conversations to weave a profound story in these pages. His portrayal of her resilience—known as her gaman in Japanese—will inspire readers to reflect upon their own lives: “There are no coincidences in life,” Okumoto recounts; “Just unrecognized patterns.” Overall, this touching and heartwarming story will engage many readers.

An inspirational work that weaves many accounts into an earnest account of tenacity.