2008 Woodie Awards
Author and WWII Japanese
Ashley Kelleher
Issue date: 4/16/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
"I suppressed the memory of Manzanar, sometimes thinking it was a dream," said Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston as she spoke of her experiences in Manzanar and the writing of her memoir "Farewell to Manzanar," a book about the internment experience of many Japanese-American families during the time of World War II.
Both Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and her husband James Houston, also an author, co-authored this memoir and shared their experiences with the student body and staff of CSM.
Seated center stage along side each other, the couple shared the microphone in discussing with roughly 150 students and staff in the CSM theatre Tuesday, March 20. The couple spoke about the process they went through before and after the publishing of their highly acclaimed book.
Before even writing her memoir, Wakatsuki Houston had to come to terms with what happened to her and her family, something that took her 27 years to do. She spoke of the shame she felt about Manzanar stating that, "crimes of government can sometimes become sins in the hearts of its people." It was only after her nephew, then a college student, asked her how she felt about being in the internment camp did she truly become honest with herself about her experiences in Manzanar, an internment camp in California where Japanese and Japanese-Americans were held during World War II.
After telling her nephew that she would write a family memoir, she then told her husband after 14 years of marriage, of her life in Manzanar, something he knew nothing about.
He told her, "This is not a memoir for the family; this is a story for everyone in America," inevitably convincing her to publish a book about this time in her family's past.
But the road to publication did not prove to be an easy task, as they struggled to get it printed. The book was rejected four times, until it was finally published through a small San Francisco publishing company; the book is now in its sixty-
seventh printing.
Since then these two authors have written other books, and Wakatsuki Houston's stories have been included in many collections; while her husband has just finished his most recent book titled "Bird of Another Heaven," which will be printed in mid-April.
Both Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and her husband James Houston, also an author, co-authored this memoir and shared their experiences with the student body and staff of CSM.
Seated center stage along side each other, the couple shared the microphone in discussing with roughly 150 students and staff in the CSM theatre Tuesday, March 20. The couple spoke about the process they went through before and after the publishing of their highly acclaimed book.
Before even writing her memoir, Wakatsuki Houston had to come to terms with what happened to her and her family, something that took her 27 years to do. She spoke of the shame she felt about Manzanar stating that, "crimes of government can sometimes become sins in the hearts of its people." It was only after her nephew, then a college student, asked her how she felt about being in the internment camp did she truly become honest with herself about her experiences in Manzanar, an internment camp in California where Japanese and Japanese-Americans were held during World War II.
After telling her nephew that she would write a family memoir, she then told her husband after 14 years of marriage, of her life in Manzanar, something he knew nothing about.
He told her, "This is not a memoir for the family; this is a story for everyone in America," inevitably convincing her to publish a book about this time in her family's past.
But the road to publication did not prove to be an easy task, as they struggled to get it printed. The book was rejected four times, until it was finally published through a small San Francisco publishing company; the book is now in its sixty-
seventh printing.
Since then these two authors have written other books, and Wakatsuki Houston's stories have been included in many collections; while her husband has just finished his most recent book titled "Bird of Another Heaven," which will be printed in mid-April.
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