japanese american women

"A . . . biography of Michi Weglyn, the Japanese American fashion designer whose activism fueled a movement for recognition of and reparations for America's World War II concentration camps. The daughter of Japanese immigrants, Michi Nishiura Weglyn was confined in Arizona's Gila River concentration camp during World War II. She later became a costume designer for Broadway and worked as the wardrobe designer for some of the most popular television personalities of the '50s and early '60s. In 1968, after a televised statement by the US Attorney General that concentration camps in America never existed, Michi embarked on an eight-year solo quest through libraries and the National Archives to expose and account for the existence of the World War II camps where she and other Japanese Americans were imprisoned. Her research became a major catalyst for passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, in which the US government admitted that its treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II was wrong"--Provided by publisher.

"Introduces the first Asian American woman elected to Congress, who championed rights for women, children, immigrants and minorities, paving the way for many other women to succeed"--OCLC.

A champion of equal rights who helped create a better future for all Americans, this biography of the first Asian American woman elected to Congress showed how she carved her own path to become a historic trailblazer.

"A . . . candid memoir about a young woman's journey to understanding her complicated parents--her father a Vietnam veteran, her mother an Okinawan war bride--and her own, fraught cultural heritage. Elizabeth's mother was working as a nightclub hostess on U.S.-occupied Okinawa when she met the American soldier who would become her husband. The language barrier and power imbalance that defined their early relationship followed them to the predominantly white, upstate New York suburb where they moved to raise their only daughter. There, Elizabeth grew up with the trappings of a typical American childhood and adolescence. Yet, even though she felt almost no connection to her mother's distant home, she also felt out of place among her peers. Decades later, Elizabeth comes to recognize the shame and self-loathing that haunt both her and her mother, and attempts a form of reconciliation, not only to come to terms with the embattled dynamics of her family but also to reckon with the injustices that reverberate throughout the history of Okinawa and its people"--Provided by publisher.

The author shares her experiences as a child when her family was relocated along with other Japanese American citizens during World War II and held for the duration of the war at the Amache (or Granada) internment camp in Colorado.

"In 1938, Ruby, Helen and Grace, three girls from very different backgrounds, find themselves competing at the same audition for showgirl roles at San Francisco's exclusive "Oriental" nightclub, the Forbidden City. Grace, an American-born Chinese girl, has fled the Midwest and an abusive father. Helen is from a Chinese family who have deep roots in San Francisco's Chinatown. And, as both her friends know, Ruby is Japanese passing as Chinese. At times their differences are pronounced, but the girls grow to depend on one another in order to fulfill their individual dreams. Then, everything changes in a heartbeat with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly the government is sending innocent Japanese to internment camps under suspicion, and Ruby is one of them. But which of her friends betrayed her?"--Provided by publisher.

Kyoko Mori takes you on a journey through her native Japan, from which she fled as a teenager, and then returned in 1990. She gives a personal journey of discovery that is also an exploration of national differences.