Stuff contributed by wasabipress

An Interview with Lament in the Night translator Andrew Leong
Patricia Wakida
Last week, Patricia Wakida wrote a profile on translator Andrew Leong on his upcoming book, Lament in the Night, a collection of two novellas by previously forgotten Issei writer, Nagahara Shoson. She also had an opportunity to join Kaya Press staff to interview Andrew about the project. Here is an …

Lament in the Night, translated by Andrew Leong
Patricia Wakida
The Tale of Osato is an astonishing fable of pre-war Los Angeles, whose protagonist is a determined young Issei who works herself to the point of collapse every night in a Little Tokyo restaurant to support herself and her infant son. In a particularly harrowing passage, Osato places her son …

And the Soul Shall Dance
Patricia Wakida
About a year ago, my mother called to tell me that my grandmother had stopped eating. It was expected that she would deteriorate rapidly in the coming weeks, maybe days. Come home, she said, it was time to say goodbye.

Akira Horiuchi: A Reluctant Hero's Journey to the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony - Part 2
Patricia Wakida
Read Part 1 >>Akira Horiuchi was born and raised in Southern California. In the pre-war years, his father ran a small fruit stand on the Westside of town, and then picked up work as a truck driver hauling vegetables from farmers to the produce market on 9th street.

Akira Horiuchi: A Reluctant Hero's Journey to the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony - Part 1
Patricia Wakida
To be drafted by the Government, to serve your country in time of war under such conditions that existed at that time, incarceration of all persons from the west coast with the wrong color face by abrogating all constitutional rights, racist discrimination wherever you went…left me quite apprehensive about my …

Animal Menagerie
Patricia Wakida
Susan S. has an annual tradition that she’s followed for over thirty-six years, animal by animal. Having been lucky enough to have spent the past twenty years as an archivist at a world-class library where she gets to roam its stacks, attics, and moats at will, she is a great …

Fate and the Downtown Fresno Betsuin Temple
Patricia Wakida
When I was nine years old, the Sunday ritual was to drive the five miles or so from our home in Tarpey Village in Clovis until we were out where long dirt driveways led to vineyards and farmer homes, where a single oak tree shaded a tiny, unmarked bungalow. Steel …

In Search of Shigeyoshi Murao
Patricia Wakida
“Imagine being arrested for selling poetry!” So were the astonished words of Shigeyoshi Murao, the legendary manager for over two decades of City Lights Bookstore, literary haven for bookworms worldwide. But in the summer of 1957, the Japanese American book clerk, affectionately known as “Shig” by everyone in the neighborhood, …

Nikkei Heritage
Yoshiko Wada
Patricia Wakida
“When my two sisters and I were younger, we lived in my maternal grandparents’ home in Tokyo....In those summer months, we could hardly wait to finish supper so that we could put on our yukata and run outdoors to participate in the folk dance practice sessions for the Obon Odori …