Daughter of Moloka'i
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Anti-Japanese prejudice in California is examined in Chris Sager’s thesis “American Nativists and Their Confrontation with Japanese Labor and Education in California 1900–1930” (University of North Carolina Wilmington) as well as in Oriental Exclusion by R. D. McKenzie; The Japanese American Problem and Japanese in California by Sidney L. Gulick; and Prejudice: Japanese Americans: Symbol of Racial Intolerance by Carey McWilliams. General reference about the internment includes Born Free and Equal by Wynne Benti; Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment edited by Linda Gordon and Gary Y. Okihiro; America Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II by Eric L. Muller; Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps by Michi Weglyn; And Justice for All: An Oral History of the Japanese American Detention Camps by John Tateishi; Keeper of Concentration Camps by Richard Drinnon; Personal Justice Denied, Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians; and Unlikely Liberators: The Men of the 100th and 442nd by Masayo Umezawa Duus.
Densho.org was an invaluable resource, particularly its interviews with those who experienced the internment firsthand, and I feel it’s important to acknowledge their voices: Tokio Yamane (who suffered a brutal beating at the hands of security guards at Tule Lake in Chapter 12), Tamiko Honda, Norman I. Hirose, Grace F. Oshita, Fred Korematsu, Carol Hironaka, Mas Akiyma, Misako Shigekawa, Akiko Kurose, Bob Utsumi, Toru Saito, Jun Dairiki, Taneyuki Dan Harada, Doris Nitta, Hank Shozo Umemoto, and Kaz T. Tanemura.
My thanks to Julie Thomas, Special Collections and Manuscripts Librarian at California State University Sacramento, who provided maps of prewar Florin and helped me navigate the Florin Japanese American Citizens League’s Oral History Project, which provided rich detail on the lives of the people of Florin prewar, during internment, and postwar. These voices included Margaret Hatsuko Ogata; Alfred and Mary Tsukamoto; Jerry and Dorothy Enomoto; Myrna, Myrtle, and Teri Tanaka; Masatoshi Abe; Chizu and Ernest Satoshi Iiyama; Hideo Kadokawa; William Matsumoto; George Miyao; Fudeyo Sekikawa; Onatsu Akiyama; Aya Motoike; Florence Taeko Shiromizu; Eiko Sakamoto; Isao Fujimoto; Toshio Hamataka; Robert and Teresa Fletcher; Donald Larson; and Vivian Kara.
Mary Tsukamoto, mentioned above, has played an even larger role in documenting the history of Florin’s Japanese. She is the coauthor with Elizabeth Pinkerton of We the People: A Story of Internment in America and author of an autobiographical narrative in Dignity: Lower Income Women Tell of Their Lives and Struggles compiled by Fran Leeper Buss. Together they provide a vivid portrait of growing up on a strawberry farm in Florin, evacuation, internment, and return to Florin. I highly recommend both to any interested readers, and to the late Mrs. Tsukamoto I offer my kansha—my gratitude and appreciation—for her work.
Other useful sources were Japanese Legacy by Timothy J. Lukes and Gary Y. Okihiro; Changing Dreams and Treasured Memories: A Story of Japanese Americans in the Sacramento Region by Wayne Maeda; “Florin Is Naturally Adapted to Strawberry Culture” (Sacramento Union, January 9, 1909); “Japan in California” by Peter Clark Macfarlane (Collier’s, June 6, 1913); New World-Sun Year Book 1939; “The Strawberry Fields of Florin … Remember?” by Elizabeth Pinkerton (Sacramento Union, May 28, 1978); “A Brief History of the Florin Area” by Dave Reingold (Focus Florin, October 1997); “New Vision for Florin” by Bill Lindelof (Sacramento Bee, February 13, 2002); and “Florin Links to Farms Lingers” by Art German (Sacramento Bee, July 18, 2002).
My thanks to Amanda G. DeWilde of the Sacramento Room at the Sacramento Public Library and to Barbara Reiswig at the Elk Grove High School Library for allowing me access to the 1933 school yearbook, The Elk. Erin Herzog of the San Jose Public Library located Sanborn Insurance Maps of the city for 1948 and recommended books, including San Jose Japantown: A Journey by Curt Fukuda and Ralph M. Pearce, which informed my walking tour of the city’s nihonmachi, one of only a handful still extant.
For details of life at Kapi'olani Home and other Catholic institutions: Janine M. Richardson’s “‘None of Them Came for Me’: The Kapi'olani Home for Girls, 1885–1938” (Hawaiian Journal of History, Vol. 42, 2008) and her dissertation, “Keiki o Ka 'Aina: Institutional Care for Hawai'i’s Dependent Children, 1865–1938” (University of Hawai'i); Hazel Myoko Ikenega’s thesis, “A Study of the Care of Children Under the Jurisdiction of the Territorial Board of Hospitals and Settlement” (University of Hawai'i); “Corridors: Memories of a Catholic Convent” by Madrienne C. McDonough (Historical New Hampshire, Fall 1978); and Mercy With Love by Francis X. Markley.
Melissa Shimonishi at the Hawai'i State Archives assisted me with maps of the Kalihi Valley in the 1900s and Territorial Board of Health correspondence pertaining to Kapi'olani Home.
Viola Yee of the Maui Historical Society gave me access to maps and photographs of Lahaina and Kā'anapali in the 1950s and 1960s.
Particularly valuable for the Hawai'i-set chapters were “Rick Carroll Travels to the Remote Maui Village of Kahakuloa” by Rick Carroll (mauitime.com, July 4, 2013), The Japanese in Hawai'i by Okage Sama De, The Heart of Being Hawaiian by Sally-Jo Keala-o-Ānuenue Bowman, and On Being Hawaiian by John Dominis Holt.
Details about the lives of real people used in this story were confirmed through Ancestry.com, surely the greatest boon to historical novelists ever.
For other research assistance I am grateful to Jack Pearce, Carol Comparsi, Nora Steinbergs, and my wife, Paulette Claus, as always my “in-house editor.” Special thanks to my indefatigable agent, Molly Friedrich, who suggested that I tell Ruth’s story and who held fast to her faith in that story; and to my wonderful editors, Hope Dellon and Elisabeth Dyssegaard, for the insight, diligence, and editorial acumen that has made this a better book.
I encourage readers interested in Manzanar or Moloka'i to take the time to visit. The Manzanar National Historic Site, nestled at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, is a place of beauty and heartbreak as well as a living museum in which much more can be learned about the internment and the people who lived through it; see the website at https://www.nps.gov/manz/index.htm. The island of Moloka'i is a lovely, often-overlooked corner of Hawai'i, especially for travelers who appreciate a more natural and less touristy environment. Kalaupapa is also a place of both beauty and heartbreak, accessible only via guided tours, but I highly recommend the experience. Visit Damien Tours online at http://www.damientoursllc.com/tour-info.html.
Author’s photo by David Wells taken, with kind permission, at the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden at California State University, Long Beach.
ALSO BY ALAN BRENNERT
Moloka'i
Honolulu
Palisades Park
About the Author
ALAN BRENNERT is the author of Honolulu, Palisades Park, and Moloka'i, which was a 2006–2007 BookSense Reading Group Pick. He won the 2006 Bookies Award, sponsored by the Contra Costa Library, for the Book Club Book of the Year, and was a 2012 One Book, One San Diego Selection. He won an Emmy Awardzz for his work as a writer-producer on the television series L.A. Law. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Map
Part One: Hapa
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Part Two: Gaman
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 13
Part Three: 'Ohana
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Also by Alan Brennert
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DAUGHTER OF MOLOKA'I. Copyright © 2019 by Alan Brennert. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Danielle Fiorella
Cover photographs: woman © Debra McClinton/Getty Images; flowers © PornphimonWongsirisup/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Brennert, Alan, author.
Title: Daughter of Moloka'i / Alan Brennert.
Description: First edition.|New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018029158|ISBN 9781250137661 (hardcover)|ISBN 9781250233097 (International, sold outside the U.S., subject to rights availability)|ISBN 9781250137685 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PS3552.R3865 D38 2019|DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018029158
eISBN 9781250137685
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First U.S. Edition: February 2019
First International Edition: February 2019