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3 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories Emergency Services, March 22 Glitch sends false notice to crime victims, triggers probe Cave Junction animal hoarder at it again Public meetings, March 23-27, 2015 21 people fined $260 each in Medford police pedestrian safety operation Crime, Courts and Emergency Services Emergency Services, March 22 21 people fined $260 each in Medford police pedestrian safety operation Emergency Services, March 21 Talent father faces assault charges in alleged whipping Firefighters stop Gold Hill shed fire before it spreads Politics and Elections Arthur I. Cyr: Iran – a crisis without end Arthur I. Cyr: South Korea represents long-term triumph – for them and for US Special election: Jackson County voters OK marijuana tax Ex-Merkley aide chosen as Oregon secretary of state Ashland: Budget increase, swimming pool funding discussion on council agenda Education Oregon school officials blasting new education budget Eight vie for Medford School Board positions Proposed Medford textbook raises constitutional concern North Medford High School principal to retire in June Southern Oregon University's building boom adds up to $130 million Environment Mt. Ashland Ski Area to host party March 28 Controversial asphalt plant in Talent wins county planning approval Mt. Ashland hopes coming storm will reopen ski area Odd visitors found off Oregon Coast Forum explores data gathered in Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument State News Dave Frohnmayer remembered at Eugene memorial Oregon school officials blasting new education budget Bend company's aim: Connect investors to Africa Brown proposes $1 billion in California drought spending Are they decorations or desecration? Nation - World Obituaries Cornelius John Meany Lewis Mark Applebaker Death Notices David Braden Frohnmayer Ray Houck Weather Photo Galleries Since You Asked Videos Web Cams Mail Tribune 100 Shareable Bank of America is predicting a massive Tesla collapse Sports Latest Stories Green Machine Tago nets game-winner, MVP for Siskiyous Stenson surges into Bay Hill lead Djokovic, Federer advance to Indian Wells final Why should the Cowboys take the high road? Varsity 541 College Sports ROUND TWO Rasmussen tosses Beavers' first perfect game Corban takes two from Raiders No. 8 Ducks advance with victory Wiese, OSU top South Dakota State Pro Sports Stenson surges into Bay Hill lead Djokovic, Federer advance to Indian Wells final Why should the Cowboys take the high road? Payton lifts Magic over Blazers Hoffmann goes on birdie run at Bay Hill Community Sports Business Latest Stories Blog: Three Cheers for Today! Test Drive: 2015 Subaru Outback Limited Silvio Calabi: 2015 Cherokee is a modern Jeep Oregon winemaking emerges as mighty agricultural force Rogue Disposal plans natural gas fueling site Real Estate News East McAndrews Road sees a resurgence in commercial projects Business briefs: March 7 New construction prices jump 18.2 percent in Jackson County People In Business People in Business: Feb. 28 People in Business Transportation Rogue Disposal plans natural gas fueling site Alaska, United Express boost Medford airport to record February CEO Rieder leaving Erickson March 31 Lodging gains bode well for travel industries Agriculture Harry & David announces new president Warm winter has fruit growers poised for action Briefcase: Business briefs for Feb. 21 Opinion Latest Letters to the Editor, March 21 Other Views: Dave Frohnmayer was a man of honor Matthew T. Mangino: When is a confession not a confession? Our View: Textbook authors' reasoning hard to fathom Letters to the Editor, March 20 Editorials Other Views: Dave Frohnmayer was a man of honor Our View: Textbook authors' reasoning hard to fathom Our View: White House public records move is less than sunny Our View: Where the wild things shouldn't be Our View: Keeping the light trained on government Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor, March 21 Letters to the Editor, March 20 Letters to the Editor, March 19 Letters to the Editor, March 18 Letters to the Editor, March 17 Columns Matthew T. Mangino: When is a confession not a confession? Michael Gerson: Hillary Clinton's Nixonian path to office Arthur I. Cyr: Iran – a crisis without end Dana Milbank: GOP budget is one big gimmick George Will: Kasich waits in the wings Guest Opinions Guest Opinion: Central Point Cemetery needs work and city action Guest Opinion: Return to clearcutting is wrong approach for counties Guest Opinion: Plan a Hawthorne playground for all children Guest Opinion: There is nothing uniform about the Uniform Crime Report GUEST OPINION: Police, community should work to prevent profiling Lifestyle Latest stories Barbara Presnell: Why poetry? And why do it now? Get Out! March 20 calendar of things to do Looking Up: Looking for the zodiacal light Ocean salmon look plentiful off the Southern Oregon coast this year, but next year's a different story Wood bison to roam Alaska again Food Eat this, not that Peanut allergy breakthrough Eat your sprouts More fast food perils Pork perfection: Consider pork steaks instead of ham for the Easter dinner table Home and Garden Hello, honey: Invite bees for a lush garden Understand home inspection Dear Monty: Tips for checking out an existing septic system Garden Cameos: Now is the perfect time to spot wildflowers Paul Rogers: It’s time to assess the damage to yards Health Health Watch: 5 tips for seasonal allergy relief A better bedtime Studying stress Eat this, not that Peanut allergy breakthrough Hiking Biking Faith Religion briefs Religion News: Presbyterian Church gives approval on same-sex marriage Religion briefs: Friday, March 13 More religion events in the Rogue Valley Religion Briefs Milestones and Achievements Haga-Parks Exercise helps special-needs kids adjust to airport procedures Engagement: Workman-Wright Anniversary: Hofer Columnist for a Day Rogue Healthy Aging Tempo Latest stories Here's five top entertainment picks for the coming week Alt-rock band Key of Three is a contender this weekend at Rising Stars Improv rock and folk band hosts a dance party at the Ashland Community Center Andrew Lloyd Webber's lush musical 'Sunset Boulevard' opens at Camelot Theatre in Talent Review: 'Same Time' after all these years Theater Camelot's 'Sunset Boulevard' ambitious, not as dark Andrew Lloyd Webber's lush musical 'Sunset Boulevard' opens at Camelot Theatre in Talent Review: Thanks for the Memories pulls off challenging 'Anastasia' Review: 'Same Time' after all these years Randall Theatre presents playwright Bernard Slade's comedy Music Live Music in Local Clubs Alt-rock band Key of Three is a contender this weekend at Rising Stars Improv rock and folk band hosts a dance party at the Ashland Community Center Kites & Crows, Ryan Marchand and Mercy Duo face-off this weekend at Rising Stars music competition in Jacksonville Rogue Valley Chorale presents 'A Festival of Choirs' at the Craterian Theatre Community Events Rogue Valley artist Linda Evans' pastel paintings capture landscapes of Southern Oregon Ashland Independent Film Festival announces this year's lineup OSF Hip-Hop Poetry Open Mic Ashland's First Friday Art Walk showcases new exhibits by regional artists Jesse Lawson and Joe Moxley host 'Barkeeper' Dining Jasmine Thai Cuisine Restaurant Inspections Agave offers gourmet tacos, tamales, ensaladas and more Serra storms Seattle Sakura Japanese Sushi Restaurant opens in new location Tempo Videos Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » Obits Blogs TV Listings Movie Listings Oregon Outdoors Oregon Healthy Living Magazines/Special Sections Business Services NEWS NOW Glitch sends false notice to crime victims, triggers probe ... Cave Junction animal hoarder at it again ... Camelot's 'Sunset Boulevard' ambitious, not as dark ... Glitch sends false notice to crime victims, triggers probe ... Cave Junction animal hoarder at it again ... Camelot's 'Sunset Boulevard' ambitious, not as dark ... SOU teacher's book delves into Japanese-Americans' lives during and after World War II By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Mar. 20, 2015 @ 4:39 pm By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Mar. 20, 2015 @ 4:39 pm » Social News p bs:newslist StartDate="20121121" EndDate="p bs:datecalc Months="3"" DateSort="1" UseObjects="1" ObjectClass="81" Taxonomywords="2325,665" ExactTaxonomyMatch="1" Image="1" Count="4" --> Los Angeles, 1942. A teenage girl returns home from school one day to find her mother screaming at her father. "Pack your suitcase," the mother says. "We all have to leave." Soon they’re dragging their bags down a dirt path alongside other families, trailed by the yelping of dogs left to fend for themselves. They board a bus bound for Poston, Ariz., and as it begins to pull away the girl looks out the window. “The image of a boy waving, almost mechanically, as the buses depart stays in the girl’s mind as the stagnant landscape of Brawley and the Imperial Valley fades into the distance under a black night time curtain.” That nightmare scenario and what followed — life in a Japanese-American internment camp — is the focus of Precious Yamaguchi’s first book, “Experiences of Japanese American Women During and After World War II — Living in Internment Camps and Rebuilding Life Afterwards,” a 114-page work of nonfiction that can be purchased at Amazon.com and rowman.com ($75 hardback, $74.99 e-book). Yamaguchi, a Southern Oregon University assistant professor of communications, wrote a version of the book as her dissertation at Bowling Green State University then re-tooled it for public consumption, cutting redundant accounts and improving the narrative flow. For Yamaguchi, 34, it was both a requirement for her doctorate and a labor of love. The teenage girl she describes in the opening pages is Toshi Tabata, Yamaguchi’s grandmother. The black-and-white cover photo shows Tabata standing next to her daughter, Patricia Yamaguchi. And on Patricia Yamaguchi’s right hip, wearing a white dress with her hair done up in pigtails, is 1-year-old Precious Yamaguchi. “I’ve always been interested in it from when I was a child but when I entered into my doctorate program I felt that if I didn’t research this very important subject that I would be doing an injustice as a researcher,” Precious Yamaguchi said, adding her book delves into not just the internment camps, but also how the Japanese-Americans were able to rebuild their lives afterward. Though personally connected, Yamaguchi didn’t know what life in an internment camp was really like nor did she understand the obstacles her grandparents faced post-camp until after she rounded up 16 subjects and started asking questions. What she discovered was both jarring and inspirational. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, authorized the forced relocation from the West Coast of all people with Japanese ancestry. Most of the estimated 120,000 people affected by the order moved during spring 1942. In a mass exodus, Yamaguchi writes, they “were forced to leave their homes, businesses, and all their belongings except for one suitcase or what they could carry, and were placed in barbed-wire camps patrolled by armed police.” The War Relocation Authority closed the camps two years later on June 30, 1945, but with no homes or jobs to go back to, most of the Japanese-Americans who were finally set free struggled for years to carve out a meager existence. Those struggles and the resiliency required to overcome them became a prominent theme in Yamaguchi’s book, which took roughly eight years to complete from the time she began researching to its printing in January. Using a digital voice recorder, Yamaguchi, who started teaching at SOU seven months ago, conducted each of the interviews in person. Talking to her subjects face-to-face, she said, was necessary in order to gain trust and reach a certain comfort level with the interviewees. “Most of the time I came into their homes and it was a very good experience,” she said. “Many of them had pictures, documents, journals, and sometimes they would share that with me.” Many of her subjects were reluctant to open up initially, but in time most of Yamaguchi’s questions were answered. Sometimes, it took some persuading. “The Japanese culture is very much modest and humble,” she said, “so they would say, ‘My life is so boring, I don’t think you want to hear about it.’ I would say, ‘No, I just want to listen.’ So I’d ask about their childhood and then they’d tell me a really interesting story about their life in an internment camp. Some of them had miscarriages while in the camps, and all of them had really interesting stories to tell. They were just young girls themselves who had no idea how to take care of a family or cook or anything.” But they had to learn, quickly. The stories of how they accomplished that against a tide of anti-Japanese sentiment were transcribed over the course of several months, a process that was exhausting for Yamaguchi both physically and emotionally. Her grandmother died while Yamaguchi was in the throes of that transcribing and, following a break to recover, she revisited the pain of that loss with every press of the recorder's “play” button. Yamaguchi is pleased with how the book turned out, but was most encouraged by some of the reactions to the stories inside. Some of the children of her subjects were introduced for the first time to their parents’ suffering, and their responses provided Yamaguchi with a resounding confirmation. “A lot of the children, they had never heard the stories and didn’t know how much their parents had struggled and all the things they had accomplished,” she said. “Some of them said that they had never thought of their parents as accomplishing much because they weren’t famous or wealthy. But they said when they think about it now they’re like, ‘Wow, they had nothing at all and were able to rebuild their lives.’” Joe Zavala can be reached at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Joe Zavala for the Mail Tribune Posted Mar. 20, 2015 @ 4:39 pm » Comment or view comments /* $( document ).ready(function() { // Jquery mobile is trying to style the button and leaving a blank gry button on top of a white button $("#viafouracoms .vf-comment-controls li.vf-right").html(' Submit '); });*/ » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with MailTribune.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services Home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Announcements Obituaries Story ideas Since you asked Alerts Email Alerts RSS Feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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