In August of 2023 my dear friend Nina Wolpe and I became published authors of our jointly written book, Two Faces, a story of two ten-year olds, one a white girl, the other a Japanese boy. It tells of two friends who encounter a world of hurt following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese naval forces. The girl stands up for and defends her friend as he deals with racial prejudice. When his family is forcibly evacuated to a concentration camp in Colorado because they look like the enemy, they stay in touch through letters written back and forth. Their families undergo very different life experiences, but they learn from each other’s struggles and their relationship deepens for it.
Festive groups of Obon dancers and Taiko drummers entertained from the main stage in the afternoon and early evening and fairgoers sampled tasty Japanese and Indian dishes served from booths circling the hall. There was a steady flow of attendees throughout festival and at the Two Faces booth all day.
Very large local crowds turned out for the 39th annual Eugene Asian Celebration today at Alton Baker Park. It was a sunny temperate 83 degrees with a gentle wind on occasion. The day was long but was eased by a supportive family who helped booth-sit, and a visit by my four favorite grandchildren who livened conversations for us all.
Earliest celebration goers started arriving as early as 10:00 and grew to a steady flow of fair goers throughout the day.
The atmosphere was festive, and with a gaggle of food vendors of the Asian mood ready and present to serve delightful delicacies, and a bank of Port-a-Potties ready and waiting, all was set for the celebration of all things Asian here in Eugene.
My booth, titled Two Faces: The Book, was one of 72 booths of a multitude of sellers and hawkers of a host of things Asian. Our neighbor on one side was a seller of all things “Hello Kitty,” a magnet for children fair-goers, and across the way was an organization teaching English as a second language.
My day was spent mainly talking about our book, about the friendship of a ten-year-old white girl and a ten-year-old Japanese boy whose lives were disrupted by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Our story relates the turmoil Nina’s family undergoes as her father joins the Army Air Corps and is stationed in England during the war. It illustrates the disruption visited upon thousands of American families as the father goes off to war, with Nina and her mother having to move in with her grandparents.
My part of the story elaborates the tragedy of my family’s forced removal from our home and incarceration in a concentration camp in Colorado because we happen to look like the enemy.
My time throughout the day was spent in sharing the story of Two Faces and answering questions and listening as individuals shared about their families that had been interned, or friends who had, and one who had lost a friend who one day just disappeared and was never seen again.
One highlight encounter was with a young man of perhaps 19 years of age, possibly early 20s, who was excited about remembering me from a presentation I made to his third-grade class at Meadow View Elementary School about my family’s evacuation and incarceration in a concentration camp in Colorado. He described himself as a fidgety kid at the time, but my talk totally fascinated him, and he remembers it vividly. He even brought up a selfie photo of himself, another student, and me he had on his cell phone taken that day. He was truly excited that he remembered me and left floating on air. He returned shortly after, still in an ecstatic state and asked if he could take another selfie with me, and I obliged him. Really, this was the highlight encounter that left me teary-eyed and very moved.
A second memorable contact was with a teacher from Medford with a deep interest in history. He was excited with the subject of Two Faces and enthused with possibilities of incorporating our story in his classroom. We are in discussion over the possibility of my visit to share my story with his students.
As for how the day went, I had no experiences to gauge how to think of the day except book signings with limited audiences. Today was an extended day with crowds in the thousands, and not a situated audience but people passing by like ships in the night. Only if my book display, the posters shouting out our book, and a banner across the front of our canopy announcing Two Faces happened to capture the eye of an interested passerby, was there an opportunity to talk. As it turned out, the day went very well. I had a supply of 35 soft cover books and 20 hard covers to sell. Sales went slowly but steadily through the day and several hours before the scheduled closing time of 9:00 I sold the last soft cover book. We closed shop an hour earlier than the closing time and celebrated a fun-filled very successful Asian Celebration.
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) is a non-university, non-credit, non-degree continuing education program intended for local citizens aged 50 and older. It is a program that partners with educational institutions in an agreement with the Bernard Osher Foundation funded through grants and membership fees.
On December 5th of Pearl Harbor week, I visited Letitia Carson Elementary School in Corvallis, Oregon and shared a book reading with the fourth and fifth grade classes around the book Two Faces co-written by my dear friend Nina Wolpe and me.
Today’s book reading for Two Faces jointly co-authored by my friend Nina Wolpe and me was organized by University of Oregon librarian David de Lorenzo. David was one of a dozen individuals we asked to read the advance reader copy of the book and provide us with their impressions. David gave us an excellent blurb which we used in the “In Praise of” section in the first pages of our book.
Last night I stood before a group of some thirty residents here at Cascade Manor for a book reading of the book I co-authored with a dear friend. Here at the Manor, we had just come off a period of vigilance after an outbreak of COVID among residents and staff, and mask wearing was encouraged but not required.
After ten years of endless work and countless re-writes, I’m delighted to announce that Two Faces is now a published novel. Based on my own and a lifelong friend’s true experiences during
World War II, we principally began our book as a memoir for young adults. Using artistic license to age ourselves from the four-year-olds we actually were at the story’s onset, my co-author, Nina Wolpe, and I have recaptured our real-to-life experiences set in the voices of two ten-year-olds.
Today I made a second annual visit to the third grade class of a dear friend in Corvallis, Christine Gough. The visit was to share my story of my family’s forced evacuation and internment in a concentration camp in Colorado during WWII. Christine and I know each other from a relationship that began 20 years ago at Marin Elementary School in Albany, California. I had previously been visiting the 4th grade class each year for some ten years of my friend, Diane Lohman that I knew from when I was at U.C. Berkeley in the late 50s. Diane started this sharing of my story by inviting me to meet with her 4th graders as a part of a curriculum unit on WWII she developed specifically about the evacuation and internment of Japanese from the West Coast.
Journeys of a Bent Mind 