There are some museums I just keep going back to - either for their new exhibits or because the permanent exhibit is so meaningful to me. The Japanese American National Museum (JANM) is both to me - and if you haven’t been there, I highly recommend it for an outing this summer. JANM is “dedicated to promoting greater understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the richness and range of the Japanese American experience.”

March is Women’s History Month! It started out as a week-long celebration in 1982 and grew to a whole week of honoring women in 1987, authorized by the U.S. Congress. Better late than never, in this month-long recognition of the significant impact women have made throughout U.S. history certainly, I want to recognize the many women who made history in the true story of The Kindness of Color.

Eighty years ago this month, on February 20, 1942, President F.D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. History would prove that there was never any spy activity by these US citizens and residents of Japanese heritage, but on that day, February 20, 1942, Executive Order raised suspicion and falsely accused my grandparents and dad because of their name and the color of their skin.

Published…what? I don’t know any publishers, agents, and would they even be interested in this story by a new author? Do I even qualify as a new author? Self publishing sounded way too complex to me. I was looking at a huge project, strategically with thousands of details and feeling very overwhelmed.