There was so much to unpack that I recount my experience over three blog posts! Be sure to go read part 1, enjoy part 2 here, and then part 3 to learn about my whole experience.

There was so much to unpack that I recount my experience over three blog posts! Be sure to go read part 1 and 2 to learn about my whole experience before reading part 3!

So much good has happened. And there’s still more to come! Here’s what’s coming up!

Well, maybe it was actually to get it written and published so Sylvia Mendez and I could have the long-told verbal story, written and in our hands! Now that it's been a year since it was available on Amazon, my unofficial book launch date, it’s a good time for me to reflect on The Kindness of Color - Year 1! Here are a few things I have learned.

This year, I got to meet two men who lived on those farms back in the 1920s. What amazing stories they had to tell about growing up in what they called “chosen area, sort of a gold coast” as children on the farms. Both remember coming to the area in 1927-28, just as the road, now known as PCH, was taking shape. 

Through sharing to many different audiences about “The Kindness of Color” this year, I’ve learned about some great resources re: the Japanese American incarceration and combating racism for educators, as well as all of us, life-long learners of all ages! There’s always more to learn! Here are some resources that I hope might help you this school year!

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.”

I was invited to Fountain Valley High School's Day of Dialogue, a day focussed on conversations about diversity and inclusion on the campus. I was invited to speak to 6 classes on The Kindness of Color and how collaboration can bring positive change for all. I expected that I would be talking to US history classes, but the day turned out even better than I would have hoped!

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.

The telling of family stories planted the seeds of this book. There were stories I knew from my childhood as well as stories I uncovered in family pictures and keepsakes. Stories unearthed when I started going below the surface and asking more questions of my family and myself…