The Gate of Memory

The Gate of Memory--Poems by Descendants of Nikkei Wartime Incarceration

Edited by Brynn Saito and Brandon Shimoda. Foreword by Mitsuye Yamada.

This anthology of poetry on Nikkei incarceration, written by descendants of the WWII prisons and camps, is a tribute to the 150,000 people incarcerated by the United  States and Canada during WWII. The poetry expresses a range of experiences and perspectives from the  afterlife of this historical yet enduring injustice. With a foreword by  acclaimed poet, activist, and concentration camp survivor, Mitsuye  Yamada, and an introduction by the editors, poets Brynn Saito and Brandon Shimoda, The Gate of Memory explores inter-generational trauma as the contributors, all of whom are descendants of those who were incarcerated, sift through an intimate record of wartime  incarceration.

Contributors to this anthology include poets of Japanese American,  Japanese Canadian, Okinawan American, Okinawan Canadian, Japanese  Hawaiian, Alaska Native, mixed race Nikkei, and Japanese descent. Their  poems reimagine, reinhabit, and retell the story of incarceration while  embodying its many legacies, through a diversity of modes and themes,  creating a panoramic portrait of anti-Asian racism, assimilation,  loyalty, resistance, and redemption. The anthology illuminates  individual perspectives and reveals collective experience. It insists  upon the imperative of poetry in the processes of solidarity and  transgenerational healing.

With contributions from: Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi, Brittany Arita, Aaron  Caycedo-Kimura, Brian Komei Dempster, Miya Folick, Sesshu Foster, Sharon  Fujimoto-Johnson, Steve Fujimura, Laura K. Fukumoto, Cathlin Goulding,  Rebecca A. Green, Richard Hamasaki, Sharon Hashimoto, Casey Hidekawa  Lane/Levinski, Garrett Hongo, Jodi Hottel, Kurt Yokoyama Ikeda, Kevin  Irie, Michael Ishii, Erica H. Isomura, Lauren Emiko Ito, Susan Kiyo Ito,  Miya Iwataki, Dr. Claire Kageyama-Ramakrishnan, W. Todd Kaneko, Traci  Kato-Kiriyama, Amanda Mei Kim, Christine Kitano, Aisuke Kondo, Garrett  Kurai, Keiko Lane, Katherine Terumi Laubscher, Alison Lubar, Mia Ayumi  Malhotra, Angela Marian May, Ali Meyers-Ohki, Emily Mitamura, Hikari  Leilani Miya, Starr Sumie Miyata, James Fujinami Moore, Paulette "Tkl Un  Yeik" Moreno, David Mura, Heather Nagami, Noriko Nakada, Greer  Nakadegawa-Lee, Carolyn Nakagawa, Yukiko Nakagura (translator), Ryan  Hitoshi Nakano, Tamiko Nimura, Mona Oikawa, Troy Osaki, Michael Prior,  Brynn Saito, Brandon Shimoda, Patrick Shiroishi, Leanne Toshiko Simpson,  Dana Swensen, Kenneth Tanemura, Micah Tasaka, George Uba, Amy Uyematsu,  Terry Watada, Anne Watanabe, Syd Westley, Sho Yamagushiku, Doug  Yamamoto, Traise Yamamoto. Cover art by Rob Sato. 

Paper: 288 pp.

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