Program Description
Event Details
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author Daniel James Brown (The Boys in the Boat, The Indifferent Stars Above, and Under a Flaming Sky) joins the Library Shop & the San Diego Public Library Foundation virtually to discuss his latest work Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II.
The discussion will be moderated by Kristen Hayashi, Director of Collections Management & Access and Curator at Japanese American National Museum. Afterwards there will be a live audience Q&A.
THIS EVENT WILL BE STREAMED LIVE ON THE SAN DIEGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION'S CROWDCAST CHANNEL. PLEASE REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT IN ADVANCE VIA CROWDCAST BY CLICKING HERE. This event is free, but you must register through Crowdcast to attend.
This event is presented by The San Diego Public Library Foundation in support of the program series The Rebellious Miss Breed: San Diego Public Library and the Japanese American Incarceration. This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a partner of the NEH. Visit calhum.org.
To purchase a copy of Facing the Mountain visit here. All proceeds from your purchase of the book will support programming at the San Diego Public Library.
About the Book: They came from across the continent and Hawaii. Their parents taught them to embrace both their Japanese heritage and their American homeland. They faced bigotry, yet they believed in their bright futures as American citizens. But within days of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI was ransacking their houses and locking up their fathers. And within months many would themselves be living behind barbed wire.
Showcasing Brown’s inimitable narrative skills, FACING THE MOUNTAIN is an unforgettable story unfolding across war-time America and the battlefields of Europe. Based on Brown’s extensive interviews with the families of the protagonists as well as deep archival research, the book chronicles the kaleidoscopic journeys of four Japanese-American families and their sons—Gordon Hirabayashi, Rudy Tokiwa, Fred Shiosaki, and Kats Miho. One demonstrated his courage as a resister. The others volunteered for 442nd Regimental Combat Team and displayed fierce courage in the mountains and forests of France, Germany, and Italy where they were tasked with doing the near-impossible.
But this is more than a tale of war. Brown also tells the story of these soldiers’ parents, Japanese immigrants who were forced to shutter the businesses, surrender their homes, and submit to life in concentration camps on U.S. soil. Woven throughout is the chronicle of Gordon Hirabayashi, one of a cadre of patriotic resisters who stood up against their government in defense of their Constitutional rights. Whether on battlefields or in courtrooms, these were Americans under unprecedented strain, doing what Americans—at their best—are capable of doing: striving, resisting, rising up, standing on principle, laying down their lives, and enduring.
Here, as he did in The Boys in the Boat, Brown explores the questions of what home means, what makes a team succeed, who gets to be a “real American,” and what citizens owe their country—and vice versa.
As Tom Ikeda writes in the Foreword: “FACING THE MOUNTAIN comes to us during a time of deep unrest, a time when our empathy for others is so needed to guide the choices we will make. This book will open hearts.”
About the Author: Daniel James Brown is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat, The Indifferent Stars Above, and Under a Flaming Sky. He has taught writing at San Jose State University and Stanford University. He lives outside Seattle. Visit DanielJamesBrown.com.