On this edition of Your Call, David “Mas” Masumoto discusses his new memoir, Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm.
It tells the story of his aunt Shizuko, who was disabled and taken as a “ward of the state” in 1942, just before the rest of Masumoto's family members were forced into WWII concentration camps. For 70 years, the family believed Shizuko was dead, until one day Masumoto received a call. She was alive — and living just a few miles away from their family farm.
In Secret Harvests, Masumoto attempts to reconstruct his aunt's life and pierce the veil of silence surrounding her disability and survival, as well as his family's incarceration in the Gila River Relocation Center in the Arizona desert, south of Phoenix.
Guest:
David “Mas” Masumoto, organic peach and grape farmer and author of twelve books, including Epitaph for a Peach: For Seasons on a Family Farm.
Resources:
Densho Encyclopedia: Gila River
Pacific Citizen: California State Grange Apologizes to Japanese Americans for Discriminatory Past
The Guardian: Working harder than ever: the last remaining Japanese American farmers
