Tadaima! I Am Home: A Transnational Family History (Intersections: Asian and Pacific American Transcultural Studies Book 33)
by Tom Coffman (Author), & 2 more Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (21)
Part of: Intersections: Asian and Pacific American Transcultural Studies (10 books)
Tadaima! I Am Home unearths the five-generation history of a family that migrated from Hiroshima to Honolulu but never settled. In the telling, the common Japanese greeting “tadaima!” takes on a perplexing meaning. What is home? Where most immigrants either establish roots in a new place or return to their place of origin, the Miwa family became transnational. With one foot in Japan, the other in America, they attempted to build lives in both countries. In the process, they faced the challenges of internment, a civilian prisoner exchange, the atomic bomb, and the loss of their holdings on both sides of the Pacific.
The story begins and ends with the fifth-generation figure, Stephen Miwa of Honolulu, who is trying to get to the bottom of a shadowed reference to his family name: “The Miwas are unlucky.” Tom Coffman’s research tracks back to the founding sojourner, Marujiro, a fallen samurai, and to the sons of subsequent generations—Senkichi, a field laborer turned storekeeper; James Seigo, a merchant prince; Lawrence Fumio, a heroically struggling “foreign” student; and, finally, the contemporary Stephen, whose nagging questions drive him to excavate his enigmatic past. Among the book’s unusual finds, the most extraordinary is the fourteen-year-old Fumio’s student diary, which he maintained in Hiroshima from July 4, 1945, through his survival of atomic bombing and into the following autumn.
The Miwas climbed from poverty to wealth, and then fell precipitously from wealth into poverty. The most recent generations have regrouped by dint of intense determination and devotion to education, exercised against the strange transformation of Japanese Americans from despised “other” to model minority. Throughout, this resilient family has kept an outwardly facing cheerfulness, giving no clues as to what they have been through.
Tadaima! I Am Home confronts history from a largely unexplored transnational viewpoint, suggesting new ways of looking and seeing. Although it does not explicitly beg the question of internal security in the present, it poses new perspectives on immigration, acculturation, commitment to nation, and the marginalization of distrusted minorities.
====
Intersections: Asian and Pacific American Transcultural Studies
Print length 191 pages
==
Review
Journalist Coffman has earned a deserved reputation as a skilled chronicler of Hawaii's political history. . . . [He] offers readers a rare glimpse of the experiences of Japanese Americans living in Hawaii. By the end of the book the Miwas have achieved a semblance of security—and a sense of home—in Hawaii. But Coffman wisely reminds us that before we celebrate another American dream fulfilled, we must acknowledge the too heavy price many people of Japanese ancestry have paid to find it. — J. S. Franks, San Jose State, De Anza College, CHOICE, May 2019 (Vol. 56 No. 9)
Coffman provides a fascinating view of wartime Japan, including morale-boosting efforts such as military-style uniforms for children, and the horrors of the first atomic bombing. Throughout, he weaves in just enough historical information to illuminate the broader importance of the Miwas’ experiences. . . . [T]his account will reward readers interested in Japan and Japanese-Hawaiian experience. — Publishers Weekly
It’s always a gift to get a new book from Island political writer, author and documentarian Tom Coffman, and Tadaima! I Am Home is both highly readable and timely. . . . Coffman’s telling is well-researched and the historical details are handled accurately and deftly. . . . [This] book joins those making room for families like the Miwas, split up and separated, brought up in the “wrong” country at the wrong time, always at the mercy of governments, prejudice, refugee crises and world war. — Don Wallace, HONOLULU Magazine (online)
Coffman writes the story with grace and understanding, having done extensive research built on stories and documents collected by Stephen. Especially useful were the schoolboy diaries of Stephen's father, Lawrence Miwa, who lived in Hiroshima during the war. Coffman skillfully uses this material and provides a historian's perspective in what is a short family narrative. . . . [The diary] makes for the most compelling first-hand account in the book. . . . If the Miwas were unlucky, they are unlucky no more. They can proudly say, "Tadaima! I Am Home," and to that, readers can respond, "Okaeri—Welcome Home." — Gerald Kato, The Hawai‘i Herald
Within [the book's] short compass, readers are provided with a fascinating five-generation exploration by Coffman of male Miwa family members extending from its fallen samurai progenitor in Meiji Era Japan, Marujiro Miwa (1850-1919), down through four sons of successive generations—all of whom are bound together by having their lives similarly enacted in both Japan (mostly Hiroshima) and America (Hawai‘i and the U.S. mainland). . . . Aided by two researchers from Japan affiliated with the Hawai‘i State Archives who were not only interested in transnational migration, but also able to instruct him in how to access archives in Japan and utilize other invaluable resources, Coffman was empowered to produce a book that represents a quintessential model of the new and enriched family history. — Art Hansen, Nichi Bei Weekly
Tadaima! is both a macro and micro view of the complexities of Japanese-American relations, migrations, and heritage, as told through the determined and winning generations of the Miwa family. History fans will love Tom Coffman’s meticulously detailed research, and all readers can take inspiration and understanding from the Miwas, who survive and thrive against all odds. — Phoebe Neel, Wasabi
This book is both visually and intellectually enticing for readers. . . . Several reviewers have already commented on the value and necessity of this book for political and historical researchers within the [Australian] tertiary sector. As an educator within the secondary sector, I would also highly recommend this book as a robust and insightful nonfiction text for an English and humanities syllabus for senior‐level secondary education. . . . [The Miwas'] story contributes a contextualized understanding of the intricacies involved in multigenerational, transnational migration and development, not only from a political and economic perspective, but more importantly from a sociocultural one. — Ruth (Lute) Faleolo, University of Queensland, Pacific Affairs, 83:1 (March 2020)
About the Author
Tom Coffman is a political reporter who evolved into writing books and directing historical documentaries. He is a three-time recipient of the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association’s award for nonfiction writing, and for his cumulative work he received the Hawai‘i Award for Literature.
Product details
ASIN : B07CS1QTW4
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : 31 October 2018
==
Tom Coffman
Tom Coffman is an independent researcher, writer, and producer. He graduated from the William Allen White School, Kansas University, with a Bachelor in Journalism. The managing editor of the Honolulu Advertiser loaned Coffman plane fare to come to Hawaii, where he became state government reporter for the Advertiser. He moved to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin two years later and became political reporter and bureau chief. In 1972, he wrote Catch a Wave, a widely read account of Hawaii politics and the turmoil of that period. A year later, he left newspaper reporting to work as an independent writer and media producer.
His productions increasingly incorporated historic themes. Under the guidance of the legendary Hawaiian writer John Dominis Holt, he began to integrate a chronology of the development of Hawaii, which led to the television documentaries O Hawaii: From Settlement to Kingdom and Nation Within.
Tom Coffman’s work has won national awards for production of video, film, interactive media, and multi-image. Ganbaré, about the early wartime experiences of Japanese Americans, was selected Best Film by a Hawaii Filmmaker at the 1995 Hawaii International Film Festival. Three of his books, Nation Within, The Island Edge of America, and I Respectfully Dissent, received Ka Palapala Pookela Awards for Excellence in Nonfiction from the Hawaii Book Publishers Association. Coffman also received the Hawaii Award for Literature, the highest recognition given by the state of Hawaii for outstanding literary achievement. Other PBS films dealt with America’s annexation of Hawaii, the onset of World War II, and the martyrdom of Ninoy Aquino.
==
From other countries
AK
5.0 out of 5 stars Being Japanese (American?) in WWII Hawaii
Reviewed in the United States on 28 March 2019
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
I was impressed with how the Miwa familyʻs WWII story meshed with presentations our local Hiroshima Genealogy group had with Pamela Rotner Sakamoto (Midnight in Broad Daylight) and Dr. Kelli Y. Nakamura, Professor of History at KCC on I was impressed with how your familyʻs WWII story meshed with presentations our H3SG group had with Pamela Rotner Sakamoto (Midnight in Broad Daylight) and Dr. Kelli Y. Nakamura, Professor of History at Kapiolani Community College, who talked about the surveillance of Japanese in Hawaii prior to and during WWII.
Tom Coffman did a good job of making the Miwa family story come together with the story of local entrepreneurship, politics, being Nikkei in wartime Japan and returning to post-war Hawaii.
Report
Kitsune
3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I hoped.
Reviewed in the United States on 18 August 2020
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I’m a huge fan of Japan, Japanese culture, and history and as my ancestry is also in Hawai`i, I was very interested in learning about a multi-generational transnational story between Japan and Hawai`i. Unfortunately the author does this family’s story a great disservice for the most part just cataloging people, jobs, supplies, et al whether they are relevant to the central story or not. It reads less like a historical memoir and more like an ancestry.com genealogical “story.” Such a shame.
Report
Jeanne H.
4.0 out of 5 stars Making the best with what you have,
Reviewed in the United States on 1 October 2019
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Interesting history of family experiences. My grandfather was from Hiroshima in early 1920s and lived with us till 1959. Very basic English and being post WWII we spoke no Japanese. Had six kids, wife and two children died of flu and he raised four single parenting. Three survives, 91, my mom, 92, uncle and 93, aunty. Life was poor but he did his best. Story was moving and relevant to these times.
Report
masa
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, informative reading
Reviewed in the United States on 11 January 2019
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
Anyone with ties to Japan should read this book. Being Sansei in Hawaii, I never really knew the real history of the Japanese immigration to Hawaii. Only bits and pieces. My grandparents worked in the sugar cane fields, I spent my early years living in a plantation camp in Waipahu. My grandparents home had old bullet holes in the ceiling from the Dec.7 attack I have visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb sites, this book put all the pieces together.
Report
Sumner La Croix
5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful beautifully book!
Reviewed in the United States on 18 March 2019
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Tom Coffman's book weaves together the history of several generations of immigrants to Hawaii and along the way illuminates life in Hawaii and Japan both before and after World War II. The book is beautifully written and provides vivid portraits of the members of the Miwa family who faced so much success and tragedy in their lives. Coffman's book should be on every publication's must-read lists for 2019!
Report
Nelson P Tan
5.0 out of 5 stars Book
Reviewed in the United States on 27 March 2024
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Good story
Report
Teo
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended!
Reviewed in the United States on 12 February 2021
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Very interesting and well written!
Report
==
==
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기