Events › Hidden History: Japanese Americans During WWII

Hidden History: Japanese Americans During WWII will feature a presentation and audience Q&A with Bay Area author Susan Ito, including illuminating research that she has conducted over two decades for her novel in progress.

Many are aware of the incarceration of Japanese Americans on the west coast, but Susan's research illuminates the experience of those in New York City, including imprisonment of hundreds of community leaders on Ellis Island following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The novel will also explore, through multiple narrators, the vast diversity in responses to the war, echoing our current fractured reality.

If this program sparks your curiosity, check out the rest of the One Book, One Coast series and deepen your engagement by reading They Called Us Enemy—a powerful story bringing Japanese American history to life through the deeply personal narrative at the heart of the series. Check it out in print or starting April 1, when unlimited digital copies of They Called Us Enemy will be available on both the Libby app and Hoopla platforms for San Mateo County Libraries cardholders—no holds or wait times required.

Explore more books and films about the Japanese American history that inspired this event in our One Book, One Coast staff list.