George and Tamae Hoshida and their children were a Japanese American family who lived in Hawai‘i. In 1942, George was arrested as a “potentially dangerous alien” and incarcerated in a series of camps over the next two years. Tamae sought to reunite with George, and was eventually sent to the Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas with her three of her daughters, including a newborn. She was forced to leave her handicapped eldest daughter behind in a nursing home. George and Tamae regularly exchanged letters during this time, and George maintained a diary including personal thoughts, watercolors, and sketches.

Taken from the Paradise Isle tells the story of the Japanese American incarceration through selections from George Hoshida’s memoir, diary, letters, and artworks. These first-person sources are bolstered by extensive archival documents and editor Heidi Kim’s historical contextualization. The book provides a new and important perspective on the tragedy of the incarceration as it affected Japanese American families in Hawai‘i, adding to the growing body of literature that illuminates the violation of Nikkei civil rights during World War II.

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Taken from the Paradise Isle is available at the JANM Store.

View drawings and watercolors from George Hoshida’s diary online.

Read an interview with Taken from the Paradise Isle editor Heidi Kim on Discover Nikkei.

Read an overview of George Hoshida’s WWII incarceration experience on Discover Nikkei.