Celebrate National Poetry Month with By the Shore of Lake Michigan, a collection of tanka poetry originally published in 1970 by Issei immigrants Tomiko and Ryokuyō Matsumoto. Join Nancy Matsumoto, the book’s editor and the granddaughter of Tomiko and Ryokuyō, for a four-part discussion of the book, along with translators Mariko Aratani and Kyoko Miyabe, and literary scholar Eri F. Yasuhara, dean emerita of the College of Arts and Letters at California State University San Bernardino.  

By the Shore of Lake Michigan is a rare and frank account of the tumultuous events of World War II and its aftermath. From the Matsumotos’ incarceration at the Heart Mountain concentration camp to their postwar resettlement in Chicago, their reflections are expressed in the oldest and most widely practiced genre of Japanese poetry today. Tanka poetry was an important outlet for Issei immigrants to capture feelings of loss, dislocation, shame, and trauma that they experienced before, during, and after World War II. They often gathered in after-work poetry salons to discuss and share their work with others.

The JANM Book Club is a series of Public Programs that highlights new publications by Japanese Americans or related to Japanese American history and culture.

By the Shore of Lake Michigan is available at the JANM Store.