AUTHOR TO DISCUSS BOOK ON 'NURSE OF MANZANAR' ON JULY 18

The book, Nurse of Manzanar, based on a lost manuscript by Nisei Toshiko Eto Nakamura, who was a registered nurse when World War II broke out, will be the subject of a public program at the Japanese American National Museum on Saturday, July 18, beginning at 2 p.m.

Samuel Nakamura, Toshiko’s only son, discovered the manuscript after his mother’s death in 1994. The manuscript was written shortly after the end of World War II, apparently compiled with hopes of it being published in a magazine. When that attempt was rejected, Toshiko put the manuscript aside and it was forgotten until after her death. Samuel Nakamura then worked to edit the manuscript and turn it into a book.

Born the second of eight children of Tameji and Take Eto of San Luis Obispo, Toshiko was educated at Mills College and became a registered nurse. Of historical importance, her father Tameji was a pioneer of the local Japanese community (there was an Eto Street in the Japantown) and an acknowledged leader in the greater San Luis Obispo area.

World War II brought about the unconstitutional forced removal of all peoples of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast and parts of Hawai`i by the U.S. government. Toshiko’s father, as a community leader, was separated from the family by the FBI and part of the memoir recounts her efforts to locate him by visiting various government agencies.

Toshiko then dealt with her own incarceration when she and her family were forced to live in the Manzanar concentration camp, about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, near Death Valley, beginning in 1942. She adapted to the rigorous living conditions and to Manzanar’s limited medical facilities as a nurse and much of her story delves into her observations of this period of her life.

Art Hansen, professor emeritus from California State University, Fullerton’s Department of History and its Asian Amerian studies department, observed, "Nurse of Manzanar, the published version of Toshiko Eto Nakamura’s exquisitely modulated World War II memoir, is a compelling reminder that although the wartime eviction and incarceration of Japanese Americans was promulgated by the U.S. government on an indiscriminately corporate basis, it was nonetheless experienced by specific individuals, families, and communities."

Samuel Nakamura worked on making his mother’s manuscript into a published book. He did research, located historic photographs, newspaper articles and even government files on his mother and her family to enhance the text. Nakamura will discuss his efforts and provide his own observations of his mother’s memoirs at the program. He will also focus on ways in which individuals can get their books or novels published.

This program is free to National Museum members or with general admission. For more information, contact the Japanese American National Museum at (213) 625-0414 or go to www.janm.org.