NAOMI HIRAHARA SPEAKS ON JAPANESE-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
APRIL 25, 2016 AT ALTADENA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Program at Altadena Community Center is Free and Open
to Public
730 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena CA 91001
The star of author Naomi
Hirahara’s series of award-winning mystery books, Mas Arai, is a Japanese
gardener living in post-World War II Altadena.
Now, Ms. Hirahara will speak
on her childhood years in Altadena and the experiences of Japanese-Americans in
20th century Los Angeles, at 7:30 p.m. Monday April 25 at the
Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive.
The free, illustrated
program, open to the public, is sponsored by the Altadena Historical Society.
“Altadena had a small
community of Japanese immigrants and their families, with a church and at least
one business, in the pre- and post-war years,” said Jane Brackman, Ph.D.,
president of the Historical Society.
“Ms. Hirahara has woven her
experiences and memories of those years into her books, and we are honored and
delighted that she will share them with everyone on April 25,” Brackman said.
Hirahara is the author of
five books in the Mas Arai series, with the sixth--”Sayonara Slam”--due out in
May. She also has authored two mystery
books featuring a Los Angeles bicycle policeman.
Hirahara was born in
Pasasdena in 1962, and lived in Altadena with her family until they moved to
South Pasadena in 1971. She still lives
in South Pasadena.
Her father was born in
California, but was taken to Hiroshima, Japan, as an infant, and was only miles
away from the epicenter when the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb there in
1945. Her mother, born in Hiroshima,
also survived, but lost her father in the blast.
After the war, her father
returned to California and eventually established himself in the gardening and
landscaping business, as did so many other Japanese-Americans after being
released from the camps in which they were incarcerated during the war.
Naomi and a younger brother
were raised in Altadena and then South Pasadena. She graduated from Stanford University, and
was a reporter and editor for Los Angeles’s Rafu Shimpo Japanese
newspaper, covering the reparations movement for Japanese-Americans forced from
their homes and businesses and incarcerated during the war, as well as the L.A.
riots and their aftermath.
In addition to her mystery
novels, she is the editor of “Greenmakers: Japanese American Gardeners in
Southern California;” an award-winning book for young adults; and several
biographies and histories.
She will bring several of her
books to the April 25 program for sale and autographing.
Altadena Historical Society
has its offices and archives in the Altadena Community Center, and is open 9
a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, and by appointment.
The current exhibit at the
society is “Altadena in the Rose Parade,” which will run through June.
