Haruko Obata: A Life of Flowers

Saturday, September 9, 2 pm — In-Person and Online

“If you know flower arranging you do not grow old, for it is eternal.” Haruko Obata

Haruko Obata (1892-1989) was a pioneering Bay Area ikebana sensei who began displaying her classic Japanese flower arrangements to Americans as early as 1915. Kimi Hill will share her grandmother’s story based on a 1986 oral history, exploring Haruko’s youth in Japan as well as her life as the wife of artist Chiura Obata and a mother of four children,
her forced incarceration at Topaz, and her long career as an artist in her own right. Assisting in this presentation will be Sogetsu Ikebana teacher Keiko Kubo and J-Sei ikebana students who will create ikebana arrangements to accompany the program. Presented by Friends of Topaz Museum and J-Sei.

Please reserve a free ticket to receive reminders and a ZOOM link.

J-Sei’s Family Festival

Sunday, September 24, 12-3 pm

J-Sei, 1285 66th Street, Emeryville (btwn Hollis St & San Pablo Av)

Each year we celebrate “Keiro no Hi” respect for the aged day, a time to honor our elders and celebrate with our multigenerational families.

Pre-0rdersare now closed.  The menu items will be available for walk-up sales at the festival.

Evergreen, A Japantown Mystery

A Book Talk & Signing with Naomi Hirahara

Sunday, September 24, 11 am (in-person & online)

With great anticipation, Evergreen, A Japantown Mystery continues the post-war resettlement story of Aki Ito who returns with her family from Manzanar to Chicago to Los Angeles. Meet dynamic mystery writer Naomi Hirahara as she shares her latest book that follows the award-winning Clark and Division.

RSVP via Eventbrite

“Hirahara humanizes the struggles of Japanese Americans rebuilding their lives from scratch. Her evocation of Little Tokyo haunts will bring a flood of memories for some Angelenos while introducing a new generation of readers to a pivotal period in L.A. history.” —Paula Woods, The Los Angeles Times

About the Book

A Japanese American nurse’s aide navigates the dangers of post-WWII and post-Manzanar life as she attempts to find justice for a broken family in this follow-up to the Mary Higgins Clark Award–winning Clark and Division.

It’s been two years since Aki Ito and her family were released from Manzanar detention center and resettled in Chicago with other Japanese Americans. Now the Itos have finally been allowed to return home to California—but nothing is as they left it. The entire Japanese American community is starting from scratch, with thousands of people living in dismal refugee camps while they struggle to find new houses and jobs in over-crowded Los Angeles.

Aki is working as a nurse’s aide at the Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights when an elderly Issei man is admitted with suspicious injuries. When she seeks out his son, she is shocked to recognize her husband’s best friend, Babe Watanabe. Could Babe be guilty of elder abuse?

Only a few days later, Little Tokyo is rocked by a murder at the low-income hotel where the Watanabes have been staying. When the cops start sniffing around Aki’s home, she begins to worry that the violence tearing through her community might threaten her family. What secrets have the Watanabes been hiding, and can Aki protect her husband from getting tangled up in a murder investigation?

About the Author

Naomi Hirahara is an Edgar Award-winning author of multiple traditional mystery series and noir short stories. Her Mas Arai mysteries, which have been published in Japanese, Korean and French, feature a Los Angeles gardener and Hiroshima survivor who solves crimes. Her first historical mystery, Clark and Division, which won a Mary Higgins Clark Award, follows a Japanese American family’s move to Chicago in 1944 after being released from a California wartime detention center. A former journalist with The Rafu Shimpo newspaper, Naomi has also written numerous non-fiction history books and curated exhibitions.

Nichi Bei Review: “Murder and Emotions Unravel in Post-War Little Tokyo Mystery”

Photo by Rafu Shimpo.