Book Talk: Becoming Nisei

UW Tacoma faculty members Lisa Hoffman and Mary Hanneman will discuss their new book “Becoming Nisei: Japanese American Urban Lives in Prewar Tacoma” on Tuesday, January 26 from 6 to 8 pm. The discussion will be hosted by UW Tacoma Associate Professor Danica Miller.

Hoffman and Hanneman interviewed more than forty Japanese Americans who lived in Tacoma prior to the start of World War II. Their book chronicles Japanese migration to Tacoma in the late 1800’s as well as the thriving community that existed in the city before President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which authorized the United States government to forcefully relocate Japanese Americans from their homes to concentration camps.

“Becoming Nisei” is the result of a years-long process by Hoffman and Hanneman to document this community. The book examines how Nisei – second generation American children of Japanese immigrants – navigated both the city and a complex social identity, one where they were expected to learn traditional Meiji-era cultural practices at a time of deep suspicion and even open hostility in the U.S. of those from other countries.

This event is free and open to the public.