by Evelyn Iritani

This easy-to-read book, based in the Port Angeles, Washington area, is four true stories-in-one, for betterment of U.S. - Japan relations.

(1) Three Japanese shipwrecked sailors were rescued and enslaved by Makah Indians in the early 1800s.

(2) Nisei Tom Osasa, whose family was abandoned by their father, attended school in Port Angeles and was interned at turbulent Tule Lake Relocation Center.

(3) A tragedy-to-triumph story--In Bly, Oregon, a Japanese balloon bomb had killed five teenagers and a minister's wife who had been from Port Angeles. With the assistance of Dr. Yuzuru John Takeshita of the University of Michigan, in the 1980s, efforts of reconciliation had been made between families of the victims, including a sister who lived in Port Angeles, and women in Japan who made the bombs as young teenaged girls.

(4) Apprehensive American employees of an aging Port Angeles papermill which had been bought by Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Company in 1988, spent three weeks visiting the Japanese plant, with the resulting benefits in better quality paper coming from the mill and better management-worker relations.

Evelyn Iritani, a writer on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, spent three years interviewing and doing intensive research for this book, and for the betterment of U.S.-Japan relations. Among those interviewed was Dr. Takeshita, members of the minister's and other victims' families, the women in Japan and others to uncover details of the balloon bomb incident.

Evelyn is now a Pacific Rim staff writer with the prestigious Los Angeles Times.

Margaret Gunderson (1903-1997) was an inspiring, dedicated high school teacher and friend at Tule Lake Relocation Center. Former students include Professors Yuzuru John Takeshita, Emeritus, University of Michigan and Hitoshi Harry Kajihara, Ventura College and former National JACL President.

Proceeds to Florin JACL-Gunderson Scholarship $12.00 donation