View the Book Trailer HERE!

RECENT EVENTS

Cosmos Club - American History Study Group

On November 15th, Shirley discussed Setsuko's Secret with the Cosmos Club American History Study Group. The conversation started with her family history and incarceration, and ended with larger questions about American education today and the work of the Mineta-Simpson Institute. Shirley is pictured here with some of the attendees, including USJC-DC's Janet Nuzum and Minister Koichi Ai of the Japanese Embassy. Thank you to all who came out!

Ann Arbor Book Tour (Sep 22-23, 2022)

Stop #1: the University of Michigan

Shirley's first stop was to the University of Michigan, where she visited a psychology class taught by Dr. Donna Nagata. Her course, titled “Mental Health and Culture,” grapples with multigenerational trauma, a major theme of Setsuko’s Secret. Shirley spoke with students about how that trauma affected her family’s life post-Heart Mountain. She also discussed the model minority myth and her EDI work at APA. As she is a Michigan grad herself, Shirley was excited to return to campus and have these important conversations with current students.

Stop #2: Ann Arbor District Library

Downtown Library Author Event

The event proved to be very popular; the waiting list for the library’s copy of Setsuko’s Secret is now 20 people long!

Book Signing with Booksweet

Local bookseller Booksweet partnered with the library for a post-event book sale and signing. They have two more copies of Setsuko’s Secret left on their shelves.

Stop #3: Huron High School

On the final day of her tour, Shirley returned to her alma mater Huron High School. There, she met with Principal Che Carter (right) and the great team of social studies and IB leaders for Huron and all Ann Arbor schools to promote the teaching of Asian American history. Shirley recalled how grateful she was for the teachers who believed in her, and felt so inspired by the current leadership of HHS. You can read more about her visit in this article by AAPS District News.

Upcoming Event:

Setsuko's Secret comes to Ann Arbor!

On September 22nd, Ann Arbor District Library will be hosting a Setsuko's Secret book talk, which will be followed by a live Q&A and book signing. The event will be recorded for those unable to attend. For more information, please visit the library's website.

Read Shirley's interview with Pulp, the library's culture blog, here.

2022 Heart Mountain Pilgrimage

This summer, Shirley returned to Heart Mountain for the historic site's annual Pilgrimage, an event which draws hundreds of attendees from around the United States. While there, Shirley was featured in the "Authors of Incarceration" panel alongside fellow writers Susan Kamei, Frank Abe, and Alden Hayashi.

This Pilgrimage also saw the groundbreaking of the Mineta-Simpson Institute, an expansion of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center. Inspired by the friendship between Senator Alan Simpson and the late Secretary Norm Mineta, the Mineta-Simpson institute will be dedicated to the fostering of empathy and cooperation between leaders.

National Day of Remembrance:

80 Years of Reckoning

To mark the 80th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, Shirley participated in the National Day of Remembrance with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), the Japanese American Citizens League National, the Friends of Minidoka and the National Park Service. She participated on the panel titled "Racial Reckoning and Japanese American Museums" with Smithsonian Undersecretary Kevin Gover, Dr. Franklin Odo, Ann Burroughs, JANM, Hanako Wakatsuki, Honouliuli National Historic Site, and Karen Ishizuka, JANM. At the end of the panel, Ann Burroughs,chair of the Japanese American Confinement Sites Consortium, and Shirley presented Secretary Bunch with a commendation from JACSC for his Racial Reckoning Initiative.

Secretary Bunch emphasizes the need to face our past to guide the future.

Shirley reads the JACSC Commendation for Secretary Bunch and his Racial Reckoning Initiative.

National Day of Remembrance Opening Ceremony

Utah's first ever Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Celebration May 22, 2021

On Saturday, May 22, Utah celebrated AA & PI Heritage Month at the Coty And County Bldg. Mayor Mendenhall, City Councilman Darin Mano, State Legislators Jani Iwamoto and Karen Kwan, author Shirley Higuchi, Mike Mower the Sr Advisor to the Governor and other addressed the crowd. Several performances from various Asian cultures were enjoyed by all. Thank you to Janice Ly, Floyd Mori and Stephanie Sato Sueoka for the invitation and for organizing this amazing event.

Red Lodge Book Club at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center

Thank you, Red Lodge Book Club!

"We really enjoyed our book club discussion with [Shirley and Julie] today. We learned far more than just facts about the Japanese-American internment during WWII. Shirley and Julie opened up their personal stories to us and that meant a lot! Thank you!"

Cathy Ritter, Red Lodge Book Club, MT

The Red Lodge Book Club read Setsuko's Secret, then came out and toured the museum and the site. The day was capped off with a Zoom session with Shirley!

Setsuko's Secret with the National World War II Museum will air on C-SPAN Saturday, March 27 4:55pm Eastern Time.

The program will be available at this link after it's televised.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?509775-1/legacy-japanese-american-world-war-ii-incarceration

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Praise for Setsuko's Secret

“An encyclopedic narrative on the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII and its haunting sway still on the conscience of the nation. Interwoven throughout is a moving personal family history of pain, loss, and resilience. This is an essential American story.”

—George Takei, Actor

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“As a former incarceree of Heart Mountain, reading this was tremendously gratifying. In this deeply researched and compellingly written history, Higuchi captures the tragedy and triumph of the Japanese American experience and incarceration.”

—Norman Mineta, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Transportation

“Only Shirley Ann Higuchi could tell so powerfully a story so needed to be told. This is the culmination of her vision and mission—to honestly share the deep passion of a proud family heritage forged in the saddest of times.”

—Alan Simpson, U.S. Senator, Wyoming, ret.

“Poignant. How the power of an untold secret can affect how one lives and, with its revelation, can spark others to tell their own. With a good story, we can change ourselves, our country, our world for the better. Setsuko’s Secret is one of the good stories.”

—Tamlyn Tomita, Actress

Higuchi captures the essence of the Nisei generation's reluctance to discuss the trauma and tragedy that shaped their lives and those of their children. This is the book I wish I had written about my own family's experience with the wrongful incarceration of the Japanese American community during WWII."

—Lance Ito, former L.A. County Superior Court Judge

“A rich and original story. Shirley Higuchi captures the sweeping narrative of incarceration through the lens of a single camp and ties it to our present reality. Her resolve as a daughter of the camps is Setsuko's real legacy.”

—Frank Abe, director of Conscience and the Constitution

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Author:

Shirley Ann Higuchi

Chair, Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation

REVIEWS

"What my 20-year-old self could have used at that time is Shirley Ann Higuchi’s recently published book, Setsuko’s Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration. Exhaustively researched while remaining personal and frank, Setsuko’s Secret is both an informative summary of Japanese American history and an autobiography. One rough comparison is if you had merged Michi Nishiura Weglyn’s groundbreaking Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America’s Concentration Camps with Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s landmark Farewell to Manzanar, two pillars of Japanese American history from the 1970s." ---Chris Komai, Discover Nikkei

Read the full review here.

"There are stories we choose to pass on to our children, and there are stories we can only share with our peers—whether because we doubt our children’s capacity for empathy, or fear it. What is a family secret, but a space where a family may gather? Sometimes, when we say, “You don’t know what it was like,” it is only wishful thinking."--- Vince Schleitwiler, The International Examiner

Read the full review here.

"...[A] well-informed and deeply moving study of the long-term effects of a dark chapter in American history." ---Publisher's Weekly

Read the full review here.

“Setsuko’s Secret is an intense, personal chronicle of the unconscionable internment of Japanese Americans during World War II…

Setsuko Higuchi may have kept her internment memories private, but her unique spirit inspired the founding of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center and this extraordinary testament to a sorrowful episode in American history.”

---Foreword Reviews.