Thousands of Japanese-Americans were held in internment camps in Arizona during World War II. MichiNishiura Weglyn was one of them — along with her family.
Her story of being forced to live in the camp — and then becoming a fashion designer — is told in the biography for middle-grade readers called "Michi Challenges History: From Farm Girl to Costume Designer to Relentless Seeker of the Truth."
Author Ken Mochizuki talked with The Show about how he came upon Michi’s story.
Full conversation
KEN MOCHIZUKI: Well, I always had admiration for those throughout world history. Actually those who were living the comfortable good life like they were royalty or something. And then they walked away from all that for some kind of higher calling or purpose that didn't promise anything. Total shots in the dark.
So, Michi was one of those. She was an acclaimed television and stage and, and custom designer. And then she heard U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark say on the new show, “Meet the Press,” that there never have been, we do not now have and there never will be concentration camps in this country. While Michi spent two years of her life in a concentration camp in Arizona called Gila River.
And then when she heard that she just went ballistic and she said he's not gonna get away with that. And so that's, that's essentially how I found her story. And I thought, well, OK, and it was such an amazing life that the more I researched her life, I, I just had to do her story.
MARK BRODIE: What surprised you in doing all the research that you did about her life?
MOCHIZUKI: I, I think it was the amazing ironies in her life. She grew up on a farm in, called Brentwood, California. It's in central California. It's midway between Oakland and Stockton. It was a farm town at that time.
And then there was lots of animals at the farm and then there was a lot of chickens and then she saw that some of the chickens were born without feathers. And so she felt sorry for them. So she designed and made these little furry sweaters for these chickens to wear. And what does she become later on in life? A wardrobe and, and costume designer.
BRODIE: Yeah, I guess it's one thing to design for chickens. It's another thing for, like Hollywood, A-listers.
MOCHIZUKI: Yeah. Yeah. What she did do in the ‘50s and ‘60s for some of the big stars of the time.
BRODIE: So your book is, is, as we've said, non fiction, but it's not for an adult audience, right? Like this is aimed at, you know, at, at a pre-teen to early teen audience.
MOCHIZUKI: Right. It, it's targeted for a middle grade, but as with all my books, including my picture books, I write them with, for adults at the same time also.
BRODIE: So how do you try to tell this story for that age? Because I would imagine like there's some things about her life that maybe aren't appropriate for this age, but you still don't want to gloss over it and, you know, and make it seem all, you know, a lot better than it actually was.
MOCHIZUKI: Well, actually I just wrote the way I, I wanted to and then, then I asked my editor at Norton young readers, is it appropriate for that age? And he said, yes, it is.
So, yeah, there, there are some things you can't have in there. Like I don't know if this is why the editor deleted it. But when Michi was growing up there in Brentwood, California, and she was always fascinated by costumes, Ziegfeld movies and so forth. And so she begged her mother to take her to a big town, which I assume was Stockton. And they looked at the posters on the street of the theaters and then the one that was the most dazzling her and her sister, said to her mom, OK, let's go see this show.
So they went in there and they actually ended up in a burlesque show and my editor cut that out. I don't know, I don't know if that's why. But anyway, it was cut out.
BRODIE: Why to you is it so important for, you know, kids of this age group to really understand this part of history? Because it's, it's a part of history that it seems to me, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that until fairly recently, you know, a lot of, a lot of schools didn't spend a lot of time on and, you know, a lot of people just didn't really know a whole lot about it.
MOCHIZUKI: Yeah. Well, that's, that's why. Plus my family went through this experience, the camp experience during, during World War II. My parents were there and my grandparents was there and my aunts were there and I had an uncle who was already in the U.S. Army before the war started. So he didn't have to end up in a camp.
But yeah, it's, it's something that's glossed over. And you talk to other people. They'll, they'll talk about, or maybe there was just one paragraph in the history books about the subject. So yeah, it's, it, it's something that, that should be known. And it's something that we can't just sweep under the rug this happened in this country.
BRODIE: Do you find that telling a story like this of a personal story as opposed to just teaching sort of the facts and figures and showing some photos, does that help, especially for, you know, for this particular demographic to really understand what happened and maybe what it was like for the people who had to go through it?
MOCHIZUKI: I think so. I think you always get your point across better by telling a story rather than just reciting some facts and figures. And, and especially this story as I was talking about. It's such an amazing story that yeah, you tell, tell us through a medium of a person's experience.
