Richard Y. Okumoto
Incarceration to Inspiration: Ikigai Legacy of an American Jap GirlIn 1925, three-year-old Tome, one of nine children, is abandoned by her birth parents. Raised by a foster family who instill in her the Bushido code of honor and perseverance, she grows up believing she’s an all-American girl-until America brands her a 'Jap.'When Executive Order 9066 uproots her family and confines them behind barbed wire, Tome endures injustice with quiet strength, guided by her purpose: her ikigai. Through war, poverty, and personal tragedy, including a desperate moment of near suicide-halted by her young son Richard’s cry, 'No, Mommy, no!'-she transforms pain into determination.American Jap Girl, told in Tome’s posthumous voice and reconstructed from family journals, reclaims a racial slur as a symbol of resilience and belonging. Spanning from the Great Depression to the rise of postwar California, Tome’s story is a testament to one woman’s defiance against the myth of inferiority and her transformation of suffering into legacy.
