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This is a book about the collective identities of Japanese American elderly in a former sugar plantation community in the rural town of Puna, Hawai'i. Investigating their plantation stories in which they remember, evaluate, and represent their past lives on the plantation from the 1920s to the 1980s, the author explores a process of which they collectively delineate their identities in terms of ethnicity, class, generation, and gender.
The purpose of this book is to present an ethnography of remembering that captures the so-called "cultural testimony" in which the Japanese American elderly narrate their plantation experience as both an internally-oriented emotional manifestation and an externally-based common understanding of their community. The author demonstrates how the Japanese American elderly employ their memories to reconstruct plantation experience and define their peoplehood as the collective identities of plantation-raised Japanese Americans.
This book is informative for many students in different disciplines because of its distinctive approach to people and community. An analysis of interview transcripts reveals the significance of shared story in creating a sense of community.
Most significantly, this book is for people who love Hawai'i. Stories told by Hawai'i-born Japanese Americans will fascinate readers and acquaint them with Hawai'i's culture and history.