Virtual Event: Chaucer’s Book Event Commemorates Exec. Order 9066

I’d like to call to your attention an author talk that personally means a lot to me.  My grandfather was not only interned, but arrested by the FBI and kept apart from his family (who were in an internment camp) for two years.  My grandmother passed away in a reunification camp after the War was over and two years after they were finally reunited.   The geta sandals he made for my father were on display at the Smithsonian Institution for two years> Here is a link to the story behind them:   https://50objects.org/object/mickey-mouse-geta-japanese-sandals/

So, without further ado, please read on.

Please join us on the eve of the 79th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 for a Chaucer’s Virtual Author Discussion with journalist Bradford Pearson (THE EAGLES OF HEART MOUNTAIN: A TRUE STORY OF FOOTBALL, INCARCERATION AND RESISTANCE IN WORLD WAR II AMERICA) on Thursday, February 18 at 5 pm PACIFIC (8 pm EASTERN).

Also attending is journalist Nancy Ukai of 50objects.org- a history project sponsored by the National Parks Project that explores the human impact of the mass incarceration of 120,000 American Japanese during World War II. Through the visual and textual examination of 50 curated objects, 50 Objects explores the ramifications of President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. https://50objects.org/

For event information, please click here:  https://www.chaucersbooks.com/event/virtual-author-discussion-bradford-pearson-eagles-heart-mountain

To attend event, click here: https://zoom.us/j/95885815726

The impeccably researched, deeply moving, never-before-told tale about a World War II incarceration camp in Wyoming and its extraordinary high school football team—for fans of The Boys in the Boat and The Storm on Our Shores.

In the spring of 1942, the United States government forced 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes in California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona and sent them to incarceration camps across the West. Nearly 14,000 of them landed on the outskirts of Cody, Wyoming, at the base of Heart Mountain.

Behind barbed wire fences, they faced racism, cruelty, and frozen winters. Trying to recreate comforts from home, many established Buddhist temples and sumo wrestling pits. Kabuki performances drew hundreds of spectators—yet there was little hope.

That is, until the fall of 1943, when the camp’s high school football team, the Eagles, started its first season and finished it undefeated, crushing the competition from nearby, predominantly white high schools. Amid all this excitement, American politics continued to disrupt their lives as the federal government drafted men from the camps for the front lines—including some of the Eagles. As the team’s second season kicked off, the young men faced a choice to either join the Army or resist the draft. Teammates were divided, and some were jailed for their decisions.

The Eagles of Heart Mountain honors the resilience of extraordinary heroes and the power of sports in a sweeping and inspirational portrait of one of the darkest moments in American history.

Bradford Pearson is the former features editor of Southwest: The Magazine. He has written for The New York Times, Esquire, Time, and Salon, among many other publications. He grew up in Hyde Park, New York, and now lives in Philadelphia. The Eagles of Heart Mountain is his first book.

For photo of author Bradford Pearson, please credit Tony Hoffer.