Sideways unlocked the hidden dimensions of my life since I was born in Minidoka but wasn't aware of it until I was a freshman in college. Parents may bury the past to transform the future but eventually the truth comes to the fore. Read this book to learn the cost to human dignity and ways individuals compensate or triumph in an imperfect democratic society.
Janet Toyooka Thibault, Former Peace Corps Volunteer and California Municipal Government Retiree
Diana’s vivid memories of my father leap off the page with such veracity and clarity, I felt I was seeing him alive and breathing before me. She captures the essence of the young Japanese American intellectual whose disciplined and searching mind stood out in sharp relief against the dull background of conventionality.
Sylvia Hohri, Daughter of William Hohri, Pacific Palisades, CA
I finished reading your book and enjoyed it. You wrote eloquently and with candor, helping readers to understand the adversities that Nikkei in America and Canada faced before, during, and even after WWII. Events and experiences, both good and bad, shaped the lives and personalities of your family members as they chased the American dream despite prejudice, discrimination, incarceration and forfeiture of assets.
Cyrus Tamashiro, President of of the United Japanese Society of Hawaii, Honolulu
...your story captivated me as much as any of John Grisham's stories.You may not realize it, but you have a great knack for laying bare all the tribulations you experienced growing up,and you do it in a way that is both entertaining and informative. And the way you portray the rest of your family along with possible explanations for the motivation behind their behaviour (good or bad) is truly a study in psychology. What a great read!
Rudyard Kipling once said that if history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten. I agree. Anyone who reads your story will always look at the incarceration of Japanese Americans in a different light. Knowing about history is one thing, feeling what it was like to actually be there is quite another.
David Melanson, retired biologist, Salmon River, NS
Canada's history is quite appalling when one knows the truth about human rights. There is a certain sadness in the Slocan Valley from its history although a very beautiful place to live, not an easy place once you have a conscience - of course not everyone who lives here has a conscience.
Marilyn Burgoon, environmental activist, Slocan Valley, BC
Your launch could not have been better, your reading could not have been better, and your book is one every Canadian and, yes, every American should read. Thank you for the inscribed copy. I want to buy two more copies of your book to send to my son and daughter. It’s a book they should read as well. Congratulations. I felt honoured to have been at the launch of your book.
Ross Klatte, author of Leaving the Farm, Balfour, BC
As to your memoir, I loved the literary quality of the chapter dealing with your father, and the descriptions in `Papa`s Nemesis`. Your family dynamics are fascinating. I haven`t finished the book, yet, but I`m in awe of the depth and breadth of its contents. I think this book will carry you far in bringing attention to the civil rights issues that have been ignored, and you have made a splash and certainly succeeded in educating me and making me care.
Margrith Schraner, Copy & Associate Editor of The New Orphic Review, Nelson, BC
Thank you for writing about such heartfelt experiences and sharing your intimate growing-up days. The bonding you experienced in the bath with your mother has become unforgettable to me. I think you are particularly gifted to be able to reproduce such early events so palpably. You are quite remarkable, Diana.
Joy Thomas, Retired Supervisor of Reference, Toronto Board of Education Library, Toronto, ON
Reading Sideways was like sitting on a train with my eyes transfixed on the passing scenes of a courageous family living during those difficult years after their release from the camps. Your strong-willed parents’ love, endurance and compassion shows through. You made me sad at times, made me chuckle with your bold statements too. You made me aware of the complexities of the Japanese-Canadian internment experience as well.
Mrs. Sueko Inouye, San Jose, CA
Thank you so much for writing the book. The book is so open and honest about the affects of the internment experience on the family. It is so good to have all of these family stories documented. Although I had heard some of the stories from my mother, there were some that I became aware of for the first time. It was nice to read things from your perspective...I had no idea about the hardships and feelings that you had growing up. I just wanted to reach out and give you a big hug when I read about some of your sad experiences.
Bekki Shibayama, Niece, Board Member of Crystal City Pilgrimage, San Jose, CA
Sideways: Memoirs of a Misfit could to easily be seen as the story of one culture wronged by another when truly it aims at the heart of the human condition with humour, wisdom, and honesty. For storytellers the written word can get in the way of a grand telling, but these words in Misfit are crafted in such a way as to capture the imagination of any person who has ever felt like the odd one out in a crowd. It is a book of laughter, grief, anger, and joy woven into an invitation.
Raymond D. Stothers, Nelson Storyteller
Thank you for writing it. It is a very important book and should be widely read. I will recommend it in my circles. It is also a very good book for its insight into a world that we "mainstream" Canadians can never know but need to know in order to truly live up to the aspirations of truth and reconciliation. It was also a fun read as it was opening my eyes to your family's plight.
Barry Gray, Kootenay Storyteller
I finished reading Sideways: Memoir of a Misfit last night. Am impressed beyond words. It touched me in countless ways. Diana tells her story in a way that one can't stop reading once started....and what a story it is! It certainly awakened me into a world I thought I knew but found I didn't really know it at all. I can only bow in reverence to the Morita family story.
Joy Tsuzuki, Retired Interrogator USAF Intelligence in Tokyo
Absolutely beautifully written. It is truly an amazing story you told. You should be very proud as the writing and story are riveting. Congratulations on your book!
Charles Timinsky, Reno, NV.
Your work evoked the pain, love, wisdom, and laugh-out-loud ingenious ways children and youth confront and survive poverty and racial injustice. The worst thing that a child can experience, in my opinion, is to feel excluded when they so desperately want to belong. Those interests--who, for base reasons, attempt to set us against each other--are the ones who are truly excluded, and should be.
Don Currie, Editor of Focus on Socialism, New Denver, BC
The writing is truly superb and the story itself most compelling. What a character you were – and still are, of course! I’m appreciating getting to know you more and to better understand, not only the plight of the Japanese in North America during the war (although that is very important and central to your story), but also the lasting effects of childhood traumas.
Jocelyne Thompson, Librarian Emerita & Founding Editor, New Brunswick Bibliography Series, University of New Brunswick
I enjoyed and was fascinated reading about your family and upbringing in Chicago, and thought the book was very nicely written. Having also been an outsider for much of my life, though for vastly different reasons obviously, I can certainly understand the feelings and frustrations of exclusion.
Ben Dishart, VFX Artist for Animal Logic, Vancouver, BC
The last chapter of your book was very moving as it reflected on many issues that impacted your life and the lives of so many Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians and so many others. I could see the similarities between the exclusion of the Nikkei and the plight of the Palestinians, for whom I am doing work to raise awareness of their plight and advocate for their need for justice. They also carry that deep sense of loss as well as injustice and the knowledge that they can never go home, and in fact there is no "home" to go home to even if they could make such a journey.
Linda Scherzinger, retired United Church of Canada Lay Designated Minister, Halifax, NS
It just makes me sick to know what the Japanese-Canadians have gone through. Growing up here in Greenwood, these things were never really talked about. We were all friends growing up together in the fifties & sixties, life was good, everybody worked hard and people were dedicated to making a good community.
Doreen Maclean, President of the Greenwood Heritage Society (Museum & Visitor Centre), Greenwood, BC
Before the war...
Behind barbed wire...
Beyond the camps.
When all is said and done
it is all about family
Diana Morita Cole says it so well.
Professor Emeritus Dennis M. Ogawa, American Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Your reading has given me much food for thought, maybe cuz you're an Asian woman like myself, maybe cuz we're close in age, maybe cuz one of the passages you read was about your mother, and it triggered many wonderful memories about my mother. You're articulate and poetic in taking some of your life experiences and what could have remained as traumatic and "transformed" them into a powerful narrative that can uplift, educate and inspire others. A kind of "composting" at its best, taking difficult past experiences, recontextualizing them and breathing new life into them.
Jade Young, Hospice Chaplain, Honolulu
Janet Toyooka Thibault, Former Peace Corps Volunteer and California Municipal Government Retiree
Diana’s vivid memories of my father leap off the page with such veracity and clarity, I felt I was seeing him alive and breathing before me. She captures the essence of the young Japanese American intellectual whose disciplined and searching mind stood out in sharp relief against the dull background of conventionality.
Sylvia Hohri, Daughter of William Hohri, Pacific Palisades, CA
I finished reading your book and enjoyed it. You wrote eloquently and with candor, helping readers to understand the adversities that Nikkei in America and Canada faced before, during, and even after WWII. Events and experiences, both good and bad, shaped the lives and personalities of your family members as they chased the American dream despite prejudice, discrimination, incarceration and forfeiture of assets.
Cyrus Tamashiro, President of of the United Japanese Society of Hawaii, Honolulu
...your story captivated me as much as any of John Grisham's stories.You may not realize it, but you have a great knack for laying bare all the tribulations you experienced growing up,and you do it in a way that is both entertaining and informative. And the way you portray the rest of your family along with possible explanations for the motivation behind their behaviour (good or bad) is truly a study in psychology. What a great read!
Rudyard Kipling once said that if history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten. I agree. Anyone who reads your story will always look at the incarceration of Japanese Americans in a different light. Knowing about history is one thing, feeling what it was like to actually be there is quite another.
David Melanson, retired biologist, Salmon River, NS
Canada's history is quite appalling when one knows the truth about human rights. There is a certain sadness in the Slocan Valley from its history although a very beautiful place to live, not an easy place once you have a conscience - of course not everyone who lives here has a conscience.
Marilyn Burgoon, environmental activist, Slocan Valley, BC
Your launch could not have been better, your reading could not have been better, and your book is one every Canadian and, yes, every American should read. Thank you for the inscribed copy. I want to buy two more copies of your book to send to my son and daughter. It’s a book they should read as well. Congratulations. I felt honoured to have been at the launch of your book.
Ross Klatte, author of Leaving the Farm, Balfour, BC
As to your memoir, I loved the literary quality of the chapter dealing with your father, and the descriptions in `Papa`s Nemesis`. Your family dynamics are fascinating. I haven`t finished the book, yet, but I`m in awe of the depth and breadth of its contents. I think this book will carry you far in bringing attention to the civil rights issues that have been ignored, and you have made a splash and certainly succeeded in educating me and making me care.
Margrith Schraner, Copy & Associate Editor of The New Orphic Review, Nelson, BC
Thank you for writing about such heartfelt experiences and sharing your intimate growing-up days. The bonding you experienced in the bath with your mother has become unforgettable to me. I think you are particularly gifted to be able to reproduce such early events so palpably. You are quite remarkable, Diana.
Joy Thomas, Retired Supervisor of Reference, Toronto Board of Education Library, Toronto, ON
Reading Sideways was like sitting on a train with my eyes transfixed on the passing scenes of a courageous family living during those difficult years after their release from the camps. Your strong-willed parents’ love, endurance and compassion shows through. You made me sad at times, made me chuckle with your bold statements too. You made me aware of the complexities of the Japanese-Canadian internment experience as well.
Mrs. Sueko Inouye, San Jose, CA
Thank you so much for writing the book. The book is so open and honest about the affects of the internment experience on the family. It is so good to have all of these family stories documented. Although I had heard some of the stories from my mother, there were some that I became aware of for the first time. It was nice to read things from your perspective...I had no idea about the hardships and feelings that you had growing up. I just wanted to reach out and give you a big hug when I read about some of your sad experiences.
Bekki Shibayama, Niece, Board Member of Crystal City Pilgrimage, San Jose, CA
Sideways: Memoirs of a Misfit could to easily be seen as the story of one culture wronged by another when truly it aims at the heart of the human condition with humour, wisdom, and honesty. For storytellers the written word can get in the way of a grand telling, but these words in Misfit are crafted in such a way as to capture the imagination of any person who has ever felt like the odd one out in a crowd. It is a book of laughter, grief, anger, and joy woven into an invitation.
Raymond D. Stothers, Nelson Storyteller
Thank you for writing it. It is a very important book and should be widely read. I will recommend it in my circles. It is also a very good book for its insight into a world that we "mainstream" Canadians can never know but need to know in order to truly live up to the aspirations of truth and reconciliation. It was also a fun read as it was opening my eyes to your family's plight.
Barry Gray, Kootenay Storyteller
I finished reading Sideways: Memoir of a Misfit last night. Am impressed beyond words. It touched me in countless ways. Diana tells her story in a way that one can't stop reading once started....and what a story it is! It certainly awakened me into a world I thought I knew but found I didn't really know it at all. I can only bow in reverence to the Morita family story.
Joy Tsuzuki, Retired Interrogator USAF Intelligence in Tokyo
Absolutely beautifully written. It is truly an amazing story you told. You should be very proud as the writing and story are riveting. Congratulations on your book!
Charles Timinsky, Reno, NV.
Your work evoked the pain, love, wisdom, and laugh-out-loud ingenious ways children and youth confront and survive poverty and racial injustice. The worst thing that a child can experience, in my opinion, is to feel excluded when they so desperately want to belong. Those interests--who, for base reasons, attempt to set us against each other--are the ones who are truly excluded, and should be.
Don Currie, Editor of Focus on Socialism, New Denver, BC
The writing is truly superb and the story itself most compelling. What a character you were – and still are, of course! I’m appreciating getting to know you more and to better understand, not only the plight of the Japanese in North America during the war (although that is very important and central to your story), but also the lasting effects of childhood traumas.
Jocelyne Thompson, Librarian Emerita & Founding Editor, New Brunswick Bibliography Series, University of New Brunswick
I enjoyed and was fascinated reading about your family and upbringing in Chicago, and thought the book was very nicely written. Having also been an outsider for much of my life, though for vastly different reasons obviously, I can certainly understand the feelings and frustrations of exclusion.
Ben Dishart, VFX Artist for Animal Logic, Vancouver, BC
The last chapter of your book was very moving as it reflected on many issues that impacted your life and the lives of so many Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians and so many others. I could see the similarities between the exclusion of the Nikkei and the plight of the Palestinians, for whom I am doing work to raise awareness of their plight and advocate for their need for justice. They also carry that deep sense of loss as well as injustice and the knowledge that they can never go home, and in fact there is no "home" to go home to even if they could make such a journey.
Linda Scherzinger, retired United Church of Canada Lay Designated Minister, Halifax, NS
It just makes me sick to know what the Japanese-Canadians have gone through. Growing up here in Greenwood, these things were never really talked about. We were all friends growing up together in the fifties & sixties, life was good, everybody worked hard and people were dedicated to making a good community.
Doreen Maclean, President of the Greenwood Heritage Society (Museum & Visitor Centre), Greenwood, BC
Before the war...
Behind barbed wire...
Beyond the camps.
When all is said and done
it is all about family
Diana Morita Cole says it so well.
Professor Emeritus Dennis M. Ogawa, American Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Your reading has given me much food for thought, maybe cuz you're an Asian woman like myself, maybe cuz we're close in age, maybe cuz one of the passages you read was about your mother, and it triggered many wonderful memories about my mother. You're articulate and poetic in taking some of your life experiences and what could have remained as traumatic and "transformed" them into a powerful narrative that can uplift, educate and inspire others. A kind of "composting" at its best, taking difficult past experiences, recontextualizing them and breathing new life into them.
Jade Young, Hospice Chaplain, Honolulu