Author talk to explore WWII Japanese internment April 29

The Lewes Public Library, Seaside Jewish Community, History Book Festival and Browseabout books will welcome author Tracy Slater for an online discussion of “Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp” at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 29, via Zoom.

In 1942 America, anyone with even “one drop” of Japanese blood was ordered by the U.S. government to relocate into a detention camp. That is why Elaine Buchman Yoneda, a Jewish American, chose to be imprisoned in Manzanar with her 3-year-old son and her husband Karl Yoneda. The young child had serious illnesses, and Elaine refused to be separated from him, as he had to be sent to the camp with his father. This would be just one of many difficult decisions the family faced while incarcerated in this isolated desert setting unfit for human habitation.

“Looking back at the WWII Japanese internment, we see many parallels to our present-day situation of rounding up families, incarcerating them in substandard facilities and denying their civil rights,” said Enid Zafran, SJC book group leader. “Slater, like the main character Elaine Buchman Yoneda, is a white Jewish American who married a Japanese man and has a unique view to understand the mindset of the immigrant who is singled out from the dominant population.”

To register, go to tinyurl.com/AuthorEventsLPL or call 302-645-2733.