Becoming American: three generations

By Ms Mary Yanaga George

The cover of Becoming American symbolizes the eastward migration of three generations from Japan to Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. In 1896, Torakichi Yanaga and his wife Yoshie left their tiny village in Kyushu in search of better opportunities. To pay for their boat tickets, Yanaga contracted to work for three years on a sugar plantation on the Big Island. Nearly eighty years later, his son Chitoshi wrote about the early experiences of his family as first-generation (issei) and second-generation (nisei) settlers in the territory of Hawaii. He never imagined that he would end up a professor of political science at Yale University.Over one hundred and twenty years later, Mary Yanaga George continued the history of her family's journey to New England and beyond. As a third-generation sansei, she focused on an assortment of objects that had survived many moves. Not necessarily beautiful or valuable, these artifacts evoked specific memories about her formative years.After studying in the East and working in the West and South, the author retired to Boston with her husband. They live halfway between their son in California and their daughter in Ireland.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1718965001
• ISBN13: 9781718965003
• Release Date: October 2018
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 0.7" x 6.1"