AAPI Coalition of Wisconsin to host ‘AAPI Authors Humanizing Our History’ virtual event

Headshot portraits of a woman and main on the left and right sides of the cover image of the book "When the emperor was divine" by Julie Otsuka.

The AAPI Coalition of Wisconsin will present a special virtual event, “AAPI Authors Humanizing Our History,” featuring a conversation between Julie Otsuka and Tom Ikeda on Sunday, Oct. 16, from 4–5 p.m. Central Time.

Otsuka is the author of the award-winning historical novel “When the Emperor Was Divine,” which tells the story of the incarceration of a Japanese American family during World War II.

In this webinar, Otsuka will be interviewed by Tom Ikeda, the founding director of Densho, an online archive and public history organization that has documented stories, since its founding in 1996, about Japanese Americans incarcerated during WWII. They will discuss the art of writing the novel itself as well as Otsuka and Ikeda’s family’s experiences in the WWII camps.

While this novel was first published in 2002, it gained renewed importance in June when the Muskego-Norway School Board in Wisconsin rejected a request by their teacher-led curriculum committee to fund the novel for use in a 10th-grade English class. The issue received national media coverage when local parents and students spoke out against the school board’s action. In July, 150 members of the Muskego community and the AAPI Coalition of WI held a teach-in to support this novel.

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