A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm
by David Mas Masumoto
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2023
232 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
I discover a "lost" aunt, separated from our family due to racism and discrimination against the disabled. She had a mental disability due to childhood meningitis. She was taken away in 1942 when all Japanese Americans were considered the enemy and imprisoned.
She then became a "ward" of the state. We believed she had died, but 70 years later found her alive and living a few miles from our family farm. How did she survive? Why was she kept hidden? How did both shame and resilience empower my family to forge forward in a land that did not want them? I am haunted and driven to explore my identity and the meaning of family—especially as farmers tied to the land. I uncover family secrets that bind us to a sense of history buried in the earth that we work and a sense of place that defines us.
"A simultaneously elegant and sharp-edged exploration of the hidden past." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Paired with artist Patricia Wakida's haunting illustrations, the book's rich, lyrical language evokes both cultural eloquence and California's seasonal beauty. Poignant and reflective, Secret Harvests is a family saga of quiet endurance and bittersweet triumphs." —Foreword Reviews
"Exquisite and haunting. Masumoto investigates the life of a long-lost aunt and, in the process, unearths a painful chapter from his own family's history. 'Secret Harvests' is a deeply affecting meditation on loss and resilience and what we owe to those we have forgotten. A heartbreaking memoir, written with clarity and grace, about how even the 'least' of us leaves behind an indelible mark on the world." —Julie Otsuka, writer and author of The Buddha in the Attic
"Secrets carry the heavy weight of shame but they are also waiting to be liberated. Secret Harvests by David 'Mas' Masumoto sheds light on an important chapter in Japanese American disability history by unearthing his intergenerational family story. Society can try to bury the ugliness of certain truths but they have a way of reaching toward the light." —Alice Wong, disability rights activist, writer and founder of Disability Visibility Project
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
A third generation farmer, David Mas Masumoto grows peaches, nectarines, grapes and raisins on an organic 80 acre farm south of Fresno, California. Masumoto is currently a columnist for The Fresno Bee and a regular contributor to the Sacramento Bee. He was a Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Policy Fellow from 2006-2008. His writing awards include Commonwealth Club Silver medal, Julia Child Cookbook award, the James Clavell Literacy Award and a finalist in the James Beard Foundation awards. He received the "Award of Distinction" from UC Davis in 2003 and the California Central Valley "Excellence in Business" Award in 2007. He has served as chair of the California Council for the Humanities. He is currently a board member of the James Irvine Foundation and serves on the Statewide Leadership Council to the Public Policy Institute of California. In 2013 he also joined the National Council on the Arts through an appointment by President Obama. Masumoto is married to Marcy Masumoto, Ed.d., and they have a daughter, Nikiko, and a son, Korio.
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