"A simultaneously elegant and sharp-edged exploration of the hidden past."—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"Masumoto has shared his experiences as an organic farmer in central California in books and as a columnist for the Sacramento Bee. Here, he details his family's remarkable discovery in 2012 of an aunt—his mother’s sister Shizuko (Sugi)—whose childhood case of meningitis rendered her mentally disabled, and who was thus forcibly separated from her siblings and parents during the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII...Masumoto thoughtfully ruminates on the swirl of emotions the war wrought on his family... and their shame in realizing that institutionalized care for Sugi might have been better than what they could have given her. Ultimately, there is pride in Sugi's resilience..."—Booklist
"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."—Meg Nola, Foreword Reviews
"Ultimately, the reader comes away from Secret Harvests with a sense of reverence for farmers and caregivers as well as an understanding of Masumoto's family history, which is representative of so many Japanese-American families' experiences in the last three generations. Reading this book will make you reconsider the value of difference, whether you are considering people or produce at the farmer's market."—Rachel Lutwick-Deaner, Southern Review of Books
“Mas is truly a poet–farmer—he writes stories like he tends to his peaches, each memory cared for and brought to life in such beautiful, thoughtful detail. This book is an immigrant story both very personal to Mas and resonant with so many others around the world, inspiring and heartbreaking, a story of family, history, memory, and lifetimes of resilience.”—José Andrés, chef–activist and founder of World Central Kitchen
“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
“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
"Mas Masumoto masterfully weaves dramatic history with domestic tragedy into a coherent, revealing whole. This 'secret' merits serious pursuit."—Lawson Fusao Inada, Guggenheim Fellow and author of Legends from Camp
★ 2022-11-24
The noted writer and organic farmer looks deep inside his family history to give voice to the unspoken.
“I am haunted by gaps in family memories, nebulous responses and twisted behavior that must be examined within the context of history—not to uncover excuses but rather reveal family baggage we all must carry and learn to live with,” writes Masumoto near the beginning of this memoir. The author looks forward to a country where his fourth-generation Japanese American children, the yonsei, are incontestably American, unlike the nisei who were interned during World War II, the author’s ancestors among them. Masumoto, a sansei in the middle, finds himself conflicted by the transformation, about “how quickly we became white, and I don’t want to be white.” His deep search into the past turns up at least one family-rattling discovery—for example, an assumed-dead aunt who suffered a disease-wrought intellectual disability, still living in an institution long after her contemporaries had been released from their wartime concentration camps. Masumoto is a collector of ghosts, and he listens to them as he explores the Gila River Indian Community of Arizona, where his family was detained, and the hospital where his aunt was locked away. He even finds ghosts among the orchards and garden beds of his central California farm, a place jeopardized by water shortages and a warming climate. “We live in a constant blur,” he writes, joining themes of past and present. “It’s easy to forget the past and instead only strive to move forward. Clinging to yesterday is perceived as a disability. Innovation and change rule. Historical amnesia is rewarded. Commerce and business drive life.” As a farmer, of course, Masumoto has to look forward, reckoning with risk and loss, but though his meditations are pensive and sometimes melancholic, it’s a pleasure to see him joining his place to the generations that came before him.
A simultaneously elegant and sharp-edged exploration of the hidden past.
