Amazing

Amazing. Today is Monday. This site has been up for only three days. I do not yet have a copy of the book in my hand.

And yet today we have a tentative site for a gatherng October 16 in Los Angeles, we made contact with the Rafu Shimpo, and one of the stars of the book has committed to coming to Lompoc for our Pre-Launch Party on Saturday October 2. All this for a book about a little town whose name nobody can pronounce. And all three of these steps toward telling the story of Vanished: Lompoc's Japanese were taken by sources who tell their story in the book, and members of their families. Not me.

First of all Mike Mori e-mails me regarding his search for a location for a gathering in the Los Angeles area on October 16. He thinks he has just the place: a library. Great. We will publicize it as soon as it is confirmed. Thank you, Mike. Mike's grandfather, Todoroki Hozaki, took the photograph that is used on the cover of our book.

Then, another e-mail shows up, this one from Janet Kawahata Saisho, her father was the leader of one of the "voluntary" evacuation groups which left Lompoc in March 1942. Janet took the initiative to track one of her old friends who writes for the Rafu Shimpo. She found herself talking to an editor who said she would like to know more about the book. I have a phone number here to call tomorrow morning. Thank you, Janet.

Then, the phone rings. It's Chiyo Iwamoto Kobayashi. She has a church retreat scheduled for October 16 so she cannot come to the gathering that day. So instead, she and her son James are driving all the way from Los Angeles to Lompoc this Saturday, October 2!! Wow. Not only that, she is making spinach and cream cheese pinwheels to bring! Isn't this amazing. That brings the list of ex-Lompocans to four including Katie Inouye Kayser, whose quote appears here on the front page of the web site, Kuni Inouye Omura, Lompoc Flower Festival Queen of 1963 who is quoted in the book, and Koaru Bill Honda, the Iwamoto Store bookkeeper who was the Lompoc Yawaragi club's basketball and baseball coach and was one of the founders of Lompoc's JACL chapter. Not to mention his wife, Lucille.

Like I said, amazing.

John