Montrose SoCal Book Launch Party

They could have come for the food. That alone was worth the drive. Or for the stories. It was a historian's delight. They could have come for the camaraderie. People who had not laid eyes on one another for 68 years reunited. Or they could have come for the book. It was good too, and, for them it sold at a discount.

Fifty people, fourteen onetime Lompocans and their relatives and friends, enjoyed all four payoffs as they gathered Saturday at the Montrose Library for the Southern California Book Launch of Vanished: Lompoc's Japanese.

Mike Mori, grandson of the photographer of the book's cover, presided. He regaled the crowd with his story of telling his mother to never answer questions from a reporter unless her son were present. And then the reporter turned out to be White!

George Yoshitake retold his favorite yarn, the one about urging a friend of his, a Lompoc writer, to look into the forced evacuation of the Nikkeijin from Lompoc in 1942, and their non-return in 1945.

The reporter talked too, about how the book received its name, from the ignorance among current Lompocans about the Nikkei departure. He talked about the research process triggered by Yoshitake, and why he kept digging. Janet Kawahata Saisho answered that one for him. "He's a reporter!" He finished by retelling Chapter One: "Chiyo Goes to the Prom."

But the best stories came from the former residents themselves. Hank Iwamoto talked about his father being refused service at Lompoc's La Purisima Inn in July of 1945, and people telling him "We don't want you."

George Murakami remembered the "No Japs Served" sign at A.L. Johnson's gas station. Chet Kitaguchi talked about his service time with the 442nd in Italy and France. He was one of the reinforcements who took over immediately after the Lost Platoon was saved.

And Yo Hozaki Hongo, the little girl on the left on our book's cover, shared her doubts about the location of the parade. She thinks it was not in Lompoc.

Others contributed in their own way.Allison Kiyoko Nakamura shot forty pictures. Lynn Mori and Jean Nakashima Tekawa, and others, commandeered the food. Yosh Nakayama, who had come all the way from Utah, held up a Lompoc High School yearbook with his picture.

Michi Hozaki Mori just leaned back and smiled at what had resulted after her son and that strange reporter met up.

Thanks to everybody. It was a wonderful day.

The Reporter