While popular history has ascribed the fortune cookie's origins to California, it is actually originally from Japan. Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, and Derek Shimoda, director of “Killing the Chinese Cookie,” talk about their research in tracing the cookie trail back to Kyoto, where it is still being made in small family-run bakeries.

David Mura, author of Turning Japanese, will read from and discuss his new novel Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire.

The novel explores the fate of a Japanese American family whose father was a No-No Boy during World War II. The narrator, Ben Ohara, is a sansei who grows up knowing little of his father's past.

Mura will talk about the continued relevance of the internment in the current debates on national security and upon the identity of Japanese Americans and Asian Americans.

From American Concentration Camp to Battlefield 1942-1945

During World War II, Stanley Hayami, a 16 year-old Heart Mountain prisoner, aspiring artist-writer, dedicated Nisei son, and later a 442nd RCT veteran, began a diary chronicling his thoughts and optimistic hopes for a “United Nations of Earth.” Joanne Oppenheim, author of Dear Miss Breed, will share her interviews with Hayami's family and friends and her research from the National Museum's collection of his diary, art, and recently found letters.

The book is available for sale through the Museum Store. Order online or call toll-free at 888.769.5559.

Read an interview with the author: Hopes, Dreams, and Courage Under Fire: Stanley Hayami, Nisei Son