Welcome to the second season of “beyond generations,” an interview series. It’s my journey of discovering what happened to Japanese American people during WWII, and how people have been trying to acknowledge, understand, and learn from it, and figure out how to connect it to the future. I am your host, Monica.

Today’s guest is Jay Rubin. He is the author of a novel the Sun Gods, a story about a Caucasian boy and his adopted Japanese mother whose lives were separated at the mercy of World War II. The story takes you to Seattle, to Camp Minidoka, and to Japan - before, during, and after the war.

Jay Rubin is also one of the most distinguished English-language translators of Japanese literature.

In this episode, Jay will talk about how he got interested in studying Japanese, how his moving to Seattle made him start working on this novel, and how crucial it was for him to have a deep experience with the Japanese language and people to write this story.

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Special thanks to Jay Rubin and Rakuko Rubin

Music by ZakharValaha from Pixabay

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Join our community on Instagram @beyondgenerations.seattle

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References:

About Jay Rubin

https://rijs.fas.harvard.edu/jay-rubin

About the novel “The Sun Gods”

https://www.chinmusicpress.com/product-page/the-sun-gods

The Japanese translation version of the novel “The Sun Gods” 「日々の光」

https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/book/505372/

About Reverend Emery Andrews

https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Emery_Andrews/

About Ada Mahon

https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Ada_Mahon/

Minidoka Interlude, reprint of original “yearbook”

https://www.minidoka.org/shop/minidoka-interlude

Minidoka Irrigator

https://www.minidoka.org/blog/minidoka-irrigator

About Haruki Murakami

https://www.harukimurakami.com/author

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