Reader Reaction to Combat Chaplain

A reader sends the following reaction to Combat Chaplain by Israel Yost:

Dear neighbors on the other side of the globe,

I want to personally thank the University of Hawai‘i Press for publishing Combat Chaplain by Israel Yost, and to thank Monica Yost and Michael Markrich for compiling and editing such a wonderfully well-told account of very tough times.

I work as a spiritual director near Naples, Italy, where I travel many of the paths that Chaplain Yost once did as I live near Avellino. I was surprised to find that I currently conduct spiritual retreats just a few miles from where he did his hardest work in Montecalvo Irpino, Italy.

Having been in combat myself, I am humbled at the harshness of the task facing the 100th Battalion, which lacked our modern protections and tactics. This book will greatly enrich the retreats I conduct here and I will encourage others to read it. I plan to drive the path he did while recollecting some of his thoughts while treading the same, now peaceful ground. We truly stand on the spiritual shoulders of such men as Israel Yost and those who tell his story. I now reap the benefits of the peace that he sought.

My prayers of thanks to the Lord for your book. May such stories be told over and over.

Ciao, most sincerely,
Bruce Mentzer

Mark Panek reading from Gaijin Yokozuna

Mark Panek, author of Gaijin Yokozuna: A Biography of Chad Rowan, will read from his biography of the Hawai‘i-born sumotori on Tuesday, October 16, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in UCB 100 at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

Gaijin Yokozuna explores the changes in cultural identity that Waimanalo’s Chad Rowan made on his way to becoming sumotori Akebono, the first foreigner (gaijin) to reach the top rank, yokozuna (grand champion), in a sport that dates back to Japanese creation myths.

This special event is free and open to the public, but registration is required to fulfill grant conditions. Call 808-974-7664 for registration information.

John Clark at Brown Bag Biography

John Clark, author of many popular books on Hawai‘i’s beaches, will discuss his work on Guardian of the Sea: Jizo in Hawai‘i, published this August by University of Hawai‘i Press, on Thursday, November 15, noon-1:15 pm, at the Center for Biographical Research, University of Hawai‘i-Manoa, Henke Hall 325, 1800 East-West Road. The event is part of “Brown Bag Biography: Discussions of Life Writing By and For Town and Gown,” sponsored by the Center.

Bob Dye at the Honolulu Writers Conference

Bob Dye, author of Merchant Prince of the Sandalwood Mountains: Afong and the Chinese in Hawai‘i and editor of Hawai‘i Chronicles II and III, all published by University of Hawai‘i Press, will lead a non-fiction writing workshop at this year’s Honolulu Writers Conference. Twelve workshops will be offered by experienced authors, editors, and teachers at the conference on Saturday, October 20, from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm, at the Neil Blaisdell Center. Registration and fee ($70.00) are required. For more information, call 808-395-1161, or email alohapress@hawaiiantel.net.

Halloween Book Signings for Marion Coste

Marion Coste will autograph The Hawaiian Bat: ‘Ope‘ape‘a, her most recent book for children on Hawaiian native animal species at the below times and locations. Children are invited to make their own bat bookmarks, and everyone can learn more about this rare animal from the author.

Wednesday, October 24
2-3:00 pm, Pearl Harbor Navy Exchange

Saturday, October 27
12-1:00 pm, Borders-Windward Mall
2-3:00 pm, Borders-Waikele

Sunday, October 28
12-1:00, Borders-Ward Centre
2-3:00, Borders-Pearlridge

The author will also be giving talks on the Hawaiian bat at various O‘ahu elementary schools from now into November:
October 11, Maunawili
October 12, Benjamin Parker
October 18, Pearl Kai
October 19, ASSETS School
October 22, Pearlridge
October 26, Kaneohe
November 15, Hale Kula
November 16, Waiau

Marion Coste is the author of Nene, Honu, and Kolea: The Story of the Pacific Golden Plover, all published by University of Hawai‘i Press.

Stopover featured in Time Magazine

Photographs from Stopover, a new book by New Zealand journalist Bruce Connew, were featured in the September 17, 2007 issue of Time magazine (South Pacific edition). View the article here.

Stopover is published and distributed outside New Zealand by University of Hawai‘i Press.

The WWII Internment Memoirs of a Hawaii Issei

Yasutaro Soga’s Life behind Barbed Wire (Tessaku seikatsu) is an exceptional firsthand account of the incarceration of a Hawai‘i Japanese during World War II. On the evening of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Soga, the editor of a Japanese-language newspaper, was arrested along with several hundred other prominent Issei (Japanese immigrants) in Hawai‘i. After being held for six months on Sand Island, Soga was transferred to an Army camp in Lordsburg, New Mexico, and later to a Justice Department camp in Santa Fe. He would spend just under four years in custody before returning to Hawai‘i in the months following the end of the war.

Most of what has been written about the detention of Japanese Americans focuses on the Nisei experience of mass internment on the West Coast—largely because of the language barrier immigrant writers faced. This translation, therefore, presents us with a rare Issei voice on internment, and Soga’s opinions challenge many commonly held assumptions about Japanese Americans during the war regarding race relations, patriotism, and loyalty.

October 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-2033-6 / $24.00 (PAPER)

Visual Modernity in China

The Distorting Mirror: Visual Modernity in China, by Laikwan Pang, analyzes the multiple and complex ways in which urban Chinese subjects saw themselves interacting with the new visual culture that emerged during the turbulent period between the 1880s and the 1930s. The media and visual forms examined include lithography, photography, advertising, film, and theatrical performances. Urbanites actively engaged with and enjoyed this visual culture, which was largely driven by the subjective desire for the empty promises of modernity—promises comprised of such abstract and fleeting concepts as new, exciting, and fashionable.

October 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3093-9 / $55.00 (CLOTH)

“This book presents a careful historicization of the ‘visual.’ Rather than take the act of seeing as natural, Pang brilliantly argues that the visual is a modern phenomenon, linked to but extending and transforming indigenous cultural forms of seeing and looking. Equally meticulous in its theoretical and empirical coordinates, this book is eminently readable and consistently insightful. A wonderful look at how modern Chinese came to see.” —Rebecca E. Karl, New York University

Pacific Ethnomathematics

Pacific Ethnomathematics: A Bibliographic Study, a ground-breaking work by distinguished Pacific researcher Nicholas J. Goetzfridt, examines mathematical concepts and practices in Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. It covers number systems, counting, measuring, classifying, spatial relationships, symmetry, geometry, and other aspects of ethnomathematics in relation to a wide range of activities such as trade, education, navigation, construction, rituals and festivals, divination, weaving, tattooing, and music. In compiling nearly five hundred citations, Goetzfridt makes use of the vast resources of writing about the Pacific from the 1700s to the present. In addition to discussing Pacific knowledge systems in general, his introductory chapter includes a helpful overview of the relatively new field of ethnomathematics and important theoretical reflections on the discipline as a research program.

October 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3170-7 / $75.00 (CLOTH)

Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art

Faith and Power in Japanese Buddhist Art, 1600–2005, by Patricia J. Graham, explores the transformation of Buddhism from the premodern to the contemporary era in Japan and the central role its visual culture has played in this transformation. Although Buddhism is generally regarded as peripheral to modern Japanese society, this book demonstrates otherwise. Its chapters elucidate the thread of change over time in the practice of Buddhism as revealed in temple worship halls and other sites of devotion and in imagery representing the religion’s most popular deities and religious practices. It also introduces the work of modern and contemporary artists who are not generally associated with institutional Buddhism and its canonical visual requirements but whose faith inspires their art.
157 illustrations, 46 in color

October 2007 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3126-4 / $55.00 (CLOTH)

Patricia J. Graham is the author of Tea of the Sages: The Art of Sencha, also published by University of Hawai‘i Press.