Lori Matsukawa feels it’s vital for people to dig into their family histories and learn about their relations’ origin stories. Taking the next step of writing about those stories and sharing them with the next generation are equally essential and fulfilling tasks.
“It’s a great family exercise. The holidays are coming up. You’re going to get together with aunts and uncles and cousins. And this would make a great family project,” she said.
About 15 years ago, Matsukawa was surprisingly informed that her grandmother was a picture bride many years ago and traveled from Japan to Hawaii to be wed. She took her niece’s discovery into the literary realm by recently authoring the children’s book “Brave Mrs. Sato,” which delves into intergenerational friendship, immigration and bravery while touching upon heritage, food and traditions along the way.
After Matsukawa spoke at a Rotary Club of Mercer Island meeting about “Brave Mrs. Sato” and picture brides on Sept. 17, the club purchased four of her books and president Benson Wong delivered them to the Mercer Island School District (MISD) office for possible inclusion in the elementary school libraries. At a recent MISD event, Wong visited with a few district employees who were involved in the reviewal and approval process to place the book on the library shelves.
“I was told that they were excited to include the book,” said Wong, adding that Rotary unanimously supported the idea to donate the books and advance its commitments to youth and their education.
Wong further explained that, “While I had known about picture brides before in part because one of my cousins (through marriage) was a producer of the film entitled ‘Picture Bride,’ it is a historical topic that was not generally taught when I went to public school.”
According to The Japanese Journal of American Studies, “Picture marriage (shashin kekkon) was a common practice among Japanese immigrants in Hawaii and the continental United States in the early twentieth century.”
Matsukawa, who was born and raised in Hawaii and has resided in Bellevue for the last 40-plus years, noted about the scenario: “In the course of some 15 years, 26,000 women from Japan immigrated to Hawaii and the West Coast U.S., most of them to Hawaii. So that’s 26,000 Japanese women crossing the ocean to marry men they did not know. They only knew them by their photographs. They had been kind of like set up by these matchmakers in Japan.”
The book, with illustrations by Tammy Yee, was based in Hawaii and on characters in Matsukawa’s real life. Set in the 1960 time period, the babysitter and young girl interact when the child faces a challenging change in her life. The girl’s sitter lends an encouraging and comforting hand by sharing her story about being a picture bride and the bravery that came with her situation. The author sees the book as a positive addition to the literary world.
Matsukawa, an Emmy award-winning journalist and pioneering TV anchor, said that Bobbie Stern of the Stroum Jewish Community Center and Island Books owner Laurie Swift Raisys have been immense supporters of “Brave Mrs. Sato.”
So has the MISD, whose Learning Services Coordinator Weston Lucas said the district is grateful for the Rotarians’ donation.
“The book will make a powerful addition to our elementary library collections. The beautiful illustrations and moving story about how difficult change can be can teach our students important lessons. We also love that the book celebrates diversity and learning about other cultures,” Lucas said.
In another MISD connection, Matsukawa noted that her niece and former Island student revealed that while chronicling their family history that the author’s grandmother was a picture bride. That revelation became the impetus for writing the book and features a character that is a combination of her grandmother and babysitter.
Matsukawa provided additional insight into what she calls the picture-bride phenomenon: “It’s a little known story outside of families that happen to have picture brides in them. And so I want to tell the story about the bravery of picture brides.”
She also wants children to gain exposure to other cultures and histories and see themselves in library books that center on family origin stories and journeys.
“Someone in your family made a choice, did something brave, picked a route — a path that changed the family’s life forever,” she said. “And so that has to be written down somewhere so that you can appreciate what your family member went through.”
This post was originally published on here
