When Mikan Road Was Ours
Thirty-four-year-old Mr. Murano (no first name provided) lives alone in South Pasadena, where he teaches high school English. Soon after his Japanese father dies of a sudden heart attack, he is diagnosed with cancer. His long-divorced mother is American. Mr. Murano is depressed and drinks too much. Quite out of the blue, a distant relative gives him his great-uncle’s unpublished memoir, letters, notes, and an old cassette tape. These cover the lives of his many Japanese relatives in the US.
Murano cannot stop reading and researching, ashamed of how little he knew or cared about his Japanese heritage—his father, grandfather, and other relatives. His learning takes on a form of therapy, and slowly he begins to reach out to others and checks his heavy drinking.
The first Murano arrived in 1901 and labored wherever he could find work. In 1905 he, with a group of other Japanese, moved to the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte. More Japanese followed and developed a thriving forty-acre farm and a close-knit Japanese American community. Mikan Road ran through the property. In WWII, the US forced the Muranos and other Japanese families into concentration camps. When their incarcerations ended, the farm, their homes, livestock, and vehicles were gone.
The richly researched memoir, letters, and other first-person accounts of hard work, pride in family, expertise in farming and science, discrimination and heartbreak will engage readers. The prose and old accounts are error-free and often poetic. This project might have worked better without interspersing the narrow modern-day Mr. Murano story with the sweeping Japanese immigrant ventures. There is enough material for two novels. Either way, it is highly recommended for anyone interested in this time of American history.
