documentary filmmakerBruce Cohen.

remains influential to this day.1885-1941 (1993) and Picture Bride Stories (2016).

and after decades operating a dressmaking shop and educating her children.including 350 kimono and other rare items of clothing.returned to college at the age of 53 and began her long and influential career as a scholar of textiles and clothing.

highlighted in the exhibition Textured Lives: Japanese Immigrant Clothing from the Plantations of Hawai‘i in 2010.Kawakami donated her personal collection.

who leaves a powerful legacy of scholarship and generosity.

and her donation to the museum ensured it will be an important historical resource for the public and researchers for generations to come.especially in the mind of an innocent child.

I was able to speak with her a few times — once in Heritage Sources booth during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.a haunting recollection of the Wakatsuki familys memories of three-and-a-half years of unjustified imprisonment.

Feel? How did I feel? For the first time I dropped the protective cover of humor and nonchalance.‘Its because we are Japanese.