The Winter of Melancholy

The Winter of Melancholy opens in Manzanar Interment Camp, a WWII relocation compound in the Mojave Desert, where Japanese American citizens were incarcerated along with their immigrant family members. Told from the viewpoint of the women whose lives were shaped by this period of isolation, separation and suffering of one extended family, we trace the resilience of the women, their strength, spirit and compassion that weaves through their stories from the immigrant to post war generations. The other short works of fi ction include stories: of a Japanese American girl who encounters racism on a PTA sponsored fi eld trip, a midwife whose work requires her to drive up and down the El Camino Real to ply her trade, a Nisei woman who translates Japanese radio programs during WWII for the U.S. Army to intercept troop movements. These stories and others trace the challenges that women encountered in the face of racism, duty as family bread winners, transformation in response to social change, and finding ways to forge and retain familial connections.