lives in Eugene, where she works as a medical in-
terpreter, writer, researcher, and activist. She gives
public lectures across the United States.
Bunkong TuonHirahara, Naomi (1962– )
Born in Pasadena, California, Naomi was the first
child of her parents, both of whom were affected
by the 1945 Hiroshima bombing. Her father, born
in California but taken to Hiroshima as a child,
lived only miles away from where the bombs were
dropped. He, however, survived it and was able to
return to California after the war. Naomi’s mother
lost her father in the blast.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree in interna-
tional relations from Stanford University, Naomi
Hirahara studied at the Inter-University Center
for Advanced Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo
and spent three months as a volunteer worker in
Ghana, West Africa. She was a reporter and editor
of The Rafu Shimpo, the largest Japanese-Ameri-
can daily newspaper, during the culmination of
the redress and reparations movement for Japa-
nese Americans who were forcibly removed from
their homes during World War II. During her ten-
ure as editor, the newspaper published a highly ac-
claimed interethnic-relations series after the L.A.
riots. Hirahara left the newspaper in 1996 to serve
as a Milton Center Fellow in creative writing at
Newman University in Wichita, Kansas.
After returning to California in 1997, Hirahara
began to edit, publish, and write books. She ed-
ited Green Makers: Japanese American Gardeners in
Southern California (2000), published by South-
ern California Gardeners’ Federation. She also au-
thored two biographies for the Japanese American
National Museum, An American Son: The Story of
George Aratani, Founder of Mikasa and Kenwood
(2000) and A Taste for Strawberries: The Inde-
pendent Journey of Nisei Farmer Manabi Hirasaki
(2003). She also compiled a reference book, Dis-
tinguished Asian American Business Leaders (2003),
and coedited Silent Scars of Healing Hands: Oral
Histories of Japanese American Doctors in World
War II Detention Camps (2004) for the Japanese
American Medical Association.
Hirahara, however, is best known for her Mas
Arai mystery series. Her debut mystery novel,
Summer of the Big Bachi (2004), introduces readers
to a unique kind of literary detective—the “Japa-
nese gardener” in a crime-solving role. The story
tells of the Japanese-American gardener, Mas Arai,
who spends much of his time with his friends in a
sleepy Los Angeles suburb. But for more than 50
years, Mas has kept secrets about the lives of his
three friends, about his youth in Hiroshima prior
to the atomic bombing in 1945, and about his
fears of bachi—the spirit of retribution. When a
stranger arrives in town, a brutal homicide occurs,
sending Mas on a search for long-lost truths.
The lead character, Mas Arai, is loosely based
on Naomi Hirahara’s issei father, who is also a
survivor of the Hiroshima bombing and a Los An-
geles–based gardener. Summer of the Big Bachi, a
finalist for Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize,
was also nominated for a Macavity mystery award.
Naomi’s second mystery, Gasa-Gasa Girl (2005),
was on the Southern California Booksellers’ As-
sociation best seller list for two weeks in 2005.
Naomi’s third mystery Snakeskin Shamisen was
published in April 2006.
Monika DixHo, Minfong (1951– )
An award-winning author of fiction for young
readers, Minfong Ho has brought an engagingly
multicultural and straightforwardly honest per-
spective to the subjects that she has treated in her
work. Ho was born in Rangoon, Burma, to Thai
parents. Her parents were well-educated profes-
sionals: her father, Rih-Hwa, was an economist,
and her mother, Lienfung, a chemist. Raised
largely in Thailand and Taiwan, Ho attended
Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan, in the
late 1960s. Immigrating to the United States, she
attended Cornell University, completing a B.A. in
history and economics in 1973 and an M.F.A. in
creative writing in 1980. In 1976 she married John106 Hirahara, Naomi