parents. She also wrote Kira-Kira, a children’s
book about a young Japanese-American girl who
has to cope with her sister’s death. Kadohata has
received fellowships from the National Endow-
ment for the Arts, the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foun-
dation, and the Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project.
She lives in Los Angeles.
Catherine FungKaneko, Lonny (1939– )
Born in Seattle, Washington, Kaneko is a third-
generation Japanese American. At the outbreak of
World War II, Kaneko and his family were sent to
an assembly center in Puyallup, Washington. Later
they were interned at Hunt (Minidoka) Relocation
Center in Idaho. While in college, Kaneko studied
under Theodore Roethke and received his M.A.
in English from the University of Washington in
- His master’s thesis was a collection of poems
entitled “Catchcan of Chicken Feathers in an Old
Roost.” He received the National Endowment for
the Arts fellowship in 1982, which enabled him to
complete his manuscript for Coming Home from
Camp (1986), a collection of poems about the
internment camp and postwar experiences. He
taught English at Highline Community College in
Washington.
Though Kaneko considers himself primarily
a teacher, then a poet, he coauthored two plays
with Amy Sanbo. Lady Is Dying received the Henry
Broderick Playwright Prize at the Pacific North-
west Writers Conference and was performed at the
Asian American Theatre Workshop in 1977. He
also coauthored Benny Hana with Amy Sanbo.
Like his poems, many of Kaneko’s short stories
take place in the internment camp. His master-
piece, “The Shoyu Kid” (1991), describes life in
an internment camp from the young boy Masao’s
point of view. Along with his friends, Masao chases
the title character, a boy nicknamed the Shoyu Kid
after his brown, runny nose, only to find out that
the Shoyu Kid receives a chocolate from an Ameri-
can soldier for playing with the soldier’s chimpo
(penis). The motifs of chase and trap, as well as the
themes of alienation and betrayal, are prominent
in this story.
Kaneko’s short story “Nobody’s Hero” (1996) is
also set in Minidoka camp and told from Masao’s
point of view. In this story Masao and his friend
steal candies and cigarettes from a canteen success-
fully, and their friends start to see Masao and his
friends as their heroes because they deceived the
War Relocation Authority (WRA) officers. How-
ever, their glorious days as heroes are over within
a week when the WRA officers belittle Masao and
his friends’ deed in a camp newspaper. The theme
of loyalty is central in this story: It is the loyalty
among Masao and his friends that drives them to
steal from the canteen and challenge the power
and authority of the U.S. government represented
by the characters of the WRA officers.
Kyoko AmanoKang, Younghill (1903–1972)
Born in Hamkyung Province in North Korea,
Kang was educated first in the Confucian tradi-
tion and later at Christian schools established by
missionaries from North America. In 1914, against
the expectations of his father, he left behind the
obligations of the only son, in pursuit of higher
and broader education. Kang studied in Seoul for
about a year in virtual destitution, observing the
modernization of Korea under the colonial rule
of Japan. A year later, he continued his studies in
Japan to expand his knowledge of Western science,
literature, and philosophy. In 1921 Kang landed in
New York.
Describing himself as “self-educated,” he read
English and American classics voraciously, at-
tending classes at Harvard and Boston Universi-
ties, while working at various times as a houseboy,
restaurant server, and business assistant to sup-
port himself. Between 1924 and 1927, Kang wrote
in Korean and Japanese; but from 1928 he began
writing in English with the help of his Wellesley-
educated American wife, Frances Keeley. He found
work as an editor for the Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s144 Kaneko, Lonny