Ling, 215–237. Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 1992.
Jinah KimSakamoto, Edward (1940– )
Sakamoto was born and raised in the A’ala Park
neighborhood in Honolulu, Hawaii. As a ninth
grader, he was assigned to revise Treasure Island by
Robert Stevenson for extra credit, and encouraged
by his teacher’s comments, he became interested
in writing. He attended the University of Hawaii,
where he tried acting. In college, he wrote In the
Alle y, which was later included in Kumu Kahua
Plays (1983), an anthology of plays by the Kumu
Kahua Theatre. He graduated from the University
of Hawaii in 1962. Discouraged by the lack of sub-
stantial, inspiring roles that Asian-American ac-
tors could play, he moved to Los Angeles in 1966
to work for the Los Angeles Times.
Sakamoto’s relocation happened at the right
time because the post–World War II generation
of Asian-American actors were fighting against
demeaning Asian American stereotypes in media
by staging plays that accurately represent Asian
Americans. In 1972 Sakamoto’s second play, Ye l l o w
Is My Favorite Color was produced by the East West
Players, and in 1980–81 by the Pan Asian Reper-
tory Theatre in New York City. Most of Sakamo-
to’s plays, often set in Hawaii, were staged by the
East West Players at least once since then. He was
awarded grants from the National Endowment for
Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation. He also re-
ceived two Hollywood Dramalogue Critic’s awards
for Chikamatsu’s Forest and Stew Rice and the Ha-
waii Award for Literature.
Sakamoto published Hawai’i No Ka Oi: the Ka-
miya Family Trilogy (1995), which includes The
Taste of Kona Coffee, Manoa Valley, and The Life
of the Land. In these plays, he questions his de-
cision to relocate to the mainland and expresses
his doubts through his characters. His plays often
present a contrast between Hawaii and the main-
land, Japanese values and American values, and the
old and the new, often dealing with the meaning
of “home” as their central theme. For example, in
The Taste of Kona Coffee and The Life of the Land,
characters like Jiro and Spencer relocate to the
mainland only to become alienated from family
members and friends. Sakamoto’s Hawaiian char-
acters also face difficulties in assimilating to the
mainstream culture when they move away from
their island home. For example, in Stew Rice, a play
included in Aloha Las Vegas and Other Plays (2000)
along with A’ala Park and Aloha Las Vegas, Russell
becomes keenly aware of the differences between
haoles and himself.
Sakamoto’s plays received positive reviews from
theater reviewers and public audiences, particu-
larly for his effective use of Hawaiian pidgin Eng-
lish in the dialogues.Bibliography
Amano, Kyoko. “Edward Sakamoto (1940– ).” En-
cyclopedia of Ethnic American Writers. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005.
Huot, Nikolas. “Edward Sakamoto (1940– ).” Asian
American Playwrights: A Bio-Bibliographical Criti-
cal Sourcebook, edited by Miles Xian Liu. West-
port, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Kyoko AmanoSakamoto, Kerri (1959– )
Born in Toronto, Sakamoto grew up in Etibicoke
during the 1960s and 1970s. The racism of her
childhood and her struggle with her identity as a
Japanese Canadian are reflected in her short sto-
ries, novels, and screenplays.
As an adult Sakamoto lived in New York for six
years, working as a writer for an art gallery. While
in New York, Sakamoto published two short sto-
ries, both in 1993: “View from the Edge of the
World” was published in Harbour: Magazine of
Art & Everyday Life and “Walk-In Closet” in Char-
lie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary
Asian American Fiction edited by JESSICA HAGE-
DORN. The only other Canadian to be included in
the anthology is the renowned poet and novelist
JOY KO G AWA.
Kerri Sakamoto returned to Canada and fin-
ished her first novel, The Electrical Field, whichSakamoto, Kerri 259