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Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

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Pamela Rotner Sakamoto is an American historian and writer on Japanese and Japanese American history, best known for her 2016 book Midnight in Broad Daylight. As of June 2024 she teaches history at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Early life and education

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Pamela Rotner Sakamoto was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the son of Howard Rotner.[1] and grew up in Swampscott, Massachusetts,[2] where she attended Swampscott High School.[1]

She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Amherst College (1984[1]) and holds a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.[2][3]

Sakamoto lived in Kyoto and Tokyo for seventeen years and is fluent in Japanese.[4][5][6]

Career

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In 2007, Sakamoto moved to Honolulu, Hawaii,[7] where she teaches history at Punahou School.[7][8][9] As of June 2024 she is coordinator of the Davis Democracy Initiative within the Social Studies Faculty.[6]

She also works as an expert consultant on Japan-related projects for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C..[5][7]

Books

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Sakamoto is the author of Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees (1998),[4] based on her dissertation. This work was among the first English-language works that investigated Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara and the role of Japanese diplomacy in saving thousands of Jewish lives on the eve of the Holocaust.[10]

Her 2016 book Midnight in Broad Daylight, a true-life story about the Japanese-American Fukuhara family divided by World War II, and the Japanese-American war hero Harry K. Fukuhara, was listed by Kirkus Reviews as one of the best nonfiction books of 2016.[11] This book also touches on the internment of Japanese Americans, life in wartime Japan, the Japanese-American Military Intelligence Service, and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.[12] It takes its title from a poem by Japanese poet and peace activist Sankichi Tōge.[13]

Recognition

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At Amherst College, Sakamoto was a Phi Beta Kappa student and a XXIV Amherst-Doshisha Fellow. She won the Pedro Grases Award for Excellence in Spanish, and the Robert L. Leeds Jr. Honor Award for Dedication to Social Programs.[1]

At the Fletcher School, she was awarded the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.[1]

Midnight in Broad Daylight garnered starred reviews in Kirkus Reviews and the Library Journal, and was Amazon Editors' "Best of the Month Picks" for January 2016 in both History and Nonfiction categories.[1]

Personal life

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From the age of three, she has suffered from Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.[1]

Bibliography

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  • Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees (Praeger, 1998)[14][15][16]
  • Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds (HarperCollins, 2016) ISBN 978-0-06-235193-7[2][8][5][17][18]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "June 2016: Midnight in Broad Daylight by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto '84". Amherst College. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Tuttle, Kate (July 24, 2016). "The story behind the book: Tale of Japanese family split by internment and war". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. p. N16. Retrieved December 26, 2019.
  3. ^ "About". Pamela Rotner Sakamoto. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  4. ^ a b BookBrowse. "Pamela Rotner Sakamoto author biography". BookBrowse.com. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Hansen, Arthur A. (October 13, 2016). "The Fukuhara Family Caught Between Two Sides". Discover Nikkei. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
  6. ^ a b "About". Pamela Rotner Sakamoto. January 5, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c Kalb, Deborah (May 24, 2016). "Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb: Q&A with Pamela Rotner Sakamoto". Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  8. ^ a b Matsueda, Pat (January 10, 2016). "A family divided by World War II". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Honolulu, Hawaii. p. F6. Retrieved December 26, 2019.
  9. ^ "Pamela Rotner Sakamoto". Hawai'i Book & Music Festival. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  10. ^ Fogel, Joshua A. (July 1999). "Review of Sakamoto, Pamela Rotner, Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees: A World War II Dilemma". H-Asia, H-Net Reviews. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
  11. ^ "MIDNIGHT IN BROAD DAYLIGHT by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto |". Kirkus Reviews. January 5, 2016.
  12. ^ Kamiya, Gary (January 15, 2016). "'Midnight in Broad Daylight,' by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
  13. ^ Skingle, Trevor (June 7, 2019). "Book Review: Midnight in Broad Daylight". Diverse Japan. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
  14. ^ Heppner, Ernest G. (Summer 2000). "Reviewed Work: Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees: A World War II Dilemma by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto". Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies. 18 (4 (Special Issue: Jewish Music)). Purdue University Press: 166–168. doi:10.1353/sho.2000.0071. JSTOR 42943131. S2CID 170526737.
  15. ^ Goodman, David G. (August 1999). "Reviewed Work: Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto". The Journal of Asian Studies. 58 (3). Association for Asian Studies: 856–858. doi:10.2307/2659169. JSTOR 2659169. S2CID 161111666.
  16. ^ Howes, John F. (August 2002). "Japanese Diplomats and Jewish Refugees: A World War II Dilemma (book)". Canadian Journal of History. 37 (2): 430–432. doi:10.3138/cjh.37.2.430. ISSN 0008-4107.
  17. ^ Frase, Brigitte (January 6, 2016). "Japanese-American family torn apart during WWII". Star Tribune. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. E8. Retrieved December 26, 2019.
  18. ^ Damsker, Matt (March 20, 2016). "'Midnight' shines light on Japanese-American story". The Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. p. U3. Retrieved December 26, 2019.
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