Chiemi SouenChiemi Souen writes to give a voice to Okinawan-American descendants of contract sugar plantation workers who immigrated from Okinawa in the early 1900s and remain faceless in literature to this day. Born in Torrance, California, and raised in Honoluu, Souen earned her bachelor's degree in Japanese language and literature at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa in 1995. In 1998, she received the Okinawa Prefectural Government Scholarship to attend the University of the Ryukyus, where she studied Okinawan language and women's studies. She is also a member of Ryukyu Koten Afuso Ryu Choichi Kai USA/Hawai'i, an Okinawan classical music academy. She is currently the editor of The Hawai'i Herald, Hawai'i's Japanese American Journal. Read More Read Less