Anyone who believes that the haiku must stick only to nature, and to do this in a purple, fairyland sort of way, is, upon opening this book, in for a rude-or I should say a very pleasant-awakening. Yes, there is plenty of nature in the poems of r. y. takagi's book, but there is much more, for he deals with the bleakest chapter in the history of Japanese-American life: the forced internment, during World War II, of thousands of innocent people, whether U.S. citizens or not, to "relocation centers." Takagi describes the tragedy of this lost generation with humor, honesty, and insight. For fifty years after the war he remained silent about what he and his family had endured in those primitive camps, and these poems are products of the last 20 or so years of his life, when he finally felt free to speak his truth about injustice. There are also touching poems about his family, his childhood years, the friends who aged with him, and the sights and smells of life around him. This is Takagi's only book and it's a memorable one, both for what it explicitly depicts and for what it gently, beautifully, leaves unsaid.
About the Author: Robert Yasuo Takagi (1928-2010) was born in San Diego, California, the fourth of five children. During World War II, he and his family were "relocated" and interned in Poston, Arizona. Following his older brothers' bold move, he left camp (which was allowed only if one moved away from the coast) and moved to Chicago. A short time later he joined the army. While was stationed in Italy, Ernest Hemingway befriended r. y. takagi; this sparked in him a lifelong passion for literature. After his military service, r. y. takagi returned to Chicago. He studied music and art and even sang in a chorus with the Chicago Symphony under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. r. y. takagi moved back to California and in 1955 married dancer and choreographer Valentina Oumansky, with whom he had one daughter, Tarumi. r. y. takagi spent years editing news and film, and his career as a music editor in the motion picture industry spanned over four decades, with a list of credits that include popular TV series like Hawaii 5-0, Gunsmoke, and The Twilight Zone. In the last twenty-five years of his life he went back to a passion of his youth, writing haiku poems. This had interested him since a life-changing meeting with Nyogen Senzaki, a Buddhist monk, back in the 1950s. r. y. takagi had an uncanny sense of humor; enjoyed golfing, hunting, and fishing; and he especially loved contemplating on his porch in solitude, stogy in his mouth, composing poetry.