Author Interview: Connie Goldsmith, author of Kiyo Sato

Today on the Lerner podcast, I am joined by Connie Goldsmith, a retired registered nurse with a master's degree in health who writes books about history, health, and science for older children. 

Her most recent book has just come out: Kiyo Sato: From a WWII Japanese Internment Camp to a Life of Service. In 1941 Kiyo Sato and her eight younger siblings lived with their parents on a small farm near Sacramento, California. The Satos were an ordinary American family. Until they weren’t. On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, US president Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan and the United States officially entered World War II. Soon after, in February and March 1942, Roosevelt signed two executive orders that paved the way for the military to round up all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast and incarcerate them in isolated internment camps for the duration of the war. Kiyo and her family were among the nearly 120,000 internees.

In this moving account, Sato and Goldsmith tell the story of the internment years, describing why the internment happened and how it impacted Kiyo and her family. They also discuss the ways in which Kiyo has used her experience to educate other Americans about their history, to promote inclusion, and to fight against similar injustices.

Get a sneak peek of the foreword to the book.

This informative biography sheds light on a dark chapter in American history."—Booklist

A moving, insightful portrait."—Kirkus Reviews

You can learn more about Connie on her website. Below are links to some videos of Kiyo. 

• Sacramento Bee video of the official apology regarding internment from the state of California in January 2020. Kiyo is seen at minute 1.56; 2.41; 3.10-3.37. She is front and center, literally, at the front of the seating and close to the action.
• Kiyo receiving a "home-town hero" award last year at a Sacramento Kings basketball game. 
• StoryCorps: Injustice Endured for the Sake of the Children. Cia Vancil, Kiyo Sato’s daughter, briefly interviews her mother about her internment on Capital Public Radio (December 2015). 
• “Kiyo Sato Author ‘Dandelion through the Crack'," A C-Span interview with Kiyo Sato is sprinkled with archival film footage and reporting of the internment (September 2015). 
• “Internment—Time of Remembrance—Kiyo Sato.”This interview, Posted by SECCEducationalTV, covers much of Kiyo's life, including recent years.

Music credits:
 "Farm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/