"Moments" by Jasmine Carder on "How to Tell a Story of My Father" by Keiko Sato
Team Jap Sam Books has welcomed a new member, Jasmine Carder! Jasmine will take you on an exploration through our backlist in her weekly Moments, which will be shared on our Instagram @japsambooks. Below you can read her fourth and latest entry.
Jasmine about Moments: "I’m excited to announce a new series: starting this week, I will be featuring moments, or small details, within the books of the Jap Sam catalogue that have touched me and that I found especially beautiful."
How to Tell a Story of My Father by Keiko Sato opens with a letter describing her experience of 9/11, and how her horror became intertwined with the idea of her father, a Kamikaze fighter in WW2. It delves into her family’s history, her art, and includes interviews with Japanese artists.
The letter caught my interest because Sato occupies a similar position to me and many of my friends: born in a time and place free from the direct impact of war, yet, as Sato puts it, ‘our present life is connected to the past,’ a past full of conflict.
I’m half American, half Chinese-Vietnamese, so my family’s history revolves around the Indochinese Wars. It was a traumatic period that older generations struggled to discuss. I grew up with fragments of family lore, passed on haphazardly. I have American friends whose grandparents fought in Vietnam or Korea, German friends whose grandparents were complicit in the Nazi regime, a Dutch friend whose family fought against it, and friends whose parents are currently involved in militant governments in their home countries. Yet, very few people I know truly understand what it means to live through war. It’s the frame of our lives but not the primary content.
That’s what makes research into family history so surreal. Like Sato, we will begin to dig into violent pasts, ‘groping towards the light,’ uncovering shrapnel among old pictures and toys. Sato’s art captures the disorientation that comes with this process – a sense of emptiness patched over with faded memories and fleeting thoughts.
The interviews feel like conversations I’ll never have with my own family:
‘Wasn’t there anyone to warn you?’
‘Do you see a connection or a difference between your political activism and your artwork?’
‘Do you have any anti-war sentiments now?’
While my family members are not famous artists like Sato’s interviewees, reading their answers made me envious because of the frankness and depth of their exchanges. There will always be questions we wish we could ask about the past and far fewer answers. Sato’s book was satisfying in part because it provided so many.
Best,
Jasmine
Best,
Jasmine
How to Tell a Story of My Father by artist Keiko Sato is designed by Montse Hernández i Sala and was released in 2009.
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Ronja Driessen
