1. Monica Sone, born Kazuko Itoi, was a Japanese American writer, best known for her 1953 autobiographical memoir Nisei Daughter, which tells of the Japanese American experience in Seattle during the 1920s and 1930s and in the World War II internment camps, and is an important text in Asian American and Women's Studies courses.
Monica Sone was 21 when she and her family were "evacuated" from their home in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood to the Puyallup Assembly Center, in May 1942.
In 1943, Monica Sone was allowed to leave camp after passing the so-called "loyalty questionnaire" and relocated to the Chicago area, where she worked as a dental assistant and lived with a white Presbyterian minister and his family.
Monica Sone eventually received a scholarship to attend Hanover College, called "Wendell College" in her memoir, a Presbyterian school in Indiana.
Monica Sone finished her undergraduate degree at Hanover and in 1949 received a master's degree in clinical psychology from Case Western Reserve University.
Monica Sone married Geary Sone, and the couple settled in Canton, Ohio, where they raised four children.
Monica Sone died in Canton shortly after she turned 92.
Monica Sone's parents are from Japan, and their children are born in the States, making them Nisei.
Monica Sone is portrayed as a hard worker and a resourceful provider, refusing rooms to characters who seem drunk or otherwise unsavory, and continually repairing and improving his establishment.
Monica Sone offers a first-hand account of life at the Puyallup Assembly Center and at Minidoka, one of ten public concentration camps where Japanese Americans were detained during the war.
Monica Sone's account offers her observations of life in the camps and describes how its residents struggled to accommodate their situation.