Audiobooks narrated by Greg Watanabe

The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration

The collective voice of Japanese Americans defined by a specific moment in time: the four years of World War II during which the US government expelled resident aliens and its own citizens from their homes and imprisoned 125,000 of them in American concentration camps, based solely upon the race they shared with a wartime enemy. A Penguin Classic This anthology presents a new vision that recovers and reframes the literature produced by the people targeted by the actions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress to deny Americans of Japanese ancestry any individual hearings or other due process after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. From nearly seventy selections of fiction, poetry, essays, memoirs, and letters emerges a shared story of the struggle to retain personal integrity in the face of increasing dehumanization - all anchored by the key government documents that incite the action. The selections favor the pointed over the poignant, and the unknown over the familiar, with several new translations among previously unseen works that have been long overlooked on the shelf, buried in the archives, or languished unread in the Japanese language. The writings are presented chronologically so that readers can trace the continuum of events as the incarcerees experienced it. The contributors span incarcerees, their children born in or soon after the camps, and their descendants who reflect on the long-term consequences of mass incarceration for themselves and the nation. Many of the voices are those of protest. Some are those of accommodation. All are authentic. Together they form an epic narrative with a singular vision of America's past, one with disturbing resonances with the American present.

Frank Abe, Tbd (Author), Frank Abe, Greg Watanabe, Keone Young, Ren Hanami, TBD, Traci Kato-Kiriyama (Narrator)

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Innocent When You Dream

80-something Dan Yamada has been rendered speechless after a stroke, and as he lies in bed, he vividly recalls his life, from his days in the World War 2-era internment camps, to serving in the US Army, to his one true love. At his bedside in the present, his adult children fight over his care and legacy, all while Dan tries to communicate his poignant final wish. Includes an interview with playwright Ken Narasaki. This play is sponsored by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, a state-funded grant project of the California State Library. Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood, in January 2024. Directed by Anna Lyse Erikson Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg An L.A. Theatre Works full cast recording, starring: Kurt Kanazawa as Frank Fujiyama John Miyasaki as Young Dan Yamada Suzy Nakamura as Joy Yamada-Hanke Ken Narasaki as Dr. Park Rosie Narasaki as Young Grace Hamamoto Sharon Omi as Adult Grace Hamamoto Sab Shimono as Dan Yamada Greg Watanabe as Merv Yamada Senior Producer: Anna Lyse Erikson Prepared for audio by Mark Holden Recorded and edited by Neil Wogenson Designed and mixed by Charles Carroll for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin Foley Artist: Stacey Martinez "Blue Skies" performed by Kurt Kanazawa

Ken Narasaki (Author), Greg Watanabe, John Miyasaki, Ken Narasaki, Kurt Kanazawa, Rosie Narasaki, Sab Shimono, Sharon Omi, Suzy Nakamura (Narrator)

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Waiting to be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet's Memoir of China's Genocide

Brought to you by Penguin. A poet's account of one of the world's most urgent humanitarian crises, and a harrowing tale of a family's escape from genocide One by one, Tahir Hamut Izgil's friends disappeared. The Chinese government's brutal persecution of the Uyghur people had continued for years, but in 2017 it assumed a terrifying new scale. The Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim minority group in western China, were experiencing an echo of the worst horrors of the twentieth century, amplified by China's establishment of an all-seeing high-tech surveillance state. Over a million people have vanished into China's internment camps for Muslim minorities. Tahir, a prominent poet and intellectual, had been no stranger to persecution. After he attempted to travel abroad in 1996, police tortured him until he confessed to fabricated charges and sent him to a re-education through labour camp. But even having endured three years in the camp, he could never have predicted the Chinese government's radical solution to the Uyghur question two decades later. When he noticed that the park near his home was nearly empty because so many neighbours had been arrested, he knew the police would be coming for him any day. It soon became clear to Tahir and his wife that fleeing the country was the family's only hope. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night is the story of the political, social, and cultural destruction of Tahir Hamut Izgil's homeland. Among leading Uyghur intellectuals and writers, he is the only one known to have escaped China since the mass internments began. His book is a call for the world to awaken to the unfolding catastrophe, and a tribute to his friends and fellow Uyghurs whose voices have been silenced. ©2023 Tahir Hamut Izgil (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Tahir Hamut Izgil (Author), Greg Watanabe (Narrator)

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Vietgone

Saigon has fallen, and two Vietnamese refugees meet in an Arkansas relocation camp before setting out on a rip-roaring road trip across America. Qui Nguyen tells the hilarious and only slightly not-true version of how his parents met and built a life for themselves in a new land. Recorded before a live audience at the UCLA James Bridges Theater in February 2020. Original Music by Shane Rettig Director: Tim Dang Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg Will Dao as Nhan and Khue Desiree Mee Jung as Huong, Translator and Redneck Biker Greg Watanabe as Playwright, Bobby, Giai, Hippie Dude and Captain Chambers Paul Yen as Quang Jeena Yi as Tong, Thu, and American Girl Associate Artistic Director: Anna Lyse Erikson Recording Engineer and Sound Designer: Mark Holden.for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin Foley Artist: Jeff Gardner Production Manager: Erica R. Christensen Mixing Engineer: Charles Carroll Editor: Mitchell Lindskoog

Qui Nguyen (Author), Desiree Mee Jung, Greg Watanabe, Jeena Yi, Paul Yen, Will Dao (Narrator)

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The Blossom and the Firefly

From the award-winning author of Flygirl comes this powerful WWII romance between two Japanese teens caught in the cogs of an unwinnable war, perfect for fans of Salt to the Sea, Lovely War, and Code Name Verity. Japan 1945. Taro is a talented violinist and a kamikaze pilot in the days before his first and only mission. He believes he is ready to die for his country . . . until he meets Hana. Hana hasn't been the same since the day she was buried alive in a collapsed trench during a bomb raid. She wonders if it would have been better to have died that day . . . until she meets Taro. A song will bring them together. The war will tear them apart. Is it possible to live an entire lifetime in eight short days? Sherri L. Smith has been called 'an author with astonishing range' and 'a stellar storyteller' by E. Lockhart, the New York Times-bestselling author of We Were Liars, and 'a truly talented writer' by Jacqueline Woodson, the National Book Award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming. Here, with achingly beautiful prose, Smith weaves a tale of love in the face of death, of hope in the face of tragedy, set against a backdrop of the waning days of the Pacific War.

Sherri L. Smith (Author), Greg Watanabe, Traci Kato-Kiriyama (Narrator)

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Hold These Truths

During WWII in Seattle, University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi fights the US government's orders to forcibly remove and incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. As he struggles to reconcile his country's betrayal with his passionate belief in the US Constitution, Gordon begins a 50-year journey toward a greater understanding of America's triumphs - and a confrontation with its failures. Includes an interview with playwright Jeanne Sakata. Hold These Truths is sponsored in part by the California Civil Liberties Program from the California State Library. Directed by Jessica Kubzansky Producing Director Susan Albert Loewenberg Starring Ryun Yu as Gordon Hirabayashi Additional voices by Matthew Floyd Miller, Suzy Nakamura, Matt Walker, and Greg Watanabe Associate Artistic Director: Anna Lyse Erikson. Sound Designer and Mixing Engineer: Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin. Foley Artist: Jeff Gardner. Recording Engineer and Editor: Erick Cifuentes

Jeanne Sakata (Author), Greg Watanabe, Matt Walker, Matthew Floyd Miller, Ryun Yu, Suzy Nakamura (Narrator)

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Sisters Matsumoto

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the US government sent thousands of Japanese American citizens to detention camps. In 1945, three Japanese-American sisters return to their farm in Stockton, California, after years in an internment camp, but the once prosperous family finds it's not easy to pick up the pieces of their former lives. As the details of their deceased father's final arrangements emerge, the sisters must work together to keep their dreams alive. This recording is sponsored in part by California Civil Liberties Program from the California State Library. Includes a conversation with actor George Takei, playwright Philip Kan Gotanda, and director Tim Dang. Directed by Tim Dang. An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance featuring: Keiko Agena as Rose Matsumoto June Angela as Grace Matsumoto Ron Bottitta as Mr. Hersham Kurt Kanazawa as Henry Suzy Nakamura as Chiz Matsumoto Greg Watanabe as Bola Ryun Yu as Hideo Sound Effects Artist, Jeff Gardner. Script Supervisor, Daniel Trostler. Production Manager, Nikki Hyde. Music Supervisor, Ronn Lipkin. Associate Artistic Director, Anna Lyse Erikson, Editor, Mitchell Lindskoog. Recording Engineer, Sound Designer and Mixer, Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Recorded in Los Angeles before a live audience at The James Bridges Theater, UCLA, in November of 2018.

Philip Kan Gotanda (Author), Greg Watanabe, June Angela, Keiko Agena, Kurt Kanazawa, Ron Bottitta, Ryun Yu, Suzy Nakamura (Narrator)

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A Gesture Life

Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life is now available for the first time in audio! His remarkable debut novel was called "rapturous" (The New York Times Book Review), "revelatory" (Vogue), and "wholly innovative" (Kirkus Reviews). It was the recipient of six major awards, including the prestigious Hemingway Foundation/PEN award. Now Chang-rae Lee has written a powerful and beautifully crafted second novel that leaves no doubt about the extraordinary depth and range of his talent. A Gesture Life is the story of a proper man, an upstanding citizen who has come to epitomize the decorous values of his New York suburban town. Courteous, honest, hardworking, and impenetrable, Franklin Hata, a Japanese man of Korean birth, is careful never to overstep his boundaries and to make his neighbors comfortable in his presence. Yet as his story unfolds, precipitated by the small events surrounding him, we see his life begin to unravel. Gradually we learn the mystery that has shaped the core of his being: his terrible, forbidden love for a young Korean Comfort Woman when he served as a medic in the Japanese army during World War II. In A Gesture Life, Chang-rae Lee leads us with dazzling control through a taut, suspenseful story about love, family, and community--and the secrets we harbor. As in Native Speaker, he writes of the ways outsiders conform in order to survive and the price they pay for doing so. It is a haunting, breathtaking display of talent by an acclaimed young author

Chang-Rae Lee (Author), Greg Watanabe (Narrator)

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Click Here to Start: A Novel

Young fans of Ernie Cline's Ready Player One will love this classic video game inspired mystery filled with elements of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. What if playing video games was prepping you to solve an incredible real-world puzzle and locate a priceless treasure? Twelve-year-old Ted Gerson has spent most of his summer playing video games. So when his great-uncle dies and bequeaths him the all so-called treasure in his overstuffed junk shop of an apartment, Ted explores it like it's another level to beat. And to his shock, he finds that eccentric Great-Uncle Ted actually has set the place up like a real-life escape-the-room game! Using his specially honed skills, Ted sets off to win the greatest game he's ever played, with help from his friends Caleb and Isabel. Together they discover that Uncle Ted's "treasure" might be exactly that-real gold and jewels found by a Japanese American unit that served in World War II. With each puzzle Ted and his friends solve, they get closer to unraveling the mystery-but someone dangerous is hot on their heels, and he's not about to let them get away with the fortune.

Denis Markell (Author), Greg Watanabe (Narrator)

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Method 15/33

2015 National Indie Excellence Award Winner for Best Suspense Novel Imagine a helpless, pregnant 16-year-old who's just been yanked from the serenity of her home and shoved into a dirty van. Kidnapped...Alone...Terrified. Now forget her... Picture instead a pregnant, 16-year-old, manipulative prodigy. She is shoved into a dirty van and, from the first moment of her kidnapping, feels a calm desire for two things: to save her unborn son and to exact merciless revenge. She is methodicalcalculating scientific in her plotting. A clinical sociopath? Leaving nothing to chance, secure in her timing and practice, she waitsfor the perfect moment to strike. Method 15/33 is what happens when the victim is just as cold as the captors. The agents trying to find a kidnapped girl have their own frustrations and desires wrapped into this chilling drama. In the twists of intersecting stories, one is left to ponder. Who is the victim? Who is the aggressor?

Shannon Kirk (Author), Allyson Ryan, Greg Watanabe (Narrator)

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Under the Blood-Red Sun

Tomi was born in Hawaii. His grandfather and parents were born in Japan, and came to America to escape poverty. World War II seems far away from Tomi and his friends, who are too busy playing ball on their eighth-grade team, the Rats. But then Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese, and the United States declares war on Japan. Japanese men are rounded up, and Tomi's father and grandfather are arrested. It's a terrifying time to be Japanese in America. But one thing doesn't change: the loyalty of Tomi's buddies, the Rats.

Graham Salisbury (Author), Greg Watanabe (Narrator)

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Hunt for the Bamboo Rat

Based on a true story, this World War II novel by Scott O’Dell Award winner Graham Salisbury tells how Zenji, 17, is sent from Hawaii to the Philippines to spy on the Japanese. Zenji Watanabe graduates from high school in Hawaii and is recruited into the army as a translator because he speaks perfect Japanese. He is sent to Manila undercover as a civilian to gather information on the Japanese in the Philippines. If they discover his identity, he’ll be executed as a traitor. When captured, he maintains that he is an American civilian despite unthinkable torture. He also survives being lost in the jungle for months. Zenji’s time behind enemy lines is grueling, and his survival is a testament to the strength of the human spirit. This is the fourth book in Graham Salisbury’s highly acclaimed Prisoners of the Empire series, which began with the award-winning Under the Blood-Red Sun.

Graham Salisbury (Author), Greg Watanabe (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Greg Watanabe