Returning Home
By Fred Hagstrom
St. Paul, Minnesota: Strong Silent Type Press, 2018. Edition of 29.

19 x 14"; 60 pages. Text printed in Geneva font. Silkscreen prints. Drum leaf binding. Cloth over boards with silkscreened cover. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Text source material: Interviews with Louise and Debbie Kashino; Densho Archive interviews; Kash, a film by Vince Matsudaira; Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers by Laurence Matsuda and Matt Sakai. Images sources: Kashino family; Densho Archive; National Archives and Records Administration.

Fred Hagstrom: "Returning Home is the story of Shiro Kashino. He left the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho to join the 442nd, the segregated unit of Japanese– Americans who fought in Italy and France. He was a leader and received numerous medals. He was unfairly court-martialed, falsely accused. When he returned home, he and the other veterans of Japanese descent were denied membership in local veteran's organizations, so they started the Nisei Veterans Committee in Seattle. His mates from the 442nd felt that he had been mistreated, and they began a long campaign to get his rank and reputation restored. This finally happened, but only in the months after his death."

Text excerpts:

"After the war was over we had to guard some German prisoners. I remember looking down on this compound, and it reminded me of camp. This was exactly what they had built for us in the deserts of Idaho." Shiro Kashino

“If this application can be reconsidered and the stigma of a court-martial of dubious circumstances erased, we will be grateful knowing that justice has been served and my husband vindicated. If the application is once again denied, my only consolation will be the fact that he died not knowing that he had lost his last battle.” Louise Kashino

Returning Home was the result of an earlier book by Hagstrom – Deeply Honored. In doing research for the earlier volume Hagstrom became interested in the Japanese American soldiers that fought in World War II and the internment of Japanese –Americans in the US. When in Seattle in the Spring of 2016 Hagstrom met with the Nisei Veterans Committee. There he learned about Shiro Kashino.
(SOLD)