'From Thorns to Blossoms’ recounts an Oregonian’s experience with Japanese American incarceration

Think Out Loud

Mitzi Asai Loftus was in elementary school when President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order No. 9066 sent people of Japanese descent – many of them U.S. citizens – from their homes to “relocation centers,” resulting in the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Asai Loftus was born in Hood River on a fruit orchard and spent years of her childhood in the government camps. After leaving the camps, her family returned to Hood River. Asai Loftus spent much of her adult life in Eugene and Coos Bay and now lives in Ashland. She joins us with details of her experiences and her book, “From Thorns to Blossoms: A Japanese American Family in War and Peace.”