Taken from the Paradise Isle

Heidi Kim is assistant professor of English and comparative literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has published essays on the food policies of the Japanese American incarceration camps and the legacy of Korematsu v. United States and regularly teaches courses devoted to the history and literature of Japanese American incarceration.

“From the Obatas to Hatsuko Mary Higuchi, Japanese American artists depicted their lives in American concentration camps as they sought to express the sorrows engendered by incarceration. All this and more is captured by Heidi Kim’s marvelous selection of George Hoshida’s artwork and correspondence in Taken from the Paradise Isle, which poignantly documents George’s desperate attempts to keep his family intact.”—Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, Asian American Studies, UCLA"I was delighted to read Taken from the Paradise Isle: The Hoshida Family Story. It is beautifully done. The cover art by George Hoshida is handsomely rendered; the Foreword by Franklin Odo is superb. . . . I am very proud to have this important and useful book in my library."—Art Hansen, Professor Emeritus of History and Asian American Studies at California State University, Fullerton"Editor Heidi Kim has built a moving narrative from letters, journals and Hoshida’s elegant drawings of desert landscapes and fellow internees."—Mindy Pennybacker, Page Turners, Honolulu Star-Advertiser"​[A]​ book that takes us right into the direct experience of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. . . . Editor Heidi Kim has done a masterful job of combining [George Hoshida's] work and official documents and adding her research to give us a very good and comprehensive picture of this family’s difficult experience."—The International Examiner