Janice Mirikitani was born in Stockton, California in 1941 as a
sanseior third-generation Japanese American. During World War II she was interned with her family in Rohwer, Arkansas. After her family was released from the concentration camp, they moved to Chicago in order to avoid racism on the West Coast. Soon after that, however, her parents divorced and Mirikitani, at age five, was confronted with solitude and poverty in a single-parent household. The more crucial trauma was caused by her mother's remarriage and their new country life in Petaluma, California, where she was a victim of sexual abuse by her stepfather from five to sixteen years old. Ironically, she describes the simple and poor life of her early years as the nourishing ground for a sense of “pride, respect for…
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Citation: Usui, Masami. "Janice Mirikitani". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3130, accessed 09 October 2024.]