In Search of Hiroshi is in many ways a familiar American story-the odyssey of a young man, torn from his cultural roots, in search of an identity. What makes it unique, however, is that the journey delves into the psychic aftermath of one of the darker chapters of American history, the World War II internment of Japanese Americans.
Gene Oishi, the son of Japanese immigrants, spent three years of his childhood confined to camps in the desert wilderness of Arizona. But In Search of Hiroshi is more than a profile of lingering psychic damage. It is an intense and compelling story of dark fears and quiet courage, of despair giving way to hope and love.
In searching for himself and his roots, both as an American and a Japanese, Gene Oishi shatters the glossy image of the Japanese-Americans as a well-adjusted and contented ''model minority.'' But In Search of Hiroshi is not only a Japanese-American story: it is also about America and the American experience, seen from a different-and often surprising-perspective.