Evelyn Iritani was working for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer when, investigating an early-’90s story about a Port Angeles logging mill that had been purchased by a Japanese conglomerate, she became intrigued by the Pacific Northwest’s complex relationship with Japan. The story led to Iritani’s 1994 book, An Ocean Between Us, which included multiple interviews with UW professor Richard McKinnon, an expert in Japanese culture.
During the interviews, McKinnon, born to a Japanese mother and an American father in 1922 Japan, told Iritani that he and his father were “traded back to the United States” as part of a large World War II civilian swap at the height of the Pacific Theater.
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