On Oct. 18, artist and author Katie Yamasaki will releaseShapes, Lines, and Light: My Grandfather’s American Journey, a portrait of Katie’s grandfather — Minoru Yamasaki, the architect of the Pacific Science Center and the World Trade Center. Minoru Yamasaki was one of the most accomplished architects of the 20th century, and he was born and raised in Seattle’s Japantown, or Nihonmachi.
Memories of a Japanese American community before internment are strewn in bits and pieces across Seattle: the panels in Pike Place Market commemorating the original Japanese American farmers, fruit trees in South Park that had once been orchards planted by Japanese Americans, KOBO in CID at the former Higo 10 Cents Store of Japantown, or the bonsai at the Pacific Bonsai Museum donated from neighbors who took care of the trees for Japanese families who never returned.
