Janice Mirikitani was born in California in 1941. She suffered personal tragedies, including mistreatment duringa dark period of American history. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in World War II, the United Statesforced anyone of Japanese heritage to be confined in internment camps for the duration of the war; this includedMirikitani's family, even though she was the third generation of her family to be born here. We see this historicalcontext referenced in her poem "Attack the Water."
