Dear Reader, Love Michael Holloway Perronne

Dear Reader…

Imagine being a young Japanese-American child in Los Angeles in early 1942.  You stand on a crowded train platform on a chilly morning.  You tightly squeeze your mother’s hand as you look up at her.  At first glance, she appears calm and even has a slight smile on her face, but even at that young of an age, you can read the fear in her eyes.

You glance around and look at some more of the families waiting for the train.  Many of them are dressed in what appear to be some of their fanciest clothing as they clutch bags and suitcases close to them.  If you hadn’t sensed the anxiety and chaos the past weeks, you might have thought everyone was going on a vacation.

“We’re going on a long train trip,” your mother had told you that morning as she tightly buttoned up your coat.  “I need you to be good for me, okay?”

That’s when you noticed tears at the corners of her eyes and how she quickly turned away from you to wipe them away. 

Within the past few days, you sat on the sidelines and watched your parents giving away or selling most of their belongings for pennies on the dollar.  At one point, your mother lost her usual calm composure in the front yard when a Caucasian man argued with her over the price of a porcelain ballerina figurine.  When the man demanded once again that she lower the price, she’d picked up the figurine and in one swift, violent movement smashed it against the sidewalk.

“Now, it’s free!” she had yelled at him, before hurrying back into the house.

Now on the train platform, men in military outfits corral people in different directions as the chug chug sound of the train approached.

“It’s time,” your father says, picking up the small amount of luggage each family was permitted to carry.

You look at the identification ticket that resembled a luggage tag that had been attached to you with a safety pin when your family arrived as if you were just one more piece of baggage.

A silence comes over the crowd as the train approaches, and you notice that the windows of the train have been blacked out.

“Where are we going, Mama?” you asked, as you tugged on her skirt.

Your mother looks down at you and just shakes her head at loss for words.

***

In February 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which required over 100,000 Japanese-Americans who had committed no crimes to be forcibly relocated from their homes and sent to internment camps in far flung parts of the country.  The country was experiencing a wave of fear towards Japanese-Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II.  Thousands of these American citizens would spend years held prisoner behind barbed wire fence and guard towers.  Families and lives would be torn apart, and this part of American history would spend decades practically erased from our history books.  After all, something such as concentration camps couldn’t happen in a country such as the United States.  Could it?

In my new novel Gardens of Hope, can two men from the same city but segregated worlds maintain a connection during a time in US history that not only brands one of them as the enemy but denies that a love such as theirs exists?

Michael Holloway Perronne

www.michaelhperronne.com

About the Author

Michael Holloway Perronne is the author of eight books including: "A Time Before Me," "Falling Into Me", "A Time Before Us, Men Can Do Romance"  "Gardens of Hope," and"Embrace the Rain."  His debut novel, "A Time Before Me" won the BronzeAward, Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Award in the Gay/Lesbian fiction category.  

Michael was born and raised in Mississippi.  He received a BA in Film from the University of Southern Mississippi and a MFA in Drama and Communications from the University of New Orleans.  

​He currently resides in Southern California and is working on his next novel, "The Other Side of Happy."

His recent release is Gardens of Hope.

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About the Book:

Title: GARDENS OF HOPE
Author: Michael Holloway Perronne
Publisher: Chances Press
Pages: 268
Genre: Gay fiction/Historical Fiction/Historical Romance

On the surface, Jack appears to have all a man in World War II era 1941 could want with his solid middle-class background, upcoming college graduation, and the perfect, devoted fiancee. But one night when he accidentally stumbles upon a shadow life of men who desire other men in a Downtown Los Angeles park, he begins to realize exactly what has always left him with a feeling of emptiness.

Despite the constant danger of being arrested by vice cops, Jack continues to visit the park every chance he has to feel a connection, no matter how fleeting, with another man. One night he meets a handsome and charismatic Japanese-American, Hiro, who appears to want more than a quick encounter, and Jack surprises himself by starting to truly fall in love for the first time.

However, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066 and orders the mandatory relocation of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans, who have never been charged with a crime, to far flung internment camps sites. Jack and Hiro suddenly find themselves torn apart before their secret, fledgling romance can blossom. Desperate to find and reconnect with Hiro, Jack accepts a high school teaching position at an internment camp in the California desert, Manzanar. There, surrounded by armed guard towers and a prison-like environment, Jack begins to fully realize the injustices being faced by Japanese-Americans during one of the most controversial times of United States history and shifts his world view- forever.

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