We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Janice Munemitsu. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Janice below.

Janice, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of our favorite things to hear about is stories around the nicest thing someone has done for someone else – what’s the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?

In my journey as an author, here is one of the kindest things done for me. I was encouraged by several people to write our family story as a book. This was really out of the box for me as I had never thought to write a book. But through the encouragement of several educators, I started to write! The kindest thing on this journey came from Bob Goff, author of three New York Times Bestsellers and speaker extraordinaire. He asked me what I was working on and I told him I had written 130 pages. Then he said, “send it to me.” I froze as it wasn’t edited and I wasn’t even yet convinced it was book worthy.. That was on a Saturday, so I thought he’d forget by Monday, On Monday, he emailed me and said, “don’t forget to send me your story.” He didn’t forget! So I sent it off and to my delight, he replied the next day and said,”this is a book!” That was the encouragement I needed and he even endorsed “The Kindness of Color. The Story of Two Families and Mendez, et al. v. Westminster, the 1947 desegregation of California Public Schools.” I’ve been amazed and thrilled at the reception to this little known part of history. So far, I’ve spoken to over 150 groups in 18 months. The story is also now featured on the U.S. National Park Service website as a multi-cultural story of collaboration in the midst of adversity and racism. “Kindness is…taking time to help others.” (p.54)

Janice, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am the reluctant author. I never thought I would write a book, but I felt entrusted with a story that needed to be known. Sylvia Mendez, Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee, has told this story verbally for decades. When Sylvia and I would speak together about it, people always wanted to know more about our families. So I took the leap and wrote the story which became a book, “The Kindness of Color.” I took her verbal story and the story of our family history and wove them together so the reader gets a true picture of the history behind Mendez, et al. v. Westminster. It is a multi-cultural story of collaboration in the midst of adversity and two kinds of racism: 1) the incarceration of 125,000 innocent Japanese Americans during WWII, and 2) the segregation of California Public Schools in the 1920-40s. The intersection of these is the story of our families.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I would have been more eager to write a book but I didn’t know how to do it. Then I found Drew Tilton of AsioCreative. His business is helping authors get the book written! I never could have done this without Drew! A true God-sent blessing!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My goal is to cultivate kindness among us all – and to tell this story to inspire people to multi-cultural collaboration.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thekindnessofcolor.com
• Instagram: @thekindnessofcolor
• Facebook: @thekindnessofcolor
• Linkedin: Janice Munemitsu
• Twitter: @JaniceMunemitsu
• Other: U.S. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/search/?query=Munemitsu&sitelimit=%2F&affiliate=nps