“I farm with ghosts. They live in our fields,” writes farmer poet David Mas Masumoto. “Ghosts inhabit our family history.” 

In 1942, Masumoto’s family was evacuated from their California farm and imprisoned in Gila River Relocation center in Arizona. His maternal aunt Shizuko was separated from the family and placed in a state institution for people with disabilities. Masumoto didn’t know about Shizuko until recently, when a resolute hospice worker contacted him. A third-generation Japanese American peach farmer in California’s San Joaquin Valley, Masumoto is keenly aware of how past affects future. “We are haunted by the pruning scars embedded in the shape of a tree, eternally wondering if a simple act like snipping a young branch or sawing a tree limb is the proper choice.” Thus, he was compelled to ask hard questions about his family’s past when he learned of Shizuko and the gap she inhabited in that history. 

A family saga written with empathic, lyrical prose, Secret Harvests explores themes of legacy, loss, and resilience. It’s an homage to the stories families tell, and the stories they choose not to tell. Masumoto parcels this homage into bite-sized chapters written like journal entries, with each chapter accompanied by haunting linoleum-block imprint illustrations by Japanese American artist Patricia Wakida. The result is an exquisitely affective memoir that sheds light on one family’s ghosts, as well as addressing cultural tendencies that have long needed to be exposed. 

*Full disclosure: Ann Beman liked this memoir so well that she contributed financially to its publication as a “book angel.” She received no compensation in return.