Isao Fujimoto

Bouncing Back Isao Fujimoto

"If one needs hope in a period of collective anxiety about our present and near term future, I advise reading a remarkable memoir by rural sociologist and community organizer, Isao Fujimoto." -- Christopher Breiseth BOUNCING BACK describes the life of Isao Fujimoto and his family. The story begins with his father leaving a small fishing village in Japan, coming to America, and starting a family farm on a Yakima reservation in Wapato, Washington. At the age of 8, Isao and his family are forcibly removed from their home to the Heart Mountain and Tule Lake internment camps. Like a Japanese daruma doll, Isao and his family kept "bouncing back" from a series of injustices and other hardships. They embodied the saying that accompanies the beloved red papier-mache figure: "Nanakorobi Yaoki" or "Fall down seven times, get up on the eighth." Now 83, Isao shares the lessons he learned from his parents, a dozen siblings, and community. He traces how those early experiences shaped his path as an educator for more than fifty years at the University of California, Davis and as an activist working with struggling, multi-ethnic communities in the U. S. and abroad. Helene Dillard, UC Davis' Dean of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, describes him as "one of our campus treasures who has inspired and challenged students and faculty alike for decades."