Growing up in US as a Japanese in WWII era

George was one of my first Arch/Engineering clients in the Bay Area.  This was a very hard time for me personally as the Iran hostage memory was quite fresh on everyone's mind and my name was a dead give away.  I recall so vividly that when I met George, I just felt this amazing warm karma as if he knew exactly what I was going through.  That time was exactly two weeks after a two firm partner in SF were blasting our little startup consulting/reseller team as the dreaded Iranians.   I cried openly in front George and really did not know why.  Well it is almost 36 years later, his famous firm Omi/Lang has long been closed as non of the second generation kids followed his path nor Lang's.  I just read his book and all became clear to me of why George was so wise and knowing.  I am honored to have him as a speaker at our Club on Jan 25th.

The day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Minoru Omi's whole life was turned upside down.

Racial tensions ran high -- his father, a Japanese immigrant, is questioned by the FBI, and eventually his family is uprooted from their lives in San Francisco, and forcibly relocated to desolate Rohwer, Arkansas. He and his little sister leave behind their school and friends, while their immigrant parents give up their hard-won dry cleaning business. Still, though, their family resolve persists -- and even while facing tough times thousands of miles from the city he was born in, Minoru manages to get into trouble with snakes, bullies, and out-of-bounds candy shops, just like any other young boy. Interned or not, he finds a way to thrive.

Follow the Omi family as they make their way through World War II -- from San Francisco to the internment camp in Arkansas and back again in American Yellow. 

George Omi lives in Mill Valley, California. He has won awards for his writing, which he only took up after retiring from a successful career as a landscape architect.