An in-depth biography of the famed Japanese American restaurateur, his rags to riches story, his determination in business, and his zest for life. “Traveling the world with my father, watching him interact with people, famous and ordinary, observing up close his balls-out sense of adventure, and having a larger-than-life personality to live up to had a profound effect on me and the formation of my character.” —From the foreword by Steve Aoki, Grammy–nominated producer and Billboard Award–winning DJ Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki was a man who succeeded in everything he pursued—from world-class wrestling, ballooning, underwater exploration, and car and boat racing to founding Benihana. Rocky’s passion for life infected all around him and accelerated the exchange of Japanese culture and cuisine with America. His rags to riches story, from dishwasher and busboy to owner of a multi-million-dollar restaurant empire, is a wild American dream realized unlike any other. Running and expanding the business would be all-consuming for most people—not to mention battling the perception of otherness—but Rocky would not be deterred. His determination for the business rivaled the drive he demonstrated in his other interests, some of which almost killed him. American Hiro by Jack McCallum, who had full access to Rocky Aoki and those in his enterprises, provides the only full inside account of one of the most famous symbols of cultural assimilation and capitalistic zeal in modern US history—a champion in business, sports, and life.

These scripts touch on the issues of the 1990s, including the Gulf War, racial and sexual relations, crises unique to big cities, immigration and multiculturalism, art and censorship, revisionist history, academic freedom, and the transformation of the American presidency. The American play by Suzan-Lori Parks features an Abraham Lincoln impersonator trapped in an outrageous, Beckett-like world, while Naomi Wallace's In the heart of America centers on a Palestinian American from Atlanta who is caught up in the Persian Gulf conflict. Kokoro by Velina Hasu Houston chillingly depicts the stark predicament of a Japanese mother caught between two impossible worlds; Marisol by José Rivera reveals the dark fairytale life of a young Latin woman in a wartorn, apocalyptic New York. The Gift by Allan Havis confronts overwhelming moral ambiguity in the farcical realm of university politics, while Nixon's Nixon by Russell Lees offers an adroit treatment of the fascinating, tortured Nixon/Kissinger relationship. The collection closes with Mac Wellman's 7 Blowjobs, a wicked send-up of the compromise politics that determined the fate of the National Endowment for the Arts.

(Applause Books). Includes: Amy Hill: Tokyo Bound ; David Henry Hwang: Bondage ; Velina Hasu Houston: As Sometimes in a Dead Man's Face ; Lane Nishikawa and Victor Talmadge: The Gate of Heaven ; Dwight Okita: The Rainy Season .

In this pathbreaking volume, Velina Hasu Houston gathers together eleven plays that speak in the "hybridized, unique American voices of Asian descent -- and often dissent." These writers resist the bigotry that attempts to target them solely as people of color as well as the homogenizing tendencies of a multiculturalism that fails to recognize the varied make-up of Asian America. Anthologized for the first time, these plays testify to the rich complexity of Asian American experience while they also demonstrate the different styles and thematic concerns of the individual playwrights. What are Asian American plays about? Family conflicts, sexuality, social upheaval, betrayal ... the stuff of all drama. Whether the characters are a middle-aged Taiwanese woman who is married to an Irish American and who dreams of opening a Chinese restaurant, a Chinese American female bond trader trying to survive a corporate takeover, or an ABC (American Born Chinese) gay man whose lover has AIDS, their Asian-ness is only a part of their story. As a playwright, Houston is keenly aware of the rigid formulas that often exclude writers of color and women women writers from mainstream theater. But Still, Like air, I'll Rise brings forth vibrant new work that challenges producers and audiences to broaden their expectations, to attend to the unfamiliar voices that expresses the universal and particular vision of Asian American playwrights.

THE STORY: Yasako, a young Japanese mother, struggles to adapt to the very foreign culture of the United States. Feeling hopeless after discovering her husband's infidelity, Yasako feels that oyako shinju, or parent-child suicide, is her onl

This volume collects eight plays of acclaimed playwright Velina Hasu Houston -among them TEA, KOKORO, and CALLIGRAPHY. Fanciful, surprising, moving, the plays in this book resonate across boundaries of identity, ethnicity and class. With an introduction by director Peggy Shannon.

Japanese-Americans contributed mightily to the U.S. victory in WWII. One young Nisei may even have saved Doolittle’s Raid from disaster. His story was never told, possibly because it would have exposed how unjust the U.S. Government had been to intern 120,000 Japanese-Americans on the flimsy excuse that they could not be trusted to defend America. This book personalizes that chapter of American history. It tells a story of how that young Nisei's situation MIGHT have unfolded. Book Review: "The Doolittle Irony – based on a true story – brings to life a daring 1942 American military operation in Japan, as seen through the eyes of a young Nisei. Author Jim Kelly seamlessly blends his own vivid imagination with his background in US naval intelligence, his historical knowledge of World War II, and his grasp of today’s troublesome debates about immigration and Americans from other lands. While The Doolittle Irony is an entertaining page-turner, it is also serves as a satisfying reminder that no matter how much the world changes, loyalty and love still remain the same." -- Lela Gilbert, author and journalist