Join us on Sunday, July 31 at 12:30 p.m. at the Powell United Methodist Church for a thought provoking conversation about “Setsuko’s Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration and Light One Candle: A Survivor’s Tale from Lithuania to Jerusalem” by Shirley Ann Higuchi.

Through the Wyoming Interfaith Network, Janita Krayniack is leading a book club series on Setsuko’s Secret. The series will culminate with a Q&A featuring Shirley and Aura at the Methodist Church in Powell.

Higuchi, J.D. and Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (HMWF), will share her transformational journey navigating the complicated terrain of the Japanese American experience and how she patched together her mother Setsuko’s story. A journey that ultimately led Shirley to understand the forces and generational trauma that shaped her own life. 

Shirley will be joined by Aura Matsumura Sunada Newlin, a former Cody resident and HMWF board secretary.

Sunada Newlin is the grand-niece of Wyomingite and former Heart Mountain incarceree, Clarence Matsumura of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion. 

Sunada Newlin will make connections to the recently republished “Light One Candle,” an incredible first-person account by the belated Solly Ganor, a Lithuanian Jewish Holocaust survivor who was liberated from the Dachau death march by Matsumura at the closing of World War II. 

As descendants of incarcerees with different backgrounds, Higuchi and Sunada Newlin will discuss their insights about both books and these intertwined histories.