Selena Moon
Selena Moon received her BA in history from Smith College and MA in history and public history certificate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She researches Japanese American mixed race and disability history and is writing children and adult books about Japanese American mixed race and disability history, including a picture book about Hannah Takagi Holmes, a Deaf teenager incarcerated at Manzanar and Tule Lake, and a middle grade book about five children with various disabilities in the camps. She can be reached on Twitter at @SelenaMMoon or through her website selenammoon.com.
Updated November 2021
Stories from This Author
Japanese Americans and the American with Disabilities Act - Part 2
Dec. 7, 2021 • Selena Moon
Read Pat 1 >> The Americas with Disabilities Act Decades later, Inouye and Matsunaga became Senators. They joined Congressman Matsui, and Congressman Norman Mineta—whose family had been incarcerated at Heart Mountain1—in supporting the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). Additionally, many civilians were also involved in the movement, including Justin and Yoshiko Dart, as well as Michael Winter and Atsuko Kuwana. Yoshiko and Atsuko are first generation Japanese-Americans. Both Kuwana and Winter use wheelchairs: Kuwana due to a spinal cord injury …
Japanese Americans and the American with Disabilities Act - Part 1
Dec. 6, 2021 • Selena Moon
The fight of disability rights in the United States has included several Japanese-American citizens, as well as local, state, and national officials and their families. Many became involved because of personal experiences, including the mass incarceration and combat during World War II. Yet, their significant contributions to the development of the Americans with Disabilities Act has mostly been overlooked. On February 19, 1942, six weeks after the Japanese military bombed Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066.1 The …
