The Shiramizu book comes to the Sugar Museum courtesy of Carrie Wedemeyer, a graphic designer based in Honolulu. She shared a little backstory on its creation:

 
In 1967, when Carrie was a young girl, her family returned to Hawaii from the mainland and settled in Honolulu. Her dad would take them to visit his parents, Koma and Masajiro Shiramizu, in Puunene, Maui where they lived in a little house on the sugar mill plantation. In their backyard, her grandpa built a furo (wood bathtub) and her grandma typically had a big pot of edamame boiling on a burner on the patio. She recalls days of exploring the beaches near Lahaina where her grandpa would strip to his boxer shorts and wade knee deep in the water.
 
Through the years, Carrie fell in love with collecting old photographs of her grandparents. But the book came about because her eldest cousin, Lot Lau, had the foresight to conduct interviews with her father’s siblings, documenting their reflections on growing up on the plantation. As this second generation would soon pass, they decided to preserve this dialogue in a family publication. Together, she and Lot compiled photos, historical references and memoirs. “As a graphic designer, this is the type of work I am passionate about,” she shares. She was prepared to encounter a long and heartfelt journey.
 
Though Carrie created the book to share her grandparent’s legacy, Carrie found the process benefitted her tremendously, deepening a family bond. She is forever grateful to her cousin for the challenge he presented, and to her sister Lei Ann Shiramizu for her skilled editing, seamlessly tying their story together. We are grateful for the opportunity to present it to you here.