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[00:00:00] Morgan Jones Pearson: Born into a Japanese American family, Emily Inouye Huey doesn't remember talking much about her family's history when she was younger. But as she grew older, she became more familiar with the story of what her family endured during World War II. The Inouye family had been forcibly removed from their homes and They were placed in an internment camp.
When the war ended, they were required to quickly find a new life for themselves, and they ended up in Utah, where Emily and her family still live. Emily Inouye Huey writes historical fiction, drawing upon her family's experiences for children and teens. Her first novel, Beneath the The Widesilk Sky won the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award and the Malka Pen Award for Human Rights in Children's Literature.
Emily holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University and is a Former teacher besides books, Emily's passions include education, the arts, the outdoors, and her family.
This is all in an LDS Living podcast where we ask the question, what does it really mean to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ? I'm Morgan Pearson, and I am honored to have Emily Inouye huey on the line with me today. Emily, welcome.
[00:01:22] Emily Inouye Huey: Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.
[00:01:25] Morgan Jones Pearson: Well, I have to tell you, as I prep for this interview, I was so excited.
I was like sharing stuff about your story with my husband last night, which I rarely get that excited. So I'm, I'm really excited to talk with you today, but I want to start out with your family's history, which we'll talk a lot about today, but kind of starting. At the point of your father, you are the daughter of a man who was born in a prison hospital because his parents were Japanese American and he was born during World War II.
Can we start by having you tell us a little bit about your father's parents and what they went through? What brought them to that moment in the prison hospital where they had your father?
[00:02:11] Emily Inouye Huey: Sure. Yeah. Yeah. So my grandmother lived in Washington state, my grandfather lived in California near Stanford University, and they were both, you know, single adults at the time that Pearl Harbor was bombed.
And when Pearl Harbor was bombed, 90 percent of Japanese Americans, all those who lived on the West Coast, which is where most people lived. We're put in prison camps. There were 120, 000 people about that. We're putting these prison camps and my grandfather and my grandmother, they were both taken from their homes.
They were both given about two weeks and so obviously they lost their homes. They lost their farms, things like that, and they could only bring what they could carry. So that was about two suitcases a piece. And they were first put in to, you know, you can imagine with so little time, they didn't have yeah.
Prisons built for, to house 120, 000 people. So they ended up first in a temporary assembly centers for my grandpa. That was a horse track where they lived in these horse stalls. Uh, my grandma was at a state fair, again, animal stalls. And then after about three months, they both got sent to a permanent camp in Wyoming, and that is where they actually met.
It's where they ended up marrying and having my father. And that's how he ended up as a infant in a, in a Japanese American prison camp.
[00:03:32] Morgan Jones Pearson: Well, when I was telling my husband a little bit about your family's story last night, he kind of stopped for a minute and he was like, man, it's a really ugly part of us history.
And I think most people, when they hear this, it's not something that I think people think about a lot if it's not their family's history, but probably have a similar reaction. I want to, I want to start with. On your website, there is this remarkable photo of your great grandfather that was taken by the very famous photographer, Dorothea Lange.
You wrote this about that photo. In the few days they were given to prepare for evacuation, the acclaimed photographer, Dorothea Lange, visited and took pictures. She had been hired by the U. S. government to make a record of the evacuation. Though she opposed the mass incarceration, she took the commission because she believed a true record was necessary.
But there is even more, or you said, so you said was necessary. Um, but I, as I went on, there's even more to this story. And I wondered if you could tell, Uh, listeners about that photo and its history. And then I'd like to kind of shift to how it served as inspiration for your first book.
[00:04:48] Emily Inouye Huey: Yeah, sure. So one of the things to know about this time that I don't think a lot of us know is that it was actually A time when most Americans agreed to this, they, you know, they did these polls and, um, most Americans thought this was a good idea.
People were really afraid. People were really worried about Japanese spies or things like that. If there are any national security and there isn't a lot of evidence of any of that. And one thing that a lot of people don't know is that most Japanese, there was a ban on Japanese immigration early in the 1900s.
And so most people who were here in the 1940s had been here for decades. Right. But there was this feeling of like, Deep fear. My grandpa in his journals called it a time of hysteria and dread. And so public opinion was absolutely on the side of putting the Japanese Americans in camps. And so Dorothea Lange, who is this famous photographer was one of several photographers who was asked to come and take pictures of the incarceration by the American government.
So the American government wanted a record and they specifically said they wanted pictures that showed how humane And organized the incarceration was. And so there were a lot of rules. Like for instance, they couldn't have pictures of guns. They couldn't have pictures of the soldiers lining up with their guns to herd these people places.
They wanted pictures that had like families together, people smiling, things like that. And actually, you know, there's this quote from, uh, the. Newspapers back then that said, you know, the, this is luxurious accommodations. You know, uh, this is when my family was living at the Santa Anita racetrack in a stall where there was still manure on the floor, you know, but they called it luxurious conditions.
And so there was, there was a lot of spin. And so, uh, several of these photographers took the commissions. Ansel Adams was also one of them. Ansel Adams and Dorothy Elling are probably the two most famous. And Dorothy Elling decided to take the kind of photos she thought needed to be taken. She actually made herself sick working so hard.
She'd work from the time the light came out to the time that I went down trying to take pictures of these people before they were incarcerated. And then after they were incarcerated, as they were being incarcerated, sometimes in these lines. But she took pictures. Uh, there's, she has pictures of soldiers.
She has pictures of people looking really sad. She has pictures of children that really kind of highlight the hypocrisy of what was happening. And eventually, um, people figured out what kind of picture she was taking and her work was all impounded. She had had this feeling that if she could get these photos out to the American public, that it would sway public opinion.
And that was her goal. And so when her photos were taken and impounded, and no one could see them for the rest of the war, she felt as if she'd failed. And I think she even wrote a letter to Ansel Adams in which she said, I accomplished nothing, but she encouraged him to take to keep a record, you know, to keep taking photos as long as they'd let him.
And so I guess no one could see her photos for like, Decades. And then they were kind of found in these national archives after, um, the impounding was lifted. And eventually my aunts went to this exhibit on Japanese Americans at the Smithsonian and they saw these photos of our families, you know, hanging from the ceiling, this giant photo of my great grandfather that's on my website is one of them.
Um, but some others as well. And, you know, for me, And our, my family, this record is so important. She may have felt like she failed to sway public opinion at the time, but her record is now the best record, photographic record, arguably that we have of this time. And so I don't know. It's just a sign that sometimes the work you do is meant for another purpose.
[00:08:35] Morgan Jones Pearson: Well, I think that it's so inspiring that she kind of put herself at risk to do that. And that inspired your first book, which was a historical fiction novel titled Beneath the Wide Silk Sky. And tell me a little bit about kind of how you took that story of Dorothea Lange and that inspired the main character in your book.
[00:08:59] Emily Inouye Huey: Right? Yeah. So, Yeah. I guess, you know, I'm writing, I write for young adults and children. So it's a hard topic. It's a, it's a sad topic, right? And I knew before I even started writing that my character was going to have to go to this prison camp. That's just what happened historically. It would be, Untrue to make it kind of a happy ending where no one has to go to this camp, but I really wanted to give her agency and a way to have some sort of triumph.
And, and partly, I think I wanted to give my grandma and my aunts and my loved ones, uh, story in which they had some sort of victory. Uh, because I, because I do think, you know, the way that they survived, the way that they came out of it, Still able to like, love this country in this world, all those things to me are a victory, but I wanted to find a way to do this in this, um, format of a book.
And, um, and so for me, that photography is that victory sort of, uh, my character is a photographer and it's photography is how she finds her voice to speak up about what's happening to her at a time when, you know, she doesn't have control over what's going to happen to her, but she has control over. You know, who she's going to be and how she's going to, how she's going to choose to be a human being in this situation.
And, um, and so, yeah, that's where the photography came in for that.
[00:10:22] Morgan Jones Pearson: I, last night, so I, in my email to you, I asked, are you related to Ann Takasaki? Do you know Ann,
[00:10:29] Emily Inouye Huey: Yeah she's my aunt
[00:10:31] Morgan Jones Pearson: okay. Okay. So I randomly sat next to Ann on an airplane, like literally 10 plus years ago, and she told me all about. Your family.
Um, and so when I was reading about your story, I was like, this is so familiar. And then it hit me. I was like, this is, this is the same story as Anne's family. But last night, after I had prepped my questions for you, I went and watched like a little video that she recently did about her family. And as I was watching it, I got kind of the same feeling that you just talked about, um, that.
While what happened to your family is absolutely terrible, there is a victory in the story, which is that they maintained their dignity and their goodness. And so I love that you captured that. I wanna shift quickly and we'll kind of tie all of this together. , but you're more recent book. Is also about a Japanese American who around this same time period, uh, wasn't sent to an internment camp, but his name was Wat Misaka is his, am I pronouncing that right?
Um, and he was a basketball player and I love basketball. So this was fun for me to read your book, but. Can you tell listeners a little bit about what just kind of a, a synopsis? Sure.
[00:11:59] Emily Inouye Huey: Sure. Yeah. So Wat is probably most famous for becoming the first ever person of color to play in the NBA. Um, this is at a time when everything was against him.
He was born in I think 1923 in Ogden, Utah. He lived on this very rough street. It was known for its brothels. And, um, he lived in this basement. It wasn't even a basement. It was a cellar that had dirt walls and a dirt floor. So he didn't have like, like an economic headstart in any way. Right. And he was also short.
He was only five foot seven full grown. He was only five foot seven. And then he was Japanese American. And at the time when he was playing basketball, 90 percent of Japanese Americans were incarcerated for this thing that we've been talking about. Yeah. Despite all that, he won two college titles and he became the first ever person of color to play in the NBA, breaking that color barrier the same year that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in pro baseball.
So it's this kind of awesome sports story. It's really inspiring, but he's also, I haven't, I happened to know him. His brother was married to my aunt. And so I just know that he's also the real deal as a person, you know, he's a, he's a person that you can look up to. He's one of those sports stars. You can have be a hero and then I'll not be disappointed in his real life.
So yeah, that's, that's who he was. And the reason he didn't have to go to camp is that he didn't live on the West coast and most people, um, it's not a hundred percent, but most Japanese Americans who didn't live on the West coast didn't have to go to camp.
[00:13:26] Morgan Jones Pearson: Interesting. Okay. So one of the reasons that you've said that you were drawn to tell his story in the form of a children's book, because you mentioned you previously, the novel that you wrote was for young adult, but you, You wanted to write this one as a children's book because you said that there were not many children's books when you were a kid with people who looked like you did and I I think this is something that sometimes is difficult for people to understand if it hasn't been their life experience But tell me from your perspective emily why Representation and like being able to see people that looked like you mattered to you as a little girl
[00:14:09] Emily Inouye Huey: Right.
So I remember as a child watching media, reading books, and it seemed like every time there was someone who was really great, a princess, or, you know, someone who's considered beautiful, someone who's considered worth looking up to. It seemed like they were, um, blonde. There was always, you know, every princess when I was growing up, every princess was blonde until Belle was finally a brunette, right?
I guess Snow White has black hair, but anyway, I had those internalized feelings of feeling like I didn't look quite right. Feeling like I wished I looked different. And so I know kind of firsthand that there is sort of a feeling of being not as good as if you don't see yourself represented in your stories.
I think we're doing much better at this in our generation than we did, you know, back when I was a kid, way, way back when I was a kid. So I want my kids to be able to see these things. And I have, I have to say, I really wrote this book for one person. I have a son who loved basketball so, so much and is also just tiny and I remember taking him to his first Junior Jazz game and there were kids who he went to their sternum, you know, they were just so much taller than him and he was really kind of disheartened after this first junior Jazz game.
He'd been playing basketball by himself for like years, you know, just kind of obsessively. And then he goes to this junior Jazz game and it just deflated him. And I was like, well, let me tell you this story about, we, we called him uncle about uncle Wat, even though he's not actually my uncle. And so I told him this story and I just saw how he lit up and I just thought, well, that's cool.
You know? And, and it kind of remained with me and I, I eventually wanted to write a book about it since then. He's decided he likes tennis more than basketball, but that's okay.
[00:15:53] Morgan Jones Pearson: Well, I, I think that it's, it's such an, it's such a good story. As a short. Former basketball player myself, I found it inspiring, but going back to that idea of representation, I think it's interesting, like, as you were talking, I was thinking, really, the only experience.
That I can relate to, I was thinking about how, as a little girl, anything that related to children, I was like, Oh, this is for me. So, like, I would search in, like, the Bible dictionary for the word, like, children to see if there was anything that could relate to me. Um, and so, like,
suffer
[00:16:31] Emily Inouye Huey: little children was my favorite.
Scripture for so long, you know, because it was about kids because you're a kid. Yeah. The other thing, if you don't mind, um, the other thing that I think is really important is, you know, it's important for us to see ourselves. It's important for kids to see themselves, but it's also reading is one of, you know, there's all these studies that show how reading affects empathy more than any other media source, you know, like more than a TV show, more than a movie.
And. If we don't have books about lots of different people, about lots of different populations, we don't have that headstart into gaining empathy for those people that we can get from reading. And so, you know, for my, my own library as a mom, I really do care about my kids having books about Asian Americans so that they can see themselves reflected and things like that.
But I also care about having a library that, you know, includes all populations, because that is how we, you know, that's one way that we can help our kids learn that empathy.
[00:17:27] Morgan Jones Pearson: I love that. You've said, Emily, that you feel like you need to write, like some people need to run. And I have a husband who has to run, so that's very relatable, but that you believe that it's critical for all people to create something.
And this is something I don't think is a new topic necessarily for members of the church. Elder Uchtdorf has talked about creating and the innate need that we have to create. But I wondered what has working on these books and, and creating them done for your life?
[00:18:00] Emily Inouye Huey: Yeah. I totally believe that. Um, and I, you see this actually in the Japanese American experience, you see these people in this, in this, in these prison camps, which were always in swamps or deserts, they're always in swamps or deserts.
So there's very little around, right. But they would find like little pieces of. Brush or wood or whatever. And they would create, they would make, they would make flower arrangements out of fake flowers, or they would make, uh, you know, decorations for their homes. Like there was a need, I think, to create their, as a way of processing for them too.
And I guess for me, you know, I, I have the privilege of being um, You know, the child and grandchild of someone who was incarcerated rather than someone who was incarcerated myself, but, but there are things that I've needed to process for, for most of my family. And I think this is true for many Japanese Americans.
We didn't, we didn't talk about this when we were young, and then we've had to deal with it as we got old enough to find out about what had happened. And as, as the elders started talking about what had happened, because for a long time, they didn't. And, and so there's been things to process and it's helped me process things, but it's also helped me come to terms with a lot of things about, I love choices I want to make about my own life.
I am sort of haunted by the fact that 93 percent of Americans thought it was a good idea to put these people in a prison camp. And I always ask myself, you know, what is it? That I could be convinced of under the right circumstances and writing a book, uh, has given me a chance to process some of that and, uh, try to figure out who it is I want to be and who I want my children to be and things like that.
[00:19:44] Morgan Jones Pearson: Well, I, I heard you say that about 93%. Of people thinking that this was actually a good decision and another interview that I listened to as I prepped and I was like, that is unreal. What does 93 percent of the country agree about? Yeah. Sorry. Right. Nothing. We don't agree about anything to that extent now.
But you also talked in that same interview about how we have to recognize the humanity on both sides that, to your point, they were, they were convinced the people that said that they were in favor of this. They were being inspired by fear and that they were human. And so I wondered for you, as you have kind of tried to reconcile this history of your family, why do you feel it's so important?
And how do you keep you and your family from harboring resentment? Because I think to me, if I heard, okay, 93 percent of people thought that this was a good idea, this terrible thing that happened to my dad and my grandparents, I'd be like, what is wrong with people? But it doesn't seem like that's the way that you and your family have approached this instead of recognizing the nuance in it.
And so, so how have you done that?
[00:21:12] Emily Inouye Huey: Well, I think, you know, mostly I have to attribute that to my grandparents because they're the ones who chose their reaction to what had happened. And, and I will say there, there are different levels and layers in this, in their reaction. One, I think they were told at the time, you know, if you want to move on, you have to just forget this ever happened.
And so there is an, you know, Unhealthy. Yeah. There's an unhealthy part of it. Um, in choosing, you know, for a long time to be silenced. But I do think that I know my grandma spoke more about it than my grandpa, but I think particularly my grandma, she really did probably let it go. Um, and, uh, choose not to have those feelings.
And I think part of that is recognizing that people are mostly good, that we all make some bad decisions. And certainly we have weaknesses sometimes as a person, an individual, and sometimes as a society. But it does very little good for the person who's been harmed to Let their lives be one filled with hate and anger.
You know, that's, that's, I don't think anyone really believes that does us a lot of good. And my grandfather in his journals, he wrote over and over again, this phrase, the dignity of man must always be preserved. And I think he was thinking about what was happening to him when he wrote that, you know, and how he was being in some ways, a lot of times they were treated as a little bit less than human.
But I think it goes the other way too, right? Remembering that. You know, at any time you could be on the other side of things and remembering to, like, focus your life on the things that you can do to help. There's this story in our family. My aunt told me this story, my aunt Jeanette. And she said that when they were on these, when they, they were in these, I just so told you they're in these temporary assembly centers, they were in these, Horse stalls, and then they got taken to these permanent camps.
And when they did that, they put them on trains and these trains, they didn't tell them how long they were going to be on the train. They didn't tell them where they were going. They just put them on the trains and they covered up all the windows with black paper. So no one could see in and no one could see out.
And My family ended up being on that train for, I think like two nights and three days or something like that. And this train, they told everyone you can't open the windows under any circumstances, but they ended up coming to this train station where they had to get coal. And so the train had to stop to get more coal.
And someone on this platform started knocking on this window and inside this train, the family was like, well, we're not supposed to open the window. We're not supposed to open it. But this knocking continued and continued. And. Finally, someone decided to open it and outside on this window on this platform was a woman and she had a basket full of coats and blankets and mittens and scarves and things like that.
And she, as soon as the window opened, she starts stuffing them through the window and she does that, you know, until the train starts moving again and she can't keep up. And the only thing she said is where you're going, it's cold. And it turned out my family's going to Wyoming and where it got to negative 30, you know, in those first, first few weeks or months and my family, that family was coming from California.
So they didn't have warm things. You can imagine what that meant. And I've thought a lot about that woman, uh, over the years because. You know, there's a situation that she can't fix, you know, and there's so many times when we look at injustices or the bad things in the world and they're, um, you know, they're too big that you can't, you can't fix them.
There, it seems overwhelming, right? But here's someone who, you know, at a time when 93 percent of people thought this was a good idea to send people to camp, saw the humanity in these people and did what she could. And I think sometimes that's the answer, right? That you just, you just do what you can and you remember and, and, you know, you go from there and you try to teach your kids to do the same.
And that's the hope that we have in this, in this humanity that is so flawed, but is also so beautiful.
[00:25:28] Morgan Jones Pearson: That's such a powerful story. I think sometimes it's so easy to feel like. There is nothing I can do. It's, it's too big an issue for me to have any ability to make any kind of difference. But that is such a great example of somebody who did what they could do.
So thank you so much for sharing that. I, you mentioned kind of this overarching belief. That people are good and tying the two stories together, the family, the story of your family and the story of what in one interview that I watched, you said that what believed in people and I feel like that's. It's like almost hard to believe because of what was going on at the same time that he was playing basketball and then being sent over to war and coming back and experiencing racism.
But how did you see that in him, this belief in people as you've researched for the book and what do you think we can learn from his example?
[00:26:38] Emily Inouye Huey: That's a good question. And again, I'm, I'm, I'm not I'm speaking for myself as someone who's researched a lot. And I did know him, but I, you know, this is me and me, my interpretation.
So I'm taking a little liberty here, but, um, my feeling is that he was exceptional at seeing the good at focusing on the good. He was treated poorly. There's no question about it there. I, I, I heard an interview with someone who knew him who talked about how they were both attacked on the street after Pearl Harbor.
You know, people threw things at him while he was playing his basketball games. People jeered, said awful things. He even got pulled into the crowd one time by some angry people. But he never really focused on that. He never, you know, he mostly focused on, and I think it's a choice, right? There's a choice in perspective.
And he would tell the story about how his, um, teammates sort of saw what was happening to him. And they started making a line, you know, he was five, seven. So they're much taller than him. They were huge. And they would make this line kind of protecting him as they would walk in past these crowds, they would, these crowds that were jeering or throwing things that kind of make a line and protect him.
That's the part of the story he would choose to focus on. And it's a balance, right? Of being able to talk about what really happened so that you can, so that you can, you know, we remember our history and hopefully don't repeat it, but at the same time, not letting it poison you and make you see the world differently forever.
Um, that's something I see in my grandparents too. I think they chose, they chose not to burden the next generation with anger and I'm always going to be grateful to them for that. Yeah. So yeah, he was incredible. He was an incredible man.
[00:28:19] Morgan Jones Pearson: I think that I love both of these stories. I think your family is remarkable.
And I think Wat's story is so awesome. And it's cool because so many of us have heard of Jackie Robinson, but I don't think nearly as many have heard of Wat. And, and from, I did a little bit of extra reading because I was interested in the story after, um, reading your book. And I read an article that talked about how like he was okay with People not being as familiar with his story.
He didn't seek the attention of it. Um, but I love that you are sharing it and, and he has passed away now, but I think it's awesome for us to, to know about him. I am curious, Emily, at what point in your family's story did they join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints? That was like a big question that I had as I, as I went through this.
[00:29:19] Emily Inouye Huey: Yeah. Uh, I wish I had exact dates and things like that. I don't. But, um, my understanding is, so my family, they were in this prison camp in Wyoming, right? And at the end of the war, the government said, well, okay. It was, it wasn't actually at the very end, but it was close, but they kind of came to this realization that there were no spies here and that it was costing a lot to feed people.
And so they kind of said, okay, you have again, two weeks and you need to get out. You need to find somewhere to go. Um, they didn't have their homes. Uh, in fact, there were some ordinances that made it so they couldn't go back in some places. So they had to find somewhere to go and they didn't know where to go.
They also couldn't stay in the area where they were. They had to go at least a hundred miles away. And so they ended up just kind of randomly, I think my uncle had had a work job once in Utah or something like that. They ended up coming to Utah and they came to a tiny little town called Sigurd, Utah. And they Where they lived on the edge of a farm.
A farmer let them live on the edge of his farm in one of these barracks from the camp that they'd taken apart and then put back up because they couldn't afford anywhere to go. They were given 25 in a bus ticket, and that's pretty much all they had. And so they ended up on this in this farm. Makeshift house on this farm in Sigurd Utah.
And I think it must have been terrifying. My, my impression. No, one's ever said that, but my impression is that it must have been terrifying because here they'd been before they lived in the community where there were quite a few Japanese people, a lot of friends, whether Japanese or not, uh, they'd known people.
And here they were in this place where they're all strangers. Uh, there's not another Japanese person for, you know, maybe what hundreds of miles or something. And so it must've been terrifying to start over there, but these, there were some really, and I won't say that every experience they had in Utah was wonderful.
I don't want to tell an untrue person, but there were these wonderful women down in that area. Who decided to bring my family bread, I think that was the first thing I heard they brought over and then eventually they invited them over to make bread and learn to make jam to go with the bread and invited other women to come meet these women as they learn to make these things and, and they kind of, eventually the men worked on the farms together and there was a flood and they all worked together to save their farms and things like that.
And eventually they became part of this community. And it was not a quick move. Uh, they were pretty, they were very devout Buddhists and some of the family, uh, I would say never joined the church, but my dad, when he was about 12, I guess he did. He was the first one to choose to join the church. He had some friends and had some people who'd invited him to their homes for Family home meetings.
My grandparents had decided to send my dad and his brothers and sisters to a primary because, uh, they didn't have a Buddhist church anywhere close and they thought they needed some religion. So they sent them to primary. And in fact, my grandma got a calling to be a primary teacher before she ever even thought about joining the church, but she didn't want to just be taking, she wanted to give back.
So she's like, Oh, sure. I'll teach. And then I think my grandparents, it was probably another, you know, it was 40 years, I think. Before they joined the church, but something I always like to highlight about that story is that these people were not friends with them to make them become members of the church.
They were friends with them because they were good people who wanted to be good and kind and Christlike. And, and so it didn't matter that my grandparents, you know, didn't want to join the church, or, or I guess they did at one point want to join the church, but didn't feel like they could go against my great grandfather's wishes.
You know, and they, so they kept, they kept, um, being good to them that whole time. And I think that's kind of one of the most important parts of that story. But eventually they did join the church. It was after my, my grandparents joined the church after they'd sent all their sons and their daughter on a mission.
And they'd had to speak in state conference and hold callings and all those kinds of things before they ever joined. But that, that's kind of their story.
[00:33:21] Morgan Jones Pearson: That's amazing. My last question for you is what does it mean to you to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ?
[00:33:31] Emily Inouye Huey: You know, I think for a lot of members of my family, this is probably the case, but it's something that we remember that there was a time when our family was on that side of things, right?
And, and we remember these stories, you know, these stories have been passed down for 80 years, like the woman on the train station, that story has been passed down for 80 years now. And so those stories I think influence you and what you think your purpose is in life. And I, I see in a lot of members of my family, there's a lot of activists, a lot of teachers, a lot of healers, a lot of people who believe in trying to a lot of special ed teachers.
people who feel like they want to help, you know, help people out. And I think, you know, in the context of this podcast and the title all in, you know, there's a lot of ways you can, there's a lot of answers for that. But, um, something that I like to remember is that Christ was kind of radical at his time.
Uh, he was someone who, you know, people were surprised at who he went to. He wasn't just going to the, you know, the parishes or, you know, he was going to the woman with the issue of blood who wasn't allowed to come be part of anything because she was unclean, right. Or the lepers who were cast out of society, these, these, these.
Samaritans who were considered, you know, second class. And so I think, you know, something I like to remember is that we would probably be surprised at who he went to today, if he came and, and maybe focus on what we can do to bring those on the margins. Those who maybe feel cast out into a place of being fully included and fully dignified So
[00:35:13] Morgan Jones Pearson: well said thank you so much for that and I agree with you I think I'm a big fan of the show The Chosen and I think it's done such a good job of showing that The way that Christ like what he did and what he taught Was not conventional to the people of that time.
And, um, the way that he's asking us to live may not be conventional now, but it's important and it matters. And so when we say that we're disciples of Jesus Christ, like that's, what's being asked of us. Emily, thank you so much for your time and for being willing to do this interview and share your family with us.
I just, I appreciate it very, very much.
[00:35:54] Emily Inouye Huey: Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
[00:35:59] Morgan Jones Pearson: We are so grateful to Emily Inouye Huey for joining us. On today's episode, you can find Emily's books Beneath the Wide Silk Sky and Wat, Kept Playing in Deseret bookstores. Now, big thanks to Derek Campbell of mix at six studios for all of his help with this episode, and thank you so much for listening.
We'll look forward to being with you again next week.