int3rcept

What was your honest opinion on the Japanese-American internment as a young man on the Pacific Front? Did you view Japanese-Americans as fellow Americans, potential threats, or were you indifferent either way? What were the opinions of you and your fellow servicemen of the 442nd Infantry Regime?

Have you met any Japanese-American marines since? If so, what were your emotions? Proud, conflicted, indifferent, bitter?

Thank you for spending the time to answer our questions, Mr. Mace.

Thank you for your honest answer.

Hey Shane,

Your poem literally made me cry. I grew up in a lot of racist towns and struggled to make friends until I got to college. My college roommate and closest friend, the one who helped me grow out of years of depression and start interacting with people like a normal human beings, committed suicide a five years ago over feelings of inadequacy.

Now I'm a 28 year old writer working on my debut novel. My dream is to have a stable career as a professional fiction writer but more than anything, I want to tell people who have gone through the same bullying that we did that there is a way out of the desert if they endure long enough, and there are people out there who will love them for who they are, scars and all.

With that said, I have often wondered what it would be like to become a big shot writer with big book signings and have fans come up and tell me that my work helped them to make it through another day, to endure and become better people, to love and seek love. I've felt the same about my own literary heroes. It may feel creepy and weird, but I really do feel like they were fathers and mothers to me.

I am sure that this is an experience you're familiar with. What was your reaction when you met the first guy who walked up to you and said that one of your poems or performances had changed his life? Or kept him from committing suicide? What motivates your work? Is it mostly a form of catharsis for yourself or are you driven by a desire to share your art with others?

I don't know if we'll ever meet in person and forgive my cliche, but I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart that I am deeply moved by your work. Whatever esteem my own writing will bring me, whatever lives it will effect or societies it will change, please know that you contributed to it. We only stand upon the shoulders of the giants who came before us. As I continue to develop my own craft, it is my sincere hope that I meet you face to face and thank you in person not simply as a reader or a fan, but as a literary peer.

Thank you so much for taking out the time to do this.