clock Oct 5, 2021 4:28 pm US/Pacific
Calif. Haiku Poet Violet de Cristoforo Dies At 90

(AP) SALINAS Violet Kazue de Cristoforo, who received national honors for haikus reflecting the desolation of Japananese-American internment camps during World War II, has died. She was 90.

De Cristoforo died at her home in Salinas, on California's central coast, on Wednesday, her daughter Kimi de Cristoforo said.

For more than 50 years, de Cristoforo wrote, compiled and translated haikus created in the detention camps. She was also a staunch advocate in the campaign that led to reparations and an apology from the U.S. government to the 120,000 Japanese-Americans interned in the 1940s.

"Like-minded people gather
new shoots sprout from the pine tree
early summer sky."