Tower Talk - April 2023

Message from the Alumnae and Alumni Engagement Team

Greetings Alumnae and Alumni,

Your next edition of Tower Talk is here to provide access to fellow alums, opportunities to share your news and achievements, register for upcoming events, and learn a little about what’s happening at Notre Dame. Spring Break for our students was last week, and it’s always more enjoyable to see our campus alive again with activity we can see from our windows in Noyes House, so we are happy to have them back!

The Alumni Engagement Office is recruiting alumni from the following classes to assist with their reunion planning: 2018, 2013, 1998, 1993, 1988, 1983, 1978, 1973, 1968, and 1963! 1998 celebrates its 25th reunion, and 1973 celebrates its 50th reunion! If you are interested in getting involved in any way, please make sure you contact the Alumni Engagement Office at ndmalum@ndm.edu today.

The Alumni Council will be restarting this summer in our new fiscal year. We are so grateful to the current Council members, especially President Nikki Gatewood ’01, for their steadfast support, and we are thrilled to welcome new alumni volunteers into the Council as we restructure and relaunch our efforts. If you’d like to learn more about the Council and the work we plan to do together, please email Alexandra DeJohn, Director of Alumni Engagement at adejohn@ndm.edu.

Spring is in the air and our seniors are taking their final steps as students until Commencement, when we can welcome them into the alumni family. Be on the lookout for how you can celebrate our seniors on social media this May.

We hope to see you at an upcoming event soon!

Warmly,
Alex & Rose
Your Alumni Engagement Team

Interview with Connie Matsumoto '94

Constance Hays Matsumoto '94 graduated from Notre Dame with her Bachelor of Arts in Business through the Weekend College. After Notre Dame, she went on to earn her Master of Science in Business from Johns Hopkins University. Connie has worked in the corporate sector, she has been an interior designer, and now she is an author and writer. Connie and her husband, Kent Matsumoto, wrote Of White Ashes together, which is inspired by true stories of the authors' families.

What is your favorite memory of Notre Dame from when you were a student?

I was having a bad day with an economics professor and went to Sr. Doris Ann for support. She just grabbed my hand and asked, "Connie, how can I help you? What do you need from me?" She helped me to understand I could take the class as pass/fail to take the pressure off of me. I thought she was so amazing, kind, caring, and empathetic. Overall, Notre Dame really instilled in me the confidence to take risks, both professionally and personally.

What has your experience been with Notre Dame since graduating? 

I owe everything good in my life that has happened since leaving Notre Dame to my education. It's also the place I go to re-center myself and it's always very restorative for me to be on campus. Around 2000, I began teaching some adjunct classes in the Business department on campus. I was also involved in the First Impressions program, so I helped students prepare for their professional life after graduation. 

What inspired you and Kent to write this story? Was it difficult to write about something so personal?

Everything for me starts with our first date to the Baltimore Museum of Art, where we saw an exhibit on Dorothea Lange's photography. I was looking at a photo of a young Japanese-American girl waiting to board a bus to go into a WWII Japanese American Incarceration Camp when Kent came up behind me and said, "That was my mother's story." Later, he explained that his mother had been incarcerated in the camps as a young teenager, and his father, also an American, was a Hiroshima survivor. I believed this story of two people meeting after horrible events to fall in love and live the American Dream would be an extraordinary story for a book We decided on a novel over a nonfiction book so we could address the strengths and flaws of their humanity.

Can you discuss the process of writing Of White Ashes? What research went into developing this story?

We tried several routes before deciding to write the book ourselves. First, there was a local nonfiction writer who wanted to write the story, but Kent's parents dismissed him. Next, we looked into having a documentary made. We assembled a team with a filmmaker from the West Coast, but his parents wanted nothing to do with them either. I then encouraged Kent to write the book, but after a few years I decided to initiate the writing process. I closed my business at the time, took creative writing classes at the local community college, and spent almost a year learning and researching how to be a writer.

Kent and I traveled together to significant places in his parents' lives. We went to Hiroshima and stood where Kent's father was when the bomb dropped at a rifle factory, where he worked as a 16-year-old making rifles for the Emperor. Then we went to Hiroshima Station, which is where Kent's grandparents were when the bomb fell. We walked up the steps and stood there, and we looked around and imagined what that was like for them to come out of the station and see their entire city gone. We traveled to Hawaii, where Kent's mother was born. We also went to several museums, including the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles. We've been to the Tule Lake Incarceration Camp in California and the Jerome Incarceration Camp in Arkansas, which was the first camp that my mother-in-law went to.

After the research, the book was brought together in stages: first Hiroshima, then Hawaii. Kent provided the cultural lens and helped brainstorm scenes in the book that supplemented the character development and plot. Then it was learning how to structure a love story. Kent played a big part in the wordsmithing, editing scenes, and story development. My business skills helped me to structure the book when it came to building the foundation and timeline, and thinking through what is being achieved in the story. It was important for us to write a book that was really grounded in solid historical research without being dry like a textbook.

Are there any closing thoughts you'd like to share to your fellow alumni?

We wrote this book to honor Kent's parents and their remarkable stories, and the many Japanese Americans whose lives were decidedly shaped by the events of World War II. We really hope that this book inspires hearts and minds, engages people's curiosity, expands their knowledge, generates empathy for other races and cultures, and reminds them of how fragile the world is.

Of White Ashes will be released on May 1, the first day of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The Ivy Bookstore will be hosting an event for Connie and Kent to discuss their new book on May 30. You can find more information here.

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