Yasutaro Soga was a 68-year-old newspaper editor when he was detained after the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941. He would spend the next four years in internment camps and publish a Japanese-language memoir, "Tessaku Keisatus," in 1948.

The first English-language translation of the book, "Barbed Wire: The World War II Internment Memoirs of a Hawai'i Issei," will be released next week by University of Hawai'i Press at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i.

Over the years, many would talk and write about their internment experiences, but Soga's view was unusual in the fact that he was a trained observer as editor of Nippu Jiji, a widely read Japanese language daily, and that he was a first-generation immigrant. The book was translated by Cultural Center volunteer Kihei Hirai and others from the organization. Admission to the event, set for 10 :30 a.m. Dec. 1 is free; the book is $21 for center members, $25 nonmembers.

Information: 945-7633, e-mail info@jcch.com or go to www.jcch.com.

PROGRAM LOOKS AT WAR YEARS IN ISLES

Film historian Steven Fredrick will present a two-pronged program of historic World War II film shorts and a related Downtown walking tour geared to give the war a historic perspective timed to the upcoming 66th anniversary of the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Fredrick, who collects rare Hawai'i-themed films, has assembled a blend of films that depict Hawai'i during the war years, at 7 p.m. Dec. 5 at a VIP screening room. Cost is $10; call 395-0674 for location, or e-mail filmguy54@hotmail.com to reserve a space.

The program will include "Hawaii During World War II: The Movies and the Music of the 1940s," with vintage newsreel images filmed during the attack by Japan at Pearl Harbor that triggered World War II.