Of White Ashes “leaves the reader with a new awareness of history and a deeper appreciation of the human heart.”
–Lois Lowry, author of Number the Stars and The Giver

The bombing of Pearl Harbor propels America into WWII and two Japanese Americans into chaos. Separated by the Pacific, each embarks on a tumultuous path to survive childhood and live the American dream. Ruby Ishimaru loses her liberty and uproots from her Hawaii home to incarceration camps on the mainland. Koji Matsuo strains under the menacing clouds of the Japanese war machine and atomic bombing while concealing a dangerous secret-one that threatens his family’s safety.

When destiny brings Ruby and Koji together in California, their chemistry is magnetic, but wounds of trauma run deep and threaten their love as another casualty of war.

Inspired by the true family stories of the authors—Constance Hays Matsumoto and Kent Matsumoto—Of White Ashes crosses oceans and cultures, illuminating the remarkable lives of ordinary people who endure seemingly unbearable hardship with dignity and patience. Their experiences compel us to reflect on the resilience of humanity and the risk of history repeating.

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Winner 2024 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Silver Award, Historical Fiction
Winner 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Historical Fiction and Finalist First Novel Award
Winner 2023 Pencraft Awards for Literary Excellence
Finalist 2023 American Book Fest Best Book Awards

Prepare for an enthralling dive into the heart of Kansas City’s baseball legacy with The Kansas City Royals: An Illustrated Timeline, a vivid chronicle of triumph, heartbreak, and the unyielding spirit of a city devoted to its team.

Kansas City’s passion for baseball ignited in the 1880s with the minor league Blues and Negro League Monarchs, growing even stronger with the major league Athletics’ arrival in 1955. Despite their struggles and eventual move to Oakland, Ewing Kauffman’s visionary purchase of an MLB franchise revitalized the city’s hopes. His substantial investments led the Royals to new heights in the 1970s and ’80s, winning two American League pennants and a World Series. After decades of drought, the Royals dramatically turned the tide in 2014 and 2015, capturing two more pennants and a World Series title, uniting the city in celebration.

Harry Truman was a passionate baseball fan, often attending games at the old Municipal Stadium. His love for the sport reflected the spirit of Kansas City, where baseball was more than a pastime—it was a unifying force for the community. Truman’s enthusiasm for the game exemplifies the city’s enduring connection to its baseball roots.

Join us at the Truman Library on August 8, 2024, for a captivating event celebrating this remarkable book. Explore the Royals’ history, from their early days to unforgettable moments. Discover how star players like Amos Otis, George Brett, and Salvador Perez propelled the Royals to victory. Take advantage of this opportunity to celebrate Kansas City’s enduring baseball legacy and relive the moments that brought the city together.

Matt Stewart is an Emmy-award-winning TV reporter and news anchor in Kansas City. He’s an avid Royals fan with over two decades of experience covering the team. He’s also a Northwestern University graduate, a former football player, and the author of books such as The Walk-On and Unique Eats and Eateries of Kansas City. With his engaging prose and in-depth research, he vividly portrays Kansas City’s sports history.

This event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required.

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All registrants are invited to attend a pre-event reception in the Atrium from 5:30-6 p.m., followed by a book signing.

Join the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum – and many other regional museums and historic sites – for Teacher Appreciation Night, an exclusive evening for the whole family to celebrate educators.

Enjoy appetizers, beverages, and networking in the Truman Library while learning about educational programs that will engage and inspire your students and the whole family! Highlights include private access to the Museum and educational resources.

All of this is offered completely free of charge as our way of thanking you for all you do! Please include the number of guests in your RSVP!

RSVP for this free event!

Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area presents Casualties of War: A Civil War on the Western Border Symposium. Measuring the struggle for freedom against the loss of liberty, the symposium will explore the wide-ranging effects of the border conflict and the loss of civil liberty for those caught in its vortex.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, a democratically elected government of civilian authorities protected the United States’ founding guarantees: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Events in eastern Kansas and western Missouri forced the unthinkable, posing a direct challenge to those American values. When a military attempts to exert control over a hostile insurgent civilian population, fundamental questions emerge—with consequences that reverberate through history to the present moment.

This day-long event gathers a broad-based group of historians to discuss the price of civil liberties during wartime. Sessions presented will examine the Kansas-Missouri border war through the lenses of how geopolitical conflict shapes gender roles; the suspension of habeas corpus and invocation of martial law; the dawn of industrial total war; the lessons of insurgent movements; and more. Speakers include Kerry Altenbernd, Alisha Moore Cole, Dr. Harry Laver, Daniel L. Smith, and Richard Titterington.

Advance registration is required. Tickets for the full-day symposium are $40 and include Museum admission and a catered lunch. Ticket sales close August 15.

Casualties of War is a combined presentation of Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area and the Civil War Roundtable of Kansas City, hosted by the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum.

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One Kid’s Quest to Visit the Tombs of Every President and Vice President

In 2003, nine-year-old presidential enthusiast Kurt Deion presented his father with an audacious request: would he help him follow in the footsteps of historian Richard Norton Smith and C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb by taking him to visit the final resting place of each dead U.S. president? He got all he asked for, and more.

Deion’s journey to these tombs, and from elementary school neophyte to college history major, was unorthodox. With his zany, boundary-pushing father at the wheel, the straight-laced youngster found himself sneaking a camera past Secret Service agents, purposely locked in a cemetery enclosed with barbed wire, and handcuffed to the former Dallas homicide detective who was tethered to alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald when he was shot by Jack Ruby. Most daringly, he (reluctantly) gained entry to a vice president’s private family burial ground in order to possibly become the lone person to have visited each presidential and vice-presidential grave, collectively.

In this history-driven book talk, author Kurt Deion reconstructs his decade-long, cross-country quest and analyzes the evolution of his perspective on the commanders-in-chief and what it means to visit a cemetery.

6 p.m. Reception | 6:30 p.m. Book Talk

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The remarkable true story of the longest-held prisoner of war in American history, John Downey, Jr., a CIA officer captured in China during the Korean War and imprisoned for 21 years.

John (Jack) Downey, Jr., was a new Yale graduate in the post-World War II years who, like other Yale grads, was recruited by the young CIA. He joined the Agency and was sent to Japan in 1952, during the Korean War. In a violation of protocol, he took part in an air drop that failed and was captured over China. His sources on the ground had been compromised, and his identity was known. Although he first tried to deny who he was, he eventually admitted the truth.

But government policy forbade ever acknowledging the identity of spies, no matter the consequences. Washington invented a fictitious cover story and stood by it through four Administrations. As a result, Downey was imprisoned during the decades that Red China, as it was called, was considered by the U.S. to be a hostile nation, until 1973, when the U.S. finally recognized the mainland Chinese government. He had spent 21 years in captivity.

Downey would go on to become a lawyer and an esteemed judge in Connecticut, his home state. Prisoner of Lies (August 20, 2024) is based, in part, on a prison memoir that Downey wrote several years after his release. Barry Werth fluently weaves excerpts from the memoir with the Cold War events that determined Downey’s fate. Like a le Carré novel, this is a harrowing, chilling story of one man whose life is at the mercy of larger forces outside of his control—in Downey’s case as a pawn of the Cold War, and more specifically the Oval Office and the State Department. His freedom came only when U.S. foreign policy dramatically changed. Above all, Prisoner of Lies is an inspiring story of remarkable fortitude and resilience.

6:00 p.m. Hors d’oeuvres Reception
6:30 p.m. Program
7:30 p.m. Book Signing

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Save the Date

The Truman Library Institute, Economic Club of Kansas City, and Henry W. Bloch School of Management proudly announce that the 2024 Truman Medal for Economic Policy will be awarded to Thomas Hoenig, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Prior to joining the Mercatus Center, Mr. Hoenig served as Vice Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 2012 until 2018.

Awarded biennially, the Truman Medal for Economic Policy provides a forum to recognize exceptional economic policy contributions. The award’s name reflects the role President Harry S. Truman played in the creation of the Council of Economic Advisers.

The award presentation will take place in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 10, 2024. Sponsor packages and tickets will go on sale Summer 2024. Sign up for TRU E-news for event alerts and updates.

About the Truman Medal for Economic Policy

“In today’s troubled times, with authoritarianism escalating at home and abroad, Sparrow’s book reads like an all-hands-on-deck wakeup call. Highly recommended!”—Douglas Brinkley

Franklin Roosevelt awoke at 2:50 a.m. on September 1, 1939 to the news that Germany had invaded Poland, signaling the start of World War II. The president had warned for years that Hitler’s fascist regime posed an existential threat to democracy, but the American public remained stubbornly isolationist as fascist sympathizing groups, egged on by right wing media stars promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, plotted to overthrow the president.

The situation was dire, and Roosevelt quickly found himself facing an unexpected adversary: Charles Lindbergh. Wildly popular, the famed aviator’s youthful charm, plainspoken rhetoric, and media magnetism earned him a massive following as he led an aggressive attack on FDR’s policies. Millions listened to Linberg’s radio broadcasts and attended his rallies. Powerful individuals including William Randolph Hearst, Henry Ford, and members of Congress supported him. The German government provided secret funds to Lindbergh’s Nazi followers as he led the radical America First Committee in an effort to prevent Roosevelt from aiding England’s survival—and the world’s.

Awakening the Spirit of America brilliantly shows how Roosevelt overcame the forces aligned against him in a war against fascism. Paul Sparrow, former director of the FDR Presidential Library, reveals how FDR’s triumph of leadership was by no means a foregone conclusion. Roosevelt’s astute political maneuvers and persuasive use of language to preserve what he termed “the spirit of America” changed history and can still inspire today.

Sparrow brings you into the rooms where key decisions were made, focusing on the crucial role words, media, and propaganda played in the transformation of America into the protector of the free world. Awakening the Spirit of America provides a riveting, inside account of FDR’s ultimate victory over pro-Nazi isolationists and provides vital insight into American history and an iconic president.

6:00 p.m. Hors d’oeuvres Reception
6:30 p.m. Program
7:30 p.m. Book Signing

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Regional high school teams are invited to compete for honor and prizes in the Truman Library’s annual High School Trivia Contest. Encourage your students to test their knowledge of history and the presidency. This event for students in grades 9-12; only one team per school. Private, parochial, public and home schools are all welcome to register for the contest. There is no fee to participate, but teams are encouraged to register early—this popular event fills quickly!

Prizes will be awarded to first, second, and third-place teams, along with certificates of participation for each student. Light refreshments will be served.

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A new temporary exhibition, UPSET! Harry Truman and the 1948 Election, allows visitors to travel back in time to see how the most stunning surprise in U.S. presidential election history came about. The exhibit, which includes more than 200 artifacts, original political cartoons, interactive displays, diary entries, photographs and videos, opens May 30, 2024, and runs through February 1, 2025, at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum.

This special exhibition is included with general admission. Truman Library Institute Members enjoy free admission.

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