The Rock Springs Massacre, the Watsonville Riots, the Japanese internment camps, and the countless stereotypes are small parts of the larger, degrading legacy paved for Asian-Americans of the past and present in America. One of these Asian-Americans, Garrett Hongo, earns his place as socially-driven poet from his countless commentaries and criticisms through poetry. Hongo, a Japanese-American born in Hawaii in 1951, culminates his 1988 The River of Heaven with the poem “The Legend.” Concluding the book of poems, “The Legend” pays tribute to an Asian-American, Jay Kashiwamura, whose unexpected death from an unknown gunman inspired Hongo to write a poem detailing Kashiwamura’s experience with underlying tones of the overarching lack of emphasis
