Acknowledgments
In the course of developing this book, I have incurred many debts. First, I want to thank H.L. Tobing and Minar T. Rony for making this book possible through their devoted memorykeeping and generous gift of family history. I also want to remember the family members who played a part in this history I have described, and whose memory we honor: R. Gerhard L. Tobing, R. Apoel P. Loembantobing, A. Kohar Rony, Demak Tobing Mark, and William R. Mark. I want to thank all the different branches of the family who feature in this history: Bonur Pardede Loembantobing; Elice Loembantobing Barry, Brittneyuli Marion Dameria Barry, and Elliot Matthew Tobing Barry; Rayendra L. Tobing, Hanna Carolina L. Tobing, and Jayden L. Tobing; Tota Melani Loembantobing and Alexandra Siahaan; Fatimah Tobing Rony, and Saenah Boch; Billy Mark, Shandon Mark, and Daniel Mark; Malcolm Mark, Eileen Mark, Duncan Alexander Mark, Meredith Tobing Mark, and Evan Crawford Mark; Bistok P.L. Tobing and Artauli R.M. Panggabean Tobing, and Natalia Tobing. I also thank Sahat Tobing, Donda Tobing, and Inang Uda Tao, as well as the extended Tobing and Simorangkir families for their help in this process. I want to give additional thanks to Bistok P.L. Tobing and Artauli R.M. Panggabean Tobing for their indispensable and wise research help as we traveled across the Pacific and the Atlantic.
I thank the Brill series editors of the Gender and the Transpacific series, Judy Wu and Catherine Choy, for their encouragement of this project and seeing it through all phases of development. In addition, I want to acknowledge Jason Prevost, Gerda Danielson Coe, Debbie de Wit, and Thalien Colenbrander at Brill Publishers for their guidance of my project, and Elizabeth Stone for her careful copy-editing. I thank the reviewers for this manuscript whose insights made it a better book. I further thank Peter Keppy for his help in our research on World War II. I also thank the staff at the Archiv- und Museumsstiftung der VEM, especially Julia Besten, Wolfgang Apelt, and Christoph Schwab. I thank Matthijs Holwerda, Marije Plomp, and the staff at Special Collections at Leiden University Libraries as well. At University of California, Irvine (UCI), I thank Long Bui, Isabela Quintana, Judy Wu, Claire J. Kim, Julia Lee, James Lee, Linda Vo, Thuy Vo Dang, Madelynn Dickerson, Jennifer Choy, Robert Escalante, Robert Moeller, Lynn Mally, Kai Evers, and Vicki Ruiz. In addition, I thank the Asian American Women Historians writing group for reading multiple drafts of different sections, especially Judy Wu, Valerie Matsumoto, Constance Chen, Jane Hong, Susie Woo, Isabela Quintana, and Kelly Fong. I am thankful too for the UCI School of Humanities grants which enabled me to travel to different archives in order to conduct research. Next, I want to thank Gregory Robinson, Teresa Bill, Gary Y. Okihiro, Franklin Odo, K. Scott Wong, Judy Yung, Madeline Hsu, Davianna McGregor, John Kuo Wei Tchen, Charles Lai, Dorothy Cordova, Fred Cordova, Anne Frank, Jack Herzig, Aiko Yoshinaga-Herzig, Michelle Caswell, Emily Porcincula Lawsin, Judy Patacsil, Joan May Cordova, and Terese Guinsatao Monberg for all the help they have given me over the years in helping me to understand the importance of archives and the role of history. I also would like to acknowledge Dr. N. Lavada Austin, Dr. Kristen Iverson, and Kathleen O’Connell for their help and wise counsel during these past few years. I thank Francesca Polletta and Edwin Amenta, and Jennifer and Luis Martinez as well. There are many others to be thanked and acknowledged too who have made this book such an important journey for us.
Finally, my mother Minar T. Rony would like to thank Sameha Kotb and Oemi Schmidgall-Tellings for their wonderful friendship over these past decades. I also would like to acknowledge my son Theodore Fujita-Rony for the gifts he has brought to our lives. Last but not least, my deepest thanks to my husband Thomas Y. Fujita-Rony, for his love and support over the decades, without whom this project would not have been possible.