2 comments about Imprisoned Apart: The World War II Correspondence of an Issei Couple (Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies).

1. This is the true story of a married couple who were sent to separate internment camps during World War II. It is a heart-wrenching, but heart-warming story, told mainly in his letters to her, as she was too depressed or too ill to write much of the time. All Americans should know the full details of this shameful time in our history. This book shows how a man can love his wife under any circumstance. Highly recommended!



2. In this simple, lovely paperback the life & times of two quiet, introspective pioneers come alive. They left the land of their birth for Seattle in America, arriving in the 1919. There they thrived within their community & their church. Until that fateful day when Iwao was snatched away shortly after Pearl Harbor. The World War II correspondence of this Issei couple throughout the dark years of their separate internments is the heart of this biography. Yet the memorabilia & superb black & white photographs of the NorthWest region give a greater insight into these quiet, devoted Americans. Truly an inspiring study in forgiveness & endurance. ........................

1 comments about Drifting Toward the Southeast: The Story of Five Japanese Castaways.

1. Although John Manjiro never came to Maui, an annual dance festival in his honor has been held in Lahaina several times. Now, for the first time in English, we have the man's story in his own words, as translated by Junya Nagakuni and Junji Kitadai and accompanied by gorgeous reproductions of the illustrations that decorated his handwritten 1852 account -- words and pictures that helped revolutionize Japan, even though they circulated in a limited number of handwritten copies, each with a somewhat different set of illustrations.
   Manjiro was a poor fisherman, too low in status even to have a family name, when he and four companions were shipwrecked on Hurricane Island (Tori Shima) in 1841. At the time, Japan was almost cut off from the rest of the world.
   The quintet was rescued by an American whaling captain, and the older men were taken to Oahu, where one of them married an islander and disappeared from history. Manjiro, only 14, was taken to New Bedford and educated in English, Christianity, surveying and navigation and coopering.
   He spent six of the next 10 years at sea, as he and his companions struggled to return to Japan. Whether they understood that, by law, returned exiles were subject to execution is uncertain, but according to the editors, there is no record that the Shogunate actually did kill any returnees.
   However, on one attempt to land, the local Japanese were frightened enough to run away from the suspect exiles.
   The American captain, then, refused to let his refugees land, carrying them back across the ocean.
   The bitter disappointment of the yearning exiles must have been profound, but Manjiro, a stoic, relates his dismay in just a line.
   In 1852, Manjiro, who also used the American name John Mung, and two of the others managed to get close to home on a whaler and then to sail a whaleboat into Okinawa, a somewhat more welcoming re-entry point than the home islands had been earlier. It was happily timed for Manjiro, because just one year later Commodore Matthew Perry came demanding trade and refuge for whaleships, whether the Japanese wanted it or not.
   Other castaways had made it home earlier; in fact, footnotes to this edition of Manjiro's "Hyoson Kiryaku" ("Brief Account of Drifting toward the Southeast") suggest that Japanese waifs were thinly spread all over the Pacific in the mid-19th century.
   The connection of Manjiro to Lahaina comes from this little diaspora. Four other shipwrecked Japanese sailors had landed in Lahaina in 1838 -- before Manjiro ever left home -- and were given succor by missionaries. Manjiro's later fame rubbed off on these men, who never played the role in introducing the two nations to each other that he did; and in legend Manjiro became a visitor to Maui, but his charts reproduced in "Hyoson Kiryaku" show that he landed on Oahu several times but never on Maui.
   A few elite Japanese at home had learned something about the outside world before Perry showed up, including a samurai, Kawada Shoryo, who was assigned to write down Manjiro's story.
   Shoryo, an accomplished painter, also elaborated Manjiro's sketches.
   The book was a sensation, though not available to very many. The power elite of Meiji Japan saw it, though.
   Only a few copies survive, with illustrations of variable quality.
   Shoryo had European books and prints, supplied by the Dutch at Nagasaki, to help with street scenes as described and roughly sketched for him by Manjiro, but some things were utterly mystifying to stay-at-home Japanese.
   One illustration of a "sea horse" looks like a deformed horse, and the editors speculate that perhaps it was an attempt to draw a walrus from no more than a verbal description.
   Since Manjiro said he had seen it while sailing around Cape Horn, it could not have been a walrus. Was the sailor spinning a yarn, just once, in his otherwise very serious account of suffering and revelation?
   Whichever, John Manjiro comes across as an attractive personality.
   He went to California in the Gold Rush and struck it rich -- $600 for only 70 days work. According to Kuwada, "he thought it would be indecent to continue" and set off for Honolulu to collect other stray Japanese and go home.
   Once there, he became an expert, though the Shogunate officials never quite trusted him, suspecting him of being a pawn in an American plot.
   Manjiro did much better when the Meiji emperor took over, becoming a samurai, a university teacher, translator of Bowditch's "New American Practical Navigator," author of a primer for teaching English and acquiring the privilege of a patrynomic, Nakahama.
   The editors comment, though, that "Manjiro must have struggled inwardly with his own identity and the clash of different cultures." When he died in 1898, they say, he "must have felt great satisfaction that his self-appointed mission to open Japan to the West was accomplished."
   Their final assessment is that "Manjiro's real message was perhaps born out of his inner struggle between 'John Mung' and 'Nakahama Manjiro.' Out of this unique identity crisis came wisdom and character."

5 comments about Haruko's World: A Japanese Farm Woman and Her Community.

1. In the early 1970s, Professor Gail Lee Bernstein lived with a rural farming family on Shikoku Island, Japan. There, she recorded the actions, words, thoughts, ideas, and struggles of her host family. As she overcame the initial resistance of her host family, and then eventually, that of the community in which she lived, Dr. Bernstein was exposed to a life that few foreigners have ever had a chance to write about.

   Haruko (the matron of Bernstein's host family) helped, at and the same times, hindered, the ability of the author to record a true snapshot of the community. Of greatest importance was the interactions between several generations of the villiage's resident women.

   A must read for students of Japanese History and/or Cultural Anthropology, and a great-if-read if you're anyone else.




2. Haruko's World is an excellent ethnographic treatment of the life of a rice-farming family on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four islands. Gail Bernstein gives us a compellingly human portrait of a rural family, especially of Haruko, the wife. The book is based on Bernstein's field research in 1974-1975, with an epilogue that is written after her return visit in 1982, and again in 1995. The reader gains an intimate understanding of rural life through the story of this hardworking, observant, and lively woman. Along the way, we also see how ethnographer and hosts come to understand each other. A wonderful book.



3. I picked up this book for my History of Japan class at the University of Oregon. I had some ideas of what to expect, but this book blew me away.
   
   I took about 10 pills of aderall and read the book in 20 min. And it was the best 20 minutes of my life. Better then me meeting my wife, and the birth of our two young daughters.
   
   Please buy this book, and change your life!



4. I took Gail's class. It was pretty interesting, until we reached this book. If the minutiae of some peasant woman's everyday life interests you and you consider it 'history,' then perhaps you will like this book. Also, it means that you are a very boring person. Just like Gail.



5. Haruko's World is a study by Gail Lee Bernstein of the women farmers of a Japanese community starting in October 1974 and ending in May 1975. She lived with one family and this allowed her access to interview and get information about family life and work in the townships in the area.
   I thought I knew what would be found but was still surprised by a lot of the information. The farmers there were just starting to switch from family labor to hired hands and modern machinery. Japanese women on one hand seemed to be abused by the system and, yet, many wanted what American and European women were trying to leave, a full time job as a housewife. They HAD worked in the fields and factories and found the idea of spending all their time and energy for their FAMILY very appealing. By freeing them from much of the harsh farm related labor it allowed them to find second incomes and allowed them to feel more independent.
   So while modern women outside of Japan fought to work along side men the modern women of the farms fought to get out of the mud paddies and sweat shops to become loving wives and happy mothers.
   The author also visited Japan in 1982 and 1993 so we get some post-study information that helps us have closure and also always us to peek at the farming community as it continued to change. Most young people during this time period left for the city and a better jobs but the farming community in this study, because of reforms and good planning, were able to keep their population from decreasing.
   Over all, the whole book was worth picking up and reading, even if it was only 224 pages.

No comments about From Shanghai to Shanghai: The War Diary of an Imperial Japanese Army Medical Officer, 1937-1941 (Signature Books).

No comments about Learn How to Speak and Write Japanese.

1 comments about PRISONERS OF SANTO TOMAS: A True Account of Women POWs under Japanese Control (Pen & Sword Paperback).

1. This was an excellent book to inform the reader about two of the several Japanese internment camps they operated during the Philipine occupation during WWII. The book is compeltely the transcribed diary account of a young woman who was interred with her mother. The graphic accounts of the drama of human action under stress is insightful and pulls no punches.
   This book is one of several about the Santo Tomas and Bagio camps. There were others, and other books deal with them.

2 comments about Eight Prison Camps: A Dutch Family in Japanese Java (Ohio RIS Southeast Asia Series).

1. One of the few books that had come across me which glued me to it. When I read a book it usually took me two or three weeks, if it is a good book, to finish it. Well, this book took me just 3 days to read from cover to cover. A compelling jouney of a family though unspeakable hardship, miserly and ignorance. This book draw you into the day to day life of the writer's life while she and her family was in the camps. At time I felt I can smell the odor and felt the hot summer heat in the camps. One thought keep popping up, this could be a great movie, perhaps direct by Steven Spielberg. One down side of the book is that it could use better editing, I can spot numerous errors thoughout the book that can be at time distracting but in no ways diminish the book's content



2. I am a surviving prisoncamp child myself, and would like to be able to get a copy of this book. Started my own autobiography, but need some help with names of camps, and dates. I was there with my mother, brother and 2 sisters, while my father was a prisoner of war and taken to Singapore. We all survived. So please help. Thank you

No comments about Japanese Portraits: Pictures of Different People (Tuttle Classics of Japanese Literature).

5 comments about Memoirs of a Gaijin: A Humorous Look at the Daily Life of a Foreigner in the Japanese Countryside.

1. I loved this book! The author is a natural story teller, with a great gift of humour! I laughed out loud so many times! The book was easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable! Through the author we gain a rare perspective on day to day Japanese culture as seen through the eyes of a gaijin! This book is a must read for anyone who has been or is thinking about going to Japan!



2. Needing to lose a few extra calories? May I suggest reading "Memoirs of a Gaijin"? That's right! This book is guaranteed to tone the abdominal muscles. Seriously though, this is a VERY amusing book. Read at your own risk though. Besides the calorie loss, you will find yourself wanting to travel more. At least I did



3. I laughed and I cried. This is such a great memoir told in such a way that I felt like I was sitting in the pub catching up with a hilarious old mate. Memoirs Of A Gaijin will make anyone want to take the plunge and have some time out in rural Japan. The combination of highs, lows and quirky things Japanese people do makes this book an accessible and enjoyable read for everyone.



4. I read all of the 5 Star reviews of this book, so I went ahead and ordered it with confidence. That was a mistake. I thought that it would be fun hearing the experiences of a foreigner in Japan and comparing them with my own experiences during my 3 months in Tokyo. I was wrong. I could in no way shape or form relate with this girl on any level. I felt that she was blinded by her own beliefs and took little time to digest the things she was experiencing, simply placing judgement on everything she came across. Not only did she not have much to offer in the form of an open minded opinion, I didn't find the things she said funny, in fact sometimes actually offensive.
   
   I honestly did want to like this book. I gave it a chance. When I became frustrated with the author I put the book down, took some time and came back to it later, hoping it was just me. But time and time again I found myself shaking my head in disbelief to what I just read.



5. Her honest approach in writing and sharing her experiences make it a memorable experience for the reader to read. She shares her love for the people in her own way.
   
   Her humorous re-telling of her experiences shows not only how she copes with living in a foreign land but how the Japanese themselves cope in having a "foreigner" living in their small farm town of Japan. Yes, rural towns do exist in Japan, as she clearly illustrates.
   
   Living in a foreign land where nobody knows your name,is not always easy nor a smooth experience but her book make it an experience worth learning from.

No comments about I Am Alive!: A United States Marine's Story of Survival in World War II Japanese POW Camp.