Book Description

"The photographs as "ruins" and the "ruins" in the photographs overlap and when the newly emanated feeling for time is marked into the center of the photographs, the ruins are not the carcasses of destruction and devastation, but turn away from being coffins, symbols of death, and move the hub to the mysterious stage of life."--Shunji Ito

Black Sun is an unprecedented portrait of postwar Japan through the eyes of four of the nation's most significant photographers. It encompasses and connects ancient Japanese prophecies, the terror of nuclear destruction, and the results of swift and massive westernization.

Eikoh Hosoe, Shomei Tomatsu, Masahisa Fukase, and Daido Moriyama are widely acknowledged in Japan as masters of photography. Their work ranges from the metaphoric to the documentary, from the presentation of post-apocalyptic artifacts to portraits of crows and crowded city streets. However varied the approach, this work is unified by a sense of innovation and a persistent search for native roots.

Eikoh Hosoe's representation of the demonic myth Kamaitachi is structured like a dance, enacted among the villagers of the far north country and evoking Hosoe's childhood memories of the final years of World War II.

Shomei Tomatsu's work ranges from the legacy of Nagasaki to the student riots of the sixties. His photographs combine social documentary with a search for personal identity, a quest which concludes among the remote islanders of Okinawa.

Masahisa Fukase's epic series Crow adopts the universal symbol of the black bird as evil omen. The crow's somber presence shadows Fukase's journey to his birthplace on the northern island of Hokkaido, fusing private memories to a darker, national heritage.

Daido Moriyama uncovers the malice lurking in the alleys and backstreets of Tokyo. With his confrontational, highly graphic style, Moriyama reveals the overpowering density of life in modern Japan.

In the accompanying text, Mark Holborn creates his own picture of Japan's creative climate, one in which audacious exploration crashes against a legacy of tradition and refinement. He provides previously undocumented links between the photographers and other leading Japanese artists of our time, such as filmmaker Nagisa Oshima, graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo, and dancer Tatsumi Hijikata.

Ultimately, the dark lyricism of Black Sun serves as both cultural introduction and global prophecy. The shadow cast by these four photographers stretches beyond the shores of Japan and across the entire length of contemporary experience.
... Read more

Book Description

In this fascinating document, one of Japan's best known--and controversial--writers created what might be termed a new literary form. It is new because it combines elements of many existing types of writing, yet in the end fits into none of them.

At one level, it may be read as an account of how a puny, bookish boy discovered the importance of his own physical being; the "sun and steel" of the title are themselves symbols respectively of the cult of the open air and the weights used in bodybuilding. At another level, it is a discussion by a major novelist of the relation between action and art, and his own highly polished art in particular. More personally, it is an account of one individual's search for identity and self-integration. Or again, the work could be seen as a demonstration of how an intensely individual preoccupation can be developed into a profound philosophy of life.

All these elements are woven together by Mishima's complex yet polished and supple style. The confession and the self-analysis , the philosophy and the poetry combine in the end to create something that is in itself perfect and self-sufficient. It is a piece of literature that is as carefully fashioned as Mishima's novels, and at the same time provides an indispensable key to the understanding of them as art.

The road Mishima took to salvation is a highly personal one. Yet here, ultimately, one detects the unmistakable tones of a self transcending the particular and attaining to a poetic vision of the universal. The book is therefore a moving document, and is highly significant as a pointer to the future development of one of the most interesting novelists of modern times. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Fascinating insights into a mysterious character
Every author should write at least one of these books of personal reflection. This is not the only place you can get a glimpse of the inner workings of Mishima's mind ("Confessions of a Mask" and "Patriotism" are good examples).

Of course, this is assuming the book accurately reflects the author's views. If you have read Mishima biographies such as Stokes' "Life and Death of Yukio Mishima" you might agree that "Sun and Steel" is a true reflection of the author's feelings. Otherwise, you might not have a good frame of reference.

It's a good idea not to make this the first of Mishima's works that you read (the aforementioned biography and "Confessions of A Mask" are suitable prerequisites). However, it is an interesting work in its own right.

My main reason for not giving this book 5 stars is that I was longing for more depth into his character than could be provided in so short a work; but maybe that's just because of my fascination with the author's life.

Tragic Heroism
In Sun and Steel, Yukio Mishima, one of Japan's most important writers, offers an intimate look at how he reconciled his life with the creative process.

From the outset, it is clear that Mishima advocated an "active" creativity and that he held in contempt those who used words to convey experiences yet denied their own heroic capabilities.

For Mishima, art, action and creativity had to embrace the tragic. To be a hero meant sacrifice of the highest order and suffering life's strangest and most difficult problems. "He who dabbles in words can create tragedy, wrote Mishima, "but cannot participate in it."

Mishima begins Sun and Steel by telling us that, for much of his life, he held an unnatural view of the world, due to the fact that his awareness of words preceded his awareness of his body. This isolated him, he says, and he spent much time at his bedroom window simply watching the world go by.

"Words," says Mishima, "are a medium that reduces the world to an abstraction...and in their power to corrode reality inevitably lurks the danger that the words will be corroded, too."

Mishima explains how he attempted to overcome this "corrosive function of words" with physical discipline of the body. Because his early years were suffused with words, as an adult, he seeks balance in life with a preoccupation with the physical. His body, he says, came to be a metaphor of the human condition and allowed him to directly experience the tragic in life.

Life, says, Mishima, can be intellectualized, but the only thing that imposes dignity on life is the element of mortality that lies within. Here we have the key to both Mishima's writing and his own life and death.

As Mishima continues to impose a rigorous discipline over both his mind and body, he comes to realize that the mind and body are truly inseparable. "I was driven to the conclusion that the 'I' in question corresponded precisely with that physical space that I occupied."

In taking up the practice of Kendo, Mishima comes to the realization that he desires neither victory nor defeat unless he also has conflict. The battle is emphasized, not the goal.

Anyone can conquer what lies beneath him, says Mishima, and it is the process of overcoming higher and higher obstacles that brings one into the sphere of the tragic.

Mishima finally comes to the conclusion that, "The most appropriate type of daily life...was a day-to-day world destruction." Mishima had thus become a nihilist, a hero who could look death in the eye and choose to act anyway.

Although seemingly severe and extreme in outlook, Sun and Steel reveals Mishima to be a man who advocated moderation instead. His desire to create is balanced with a desire to nothingness; he lives his life in an area that is inaccessible to words or action alone.

Those who have read Mishima's fiction and found it inaccessible will benefit greatly by reading Sun and Steel. Those who have read and enjoyed his words will, with Sun and Steel, arrive at a deeper and fuller understanding of this complex and fascinating man.

Had we only been able to read these words prior to November 1970, we might have been able to both understand and appreciate the circumstances surrounding Mixhima's tragically heroic death. It is still not too late.

Breathtaking
This author gives you his very self, unadorned, and he is breathtaking. The most stunningly powerful book I have ever read. His work is an inspiration. This is my first encounter with Mishima, but it will not be my last.

Autobiography of an Ubermensch
Whoa! I can hardly say anything bad about this book, except that the author must have been at least a little nuts to write it. The passion and honesty with which he writes about his own (self-diagnosed) shortcomings, as well as his obsessive attempts to remedy them, are pleasantly eerie. In an age when physical valour counts for little, and in a discipline--literature--where so many practicioners despise the cultivation one's own flesh, this book is an original. Highly entertaining.

Powerful but not his most focused writing.
Sun and Steel is most accessable if you are already familiar with the life of Mishima. It is his most honest, unadorned writing. It is filled with his death romanticism and also with his frantic quest for beauty, strength, action and his obsession with aging and longevity. It is a passionate piece of writing, consisting of one paragraph around 100 pages in length. His fetish for militarism is evident towards the end of the book, and he begins with an almost embarrassed admission of his age and stature as a "mature' writer, reflecting his obsession with eternal youth and glorious death. To sum up, this book is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but it is quite likely the most honest and naked autobiographical writing ever. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

3 or 4 star rating
Although the first half of the book is really boring, the second half makes up for the slow and banal start. The first half focuses on Japanese-American tribulations during the Pearl Harbor era, which through composition and writing style, certainly not topic, is a miserable read. The book doesn't begin to redeem itself until the author goes into his own personal struggles of sexual identity, which is great because most books that I've encountered in Asian-American issues usually goes into differences in food, domestic tribulations, or are too scholastic to enjoy on a personal level. On this point I felt it was a great read despite the first half. Though in hind sight, the first half seems integral for the continuity of which the book is based on; how history and experiences leave a residue of meaning that dissolves into reoccurring memories; these memories that keep coming back to shape our lives-these traces of identities. In this aspect it was hard for me to rate this book, which I struggled between a 3 or 4 star rating. I will say however, that it is a definite must read for any one who is familiar with Asian-American issues. Thank you David Mura for having the balls to write this book; it was worth the whole production despite the criticisms.

Mura makes an unflinching appraisal of many important issues
David Mura's book, as the subtitle suggests, spans some fairly heavy issues. For more than a few readers in my Asian American Literature class, this book was a little too explicit, but for anyone in search of a frank and personal account of the sansei experience, this may be it. Mura discusses the problems he inherits through his inculcation of the model minority myth, and the mantra on which he was raised: "Act like everybody else and you will BE like everybody else." The book charts Mura's dawning consciousness of his racial identity, as well as his deep addiction to promiscuity and pornography--an addiction that Mura identifies as stemming from the standards of white beauty trained in him since boyhood. His discussion of what pornography does to the male psyche are particularly interesting, and his assessment of his addiction in terms of his racial identity is not one that I have heard anywhere else.

The book certainly met with criticism from those who would rather emphasize race unity for the fact that by the end, Mura seems to distill every aspect of his life and his identity into a race issue. However, it was equally applauded in my class for the same issues. The explicit nature of the book seemed as much a pro as a con in discussion as well. Whatever the case, this is book that sparked a great deal of controversy at my university, and generated a great deal of conversation. If you are interested in the Asian American experience, this is certainly worth the read. You will have opinions about this book, I can guarantee you that, and no matter what they are, you will find plenty of people willing to argue them with you.

A must-read for Asian American men
I'm an American of Korean descent (2nd generation), born and raised in the Deep South. I bought this book two years ago, based on Mura's reputation and a sense that this book would speak to my emerging consciousness as an Asian American male. It sat on my shelf for 2 years until last week, and now I can see why. This is a painful read.

Other reviewers have branded this book as "self absorbed" and "tedious," which to me are the characteristics of the journey towards wholeness and healing. Read it if you are Asian or love someone who is.

All Asian-American men should read this book
Sometimes I felt that this book did not have much relevance to me. Then Mura really foes into discussing the struggles of Asian-Americans today. Problems of fitting in, and sexual stereotypes. His description of the Asian male being this country's eunuch really hit home. He put words to very deep, very vague feelings that I have carried and that a lot of asians growing up in this society probably have as well.

A not so wonderful confessional by a not so wonderful guy.
Mr. Mura leaves much to be desired with this literary piece. At times extremely frustrating, at others poignant, Mura's vision of the world might be judged simply as lacking in any type of insight into the world that surrounds him, but incredibly intuitive at describing issues arising out of his personal emotions and relations. There is danger here, pedantic rants at the treatment of Japanese-Americans in American history and contemporary culture are presented without mention of the xenophobia and the abuse of other Asian nationalities by the "home" archipelago. And yet the occassional awareness of the absurdity of his formed cosmology saves Mr. Mura's work, the descent from the fictional renderings of the internment camps that his forefathers endured to the sexual frustration of a spoiled, egotistical privileged Asian-American from the Chicago suburbs who found love in the cornfields of Grinnell, make this a story of a relatively interesting person who has not/ will not make much of a mark on the world. While I disagree profusely with Mr. Mura's commentary on racial dynamics in middle America, I read the book from cover to cover and feel little remorse for the time spent. It is rare that Asian-American Grinnell alumnists get a chance to gain this much access into the life of a fellow student; it is unfortunate that this is our one opportunity. ... Read more

Book Description

Michi's diary of his life as Hedda Hopper's houseboy. A unique view of the stars who came to visit this extraordinary household, and the struggles of a young man from Japan to adapt to an American life.

Hedda Hopper (William Hopper's mother) sponsored Michi in 1951, and as a result, Michi had a chance to meet many of the luminaries from Hollywood's golden era. Michi also recounts his life as a student and eventually a businessman in Arkansas.

Michi recounts with gratitude his American experience. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Fun Look at Hollywood's Halcyon Days
Famed Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper up close is the gist of this fascinating book. Author Michi Sohma recovered letters written home to his mother and others in Japan in the 1950's to create a sketch book of memories which both tittilate and sadden the reader.The reader will experience much humor and surprise if, like me - he/she walks in the shoes of a young exchange student who is forced by custom and tradition to carry on bravely and shed insecurities which would almost thwart one in that situation to throw in the towel.Yet, a towel wrapped Saumrai fashion when the author pitch hits for the gardener in the garden of Hedda Hopper's fashionable Beverly Hills digs imbues Michi with the strength to carry on in the face of much adversity to surmount this chapter in his life to earn degrees from USC and become an executive in a multinational corporation. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Entertaining, but disappointing
Part of Nisei Daughter's charm is the way Sone is able to weave entertaining anecdotes throughout her tale, a story which is essentially about what being Japanese American in the time around wartime America meant to her. Specifically, her position as a Nisei daughter -- child of first generation Japanese Americans -- is the focus of this tale.

The disappointing thing about this book is how obviously self-censored the book is. Sone very briefly reveals deeply felt rage and resentment at intervals during the book, only to shake them off and quickly change to a more light-hearted topic. Granted, there is an ironic tone to many of her comments and situations, and again granted, she is writing for a post-war audience that probably would not be receptive to outspoken criticism of the Internment, but still Sone seems to sugar coat the experience just a bit too much for my tastes. By the end, with the patriotic speeches that make it sound like the Internment was as much the fault of the Japanese Americans as it was the government, I was getting a little tired of Sone's carefree and apologetic tone, especially after the highly charged preface. In the book, Sone all but thanks the government for interning her and her family and giving them this character-building experience.

If you are truly interested in the internment and the impact it had on the Japanese Americans, try a book like Joy Kogawa's "Obasan." It's written about the Japanese Canadian experience, which was even more extreme than the Japanese American one. Kogawa also experienced internment first hand, but "Obasan" is written far enough after the fact that Kogawa is able to give the story more perspective and is able to put a more honest face on what really happened.

Nisei Daughter is not a bad book by any means ... but it did not live up to my expectations either. Sone's self-conscious editing makes the story seem much more like a novel than the autobiography that it supposedly is. I kept wishing she would drop the mask she was wearing and let the reader see what she was really thinking!

Generational and cultural conflicts
Very nice memoir about being a first-generation Japanese American ("Nisei"). My biggest criticism is that the flow is not quite right. I attribute that to the fact that the author is not a writer by trade. The very extensive details that pepper the story detract to the overall flow of it, but nonetheless, this book is very interesting. Monica Sone explores the dichotomy that many "hybrid" people experience: the contradictions of culture, the generational gap made even deeper because of the cultural differences. In her case, these differences were quite extreme: from the demurred and modest Japanese ways to the boisterous, assertive American. She describes many examples of where these differences were patent, and does a very god job in the process. Another excellent area of the book is her analysis of the conflicting emotions she experienced. Here she is, feeling very American, and sent to a concentration camp, labeled as "the enemy". She and her fellow camp-mates experience a collective rage, but it is during these years and after her release that she finally comes to terms with her at times contradictory cultural heritage. The end has very patriotic overtones which I thought were quite sappy, given her circumstances. I wish she could have gone further into describing her family life after camp, and the reassimilation of Japanese into American society post WWII.

An interesting, well-crafted memoir
This is the story told by a daughter of Japanese immigrants growing up in pre-World War II Seattle. She was in college when Pearl Harbor struck.

I think the best parts of this memoir deal with the description of Japanese culture and the conflict between the Americanism of the Nisei and their Issei parents most of whom heavily maintained Japanese customs. Perhaps the funniest part of the latter in the book takes place during the wedding reception held for her brother Henry and his bride in their camp in Idaho during the war.

I'd have to say that the best written, the most vivid part of the books is the family trip to visit relatives in Japan where her little brother Kenji fatally contracted dysentery. I'm guessing that this trip must have taken place around 1929.

The author gets released from camp mid-way through the war to go live with some former missionaries in Chicago who are very nice. She works for a dentist who is, however, a real pain in the butt and she eventually quits.

She then gets the opportunity to go attend Wendell college in Indiana where she lives with a nice old widow and she says that this college was full of alot of diverse foreign students. She made many close friends. During her post-camp period, her faith in American democracy was largely restored because she met so many nice white Americans who weren't racist louts. The book ends on a sort of patriotic note which I can't follow completely. In Chicago she was often mistaken for Chinese and people told her how much they respected the Chinese people, America's ally and she was sometimes mistaken for various Chinese celebrities.

It's obvious, that the author, who at the time of this 1979 edition, was still a clinical psychologist, knows how to write. She is a very gifted descriptive writer, though sometimes she lays it on too heavy. She tells her life story with a great deal of sentimentality; at times I think she pours it on a little too sweetly. But heck it's her story and she crafts it very well.

My favorite book on the internment experience!
This book by far beats all the other books about the American tragedy. I also recommend you get Farewell to Manzannar if you enjoy this book.

Beautiful memoir
Nisei Daughter is a one woman's account of what it was like for her to grow up in Seattle being a second-generation Japanese girl. Her story provides a glipse of historical Seattle, the struggle between 1st and 2nd generation Japanese Americans, what it's like to be a girl in Japanese-American families, and how Japanese/Japanese Americans were treated during WWII. (Her family was sent to an internment camp). Very moving, I read this book in college as part of a WA state history class but it was so touching that I plan to reread it for pleasure. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Very Impressed
I love this book! The author has researched and presented the subject well. It has put so much of the Tea Ceremony in perspective for me that I am grateful!

It is good to see an objective view, questioning histories coming from sources which rely on information from the Iemoto schools themselves. In the development of most Iemoto systems a loosely based and often fictious history is created, what the Chinese called "Leaning on the Ancients." However, these histories don't usually withstand the test of time and academic scrutiny. This is one of those wonderful books that sheds light on the subject, and allows us to see something of the real history. ... Read more

Book Description

Taigu Ryokan (1759-1831) remains one of the most popular figures in Japanese Buddhist history. Despite his religious and artistic sophistication, Ryokan referred to himself as "Great Fool" and refused to place himself within the cultural elite of his age. In contrast to the typical Zen master of his time, who presided over a large monastery, trained students, and produced recondite religious treatises, Ryokan followed a life of mendicancy in the countryside. Instead of delivering sermons, he expressed himself through kanshi (poems composed in classical Chinese) and waka and could typically be found playing with the village children in the course of his daily rounds of begging. Great Fool is the first study in a Western language to offer a comprehensive picture of the legendary poet-monk and his oeuvre. It includes not only an extensive collection of the master's kanshi, topically arranged to facilitate an appreciation of Ryokan's colorful world, but selections of his waka, essays, and letters. The volume also presents for the first time in English the Ryokan zenji kiwa (Curious Accounts of the Zen Master Ryokan), a firsthand source composed by a former student less than sixteen years after Ryokan's death. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

The Best....
I discovered Ryokan around 20 years ago when I took out "One robe, one bowl" from the library. Since then I've bought that and most of the other English translations that have appeared. I finally gave in and spent the extra bucks to buy this one and have been thoroughly impressed and glad with my purchase. Not only does it contain more of his poetry than the other collections, but it also contains some superb biographical and critical essays. If you want to know more about this wonderful poet and person, this is THE book to get. I would hope every library in America would purchase it as well. Although I'm sure Ryokan would find this rather amusing, I can't help but call this the "Cadillac of Ryokan anthologies." A fantastic book!!

The essential Zen poet
Ryokan,a great zen monk who dubbed himself"the great fool" is one of the most revered figures in all Japan. As a wandering begging monk{one robe, a bowl and walking stick} Ryokan celebrates the quotidian,whether a stong pot of tea, sake,playing ball with village children,or the warming embers of a dying fire in the midst of Winter,he makes these images come alive,with vibrancy and suppleness. This volume conatins remembrances of Ryokan from contemporaries,disciples,students and those he met along the way. Along with his Reflections on Buddhism,this volume also contains a very helpfulessay, a poetics of mendicancy by ryuichi abe`,and another essay by ab`,commemorating ryokan. the introductory essay by peter haskel, ryokan of mount kugami puts ryokan in his historical perpective. However, above all, it is the pure airy poetry of the master himself.Cleansing and wonderful...

Exquisite hardcover binding with well rendered translations.
This beautiful cloth covered book brings Ryokan to life. An extensive biography helps place him firmly in the lineage of zen fools. His poetry is well rendered, cutting to the heart of his enlightenment, his lonely village. Some of the preface seems a bit misplaced and foolish, attempting to address the question of whether he was 'enlightened,' with deep and silly consideration of his views relative the deconstructionist movement. But his skill as calligrapher and poet are well treated: the beauty of his poetry is not random! If you can afford it, the hardcover's worth the extra bucks because of the sweet binding, really a nice book to hold in your hands. ... Read more

Book Description

In the bleak and bitter cold of a copper mine in northern Japan, a Chief Petty Officer of the U.S. Navy was given an opportunity to write a prisoner-of-war card for his wife. He was allowed ten words—he used three: “I AM ALIVE!” This message, classic in its poignancy of suffering and despair captures only too well what it meant to be a prisoner of the Japanese Army.

Now, acclaimed military historian Major Bruce Norton USMC (Ret.) brings to light a long-forgotten memoir by a marine captured at Corregidor in the spring of 1942 and interned for three devastating years by the Japanese. With unflinching prose, the words of Marine Sergeant Major Charles Jackson describe the fierce yet impossible battle for Corregidor, the surrender of thousands of his comrades, the long forced marches, and the lethal reality of the P.O.W. camps. Joining some of the most important eyewitness accounts of war, I AM ALIVE! is a testament to the men who fought and died for their country. Jackson’s unembellished account of what his fellow soldiers endured in the face of inhumanity pays tribute to the men who served America during the war—and shows why we would ultimately prevail. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great book but different from what was expected.
I was somewhat disappointed in that the author seemed to focus more on times before capture than times inside the prison camp and mine. The book seemed to jump around alot and the writing styles seem to change from chapter to chapter which detracted from the stories the auther told. Over all though, he went into great detail in describing to the readers about what made each man unique. The author shows an incedible talent in portraying each man's stengths and weaknesses. He shows how even the Japanese guards that tormented them had human and good qualities that kept him from hating them outright. This book seems to focus more the human soul than the life of a prisoner.

ONE OF THE VERY BEST!
I AM ALIVE! is a collection of short stories told by Marine Sergeant Major Charles R. Jackson, a West Point graduate who resigned his Army commission, in 1926, to become a Private in the United States Marine Corps. Fifteen years later, he was a sergeant major in the 4th Marine Regiment, fighting for his life on Corregidor, and later dealing with life as a POW in the bottom of a copper mine in northern Japan for nearly four years.
Much credit is due to Major "Doc" Norton,USMC, who edited this work and ow presents this story as a masterpiece of World War II experiences. I know the phrase, "I couldn't put it down," is well-worn, but that is exactly what happened to me. One story leads to another, each one better than the last. The finished product is a marvelous collection of observation of fellow Marines, soldiers, Japanese officers, and even Shoo Chow the mongrel mascot of the 4th Marine Regiment, who also survived being a "guest of the Emperor."
I have read many of Major Norton's books, but this is without question his best effort yet. There is no doubt in my mind that this is an award-winning book. I would encourage every veteran, every parent, and every service man and women, to read
this great book. They will immediately learn where their military heritage comes from. Without doubt, a 5-Star book. I'll buy 25 copies as Christmas presents.

found himself ... Read more

Book Description

As a police officer in pre-war colonial Hong Kong, George Wright-Nooth was studying for his Chinese language exams when the Japanese invaded on Christmas Day, 1941.He spent the next four years incarcerated in the Japanese Military Internment Camp at Stanley.Daily life became marked by hunger and appalling suffering at the hands of the guards.He regularly witnessed death and torture, and his account of a multiple execution by sword is as moving and horrific as anything one is ever likely to read.While many of his fellow prisoners cracked beneath the terror of such atrocities, the author repaid such treatment with subversive activities, such as the running of secret radios, and the smuggling of food and messages to and from some of those held by the dreaded Japanese Gendarmerie.Perhaps most remarkably of all, the author kept a diary throughout his incarceration which, miraculously, was never discovered by his captors. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very moving and well-written
This is a very moving and well-written memoire; given the tragic events, it is not possible for such a book to do other than include some very sad & brutal stories. I have visited Hong Kong on numerous occasions and it was interesting to relate the events described in this book to the places I knew.

A superbly vivid account of POW life in Hong Kong
The cruelty and depravity demonstrated by the Japanese during their occupation of Hong Kong between 1941 and 1945 is one of the less well-documented chapters of the Second World War. Yet, as George Wright-Nooth demonstrates with such freshness and clarity in this autobiographical account, it is as great a story of heroism, endurance, and poignancy as any other of its time. The image of 33 individuals, British, Chinese and Indian, preparing to be executed by beheading, and being comforted from among their own group by an Sandhurst-trained Indian officer and a Hong Kong Chinese man leading prayers will long remain in the mind. What also brings the book to life are the diary extracts and the author's excellent memory for detail, which superbly capture the sense of a young Englishman caught in the sweep and suffering of a wider tragedy, but somehow retaining his spirit, his inquisitiveness and that uniquely British sense of humour that shines undimmed through fifty years and the terrible things he saw and experienced. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

It will break your heart while evoking a smile of admiration
Mine Okubo's book "Citizen 13660" outlines the paradoxical optimism surrounding the separation from society of all people in America of Japanese descent after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. While dipping gently into the philosophies of racial loyalties, Okubo demonstrates with her drawings the hardships endured by these people during their separation. The drawings and the writing hardly tell the same story. While the narrative is peppered with humor, irony, and optimistic perception, the artwork shows the grim reality of the hard work, poor weather, lack of privacy and sanitation, all for the sake of prejudice. "Citizen 13660" is a fair account of both viewpoints, a realization of the dark side of human nature, until one reads about the lighter side, or vice versa. In a word, this book is bittersweet. It will break your heart while evoking a smile of admiration. A worthy addition to any historian for its informative value, as well as any lover of literature for the story it tells.

Citizen 13660
In her book Citizen 13660, Mine Okubo describes life in the Japanese-American internment camps established by the U.S. government soon after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. The camps were for all people of Japanese origin in the United States, both citizens and noncitizens. Mine, a college student, and her brother were taken by train to temporary barracks, then later they were moved to their permanent quarters at Camp Tanforan. Life at the camp was hard; living quarters were small and nearly without privacy, people fought over the scarce supplies and they had to line up to eat, use the bathroom, and wash. It was stiflingly hot in the summer, and it grew surprisingly cold for a "desert" in the winter. Mine, however, made it through the internment years and soon returned to "normal" civilization. Soon after the war, she wrote and illustrated her book, Citizen 13660. Her story takes you inside the internment camps and shows you what life was really like for an American of Japanese descent in 1945.

"Graphic" memoirs
Mine Okubo lived and painted for more than 50 years in the same Manhattan studio apartment. She died in 2001. She was known not just as Citizen 13660 from the internment camps, but as a talented and dedicated artist (see her profiled in the video Persistent Women Artists ... . This book, a reprint of the 1946 original, uses her deceptively simple style to tell how she was forced to leave behind the life of an American college student to become a Japanese-American detainee, and what her artist's eye observed in the camps.

Eyewitness history with pictures
Okubo's book is a valuable eyewitness account of a sad period of U.S. history, the forced relocation of Japanese-Americans during WWII. I don't know anything about Okubo's life, but her book suggests she was one of those relocated. The book is illustrated on every page with great, expressive pen-and-ink drawings, and each picture is accompanied by a caption thoroughly explaining the scene depicted. The story begins with her family awaiting relocation orders, being sent to two different camps in the interior valleys of California, and concludes with her release. She does a great job documenting daily life in the camps, like the ways the prisoners created a community by organizing school for their children, publishing a camp newspaper, staging performances, etc. Perhaps the most unusual aspect of Okubo's book is her lack of anger and bitterness. One would think forced relocation would spawn a lot of anger, but she emphasizes positive aspects of life at the camps, and even expresses some wistfulness about leaving upon her release. I'm not sure how we should read that--is it the genuine response of a young, resilient woman who was able to see the whole experience as an adventure? Her attempt to dignify the prisoners by emphasizing how well they made the most of the oppressive conditions? Or, seeing that the book was first published in 1946, a conscious effort not to voice more outrage than mainstream America was willing to tolerate from a Japanese-American woman so soon after our war with Japan? I wish I knew. In any case, Citizen 13660 is a very important document, which deserves a place next to other illustrated accounts of prisoner camps like Art Spiegelman's _Maus_ and _The Book of Alfred Kantor_. ... Read more

Book Description

“The Flamboya Tree is a fascinating story that will leave the reader informed about a missing piece of the World War II experience, and in awe of one family’s survival.”
—Elizabeth M. Norman, author of We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese


“It is a well-known fact that war, any war, is senseless and degrading. When innocent people are brought into that war because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, it becomes incomprehensible. Java, 1942, was such a place and time, and we were those innocent people.”

Fifty years after the end of World War II, Clara Olink Kelly sat down to write a memoir that is both a fierce and enduring testament to a mother’s courage and a poignant record of an often overlooked chapter of the war.

As the fighting in the Pacific spread, four-year-old Clara Olink and her family found their tranquil, pampered lives on the beautiful island of Java torn apart by the invasion of Japanese troops. Clara’s father was taken away, forced to work on the Burma railroad. For Clara, her mother, and her two brothers, the younger one only six weeks old, an insistent knock on the door ended all hope of escaping internment in a concentration camp. For nearly four years, they endured starvation, filth-ridden living conditions, sickness, and the danger of violence from their prison guards. Clara credits her mother with their survival: Even in the most perilous of situations, Clara’s mother never compromised her beliefs, never admitted defeat, and never lost her courage. Her resilience sustained her three children through their frightening years in the camp.

Told through the eyes of a young Clara, who was eight at the end of her family’s ordeal, The Flamboya Tree portrays her mother’s tenacity, the power of hope and humor, and the buoyancy of a child’s spirit. A painting of a flamboya tree—a treasured possession of the family’s former life—miraculously survived the surprise searches by the often brutal Japanese soldiers and every last-minute flight. Just as her mother carried this painting through the years of imprisonment and the life that followed, so Clara carries her mother’s unvanquished spirit through all of her experiences and into the reader’s heart. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great reading
...It's awesome! I am so thankful to Ms. Kelly for sharing her experience. My Grandmother was also a prisoner of the Japanese in Indonesia during WWII. She had 2 babies (my dad, 6 months, & uncle, 1.5 years). I have heard 'pieces' of my Grandmothers story, but she has never been able to speak of it all. Now I know why. This book is truely a favorite of mine and always will be. Thank you Ms. Kelly. God Bless.

Very touching
The Flamboya Tree, by Clara Olink Kelly, was very touching.
This is a part of history that people should know about. We know about Japan invading Pearl Harbor,and other places, but what we don't know is the people who became effected by the war.
Clara tells this story so well, she makes you feel like you are there seeing all the tragic events yourself.
This is one book that I would highly recommend to everyone, I think we can learn a great deal from it and have a better understanding of war itself.

The Flamboya Tree: Memories of a Mother's Wartime Courage
We were bowled over by this book! Clara Kelly presents vivid and heart rending images of the heroic acts of her mother to save her children from the devastating conditions in a Japanese concentration camp during WWII. This tribute to her mother also reveals the tenacity of the author and her older brother under unbelievably inhumane conditions. We will read it again. ... Read more

Book Description

"POETIC . . . REMARKABLY HONEST . . . Mori describes her experiences with an admirable mixture of forthrightness and restraint."
--The Wall Street Journal
In an extraordinary memoir that is both a search for belonging and a search for understanding, Japanese-American author Kyoko Mori travels back to Kobe, Japan, the city of her birth, in an unspoken desire to come to terms with the memory of her mother's suicide and the family she left behind thirteen years before.
Throughout her seven-week trip, Kyoko struggles with her ever-present past and the lasting guilt over her mother's death. Although she meets with beloved cousins and other relatives, she agonizes over the frustrating relationship she barely maintains with her fierce father and selfish stepmother. Searching for answers, Kyoko attempts to find a new understanding of what her father is really like, and how it has affected her own place in two distinct worlds. As her time to leave draws near, Kyoko begins to understand that her family connections may be a powerful cry of the heart, but it is the new world that has given her escape from a lonely past and the power to believe in herself.
"[A] COMPELLING MEMOIR . . . LYRICAL."
--Seattle Times-Post Intelligencer
"ASTONISHINGLY BEAUTIFUL . . . Through the clarity filters the beauty of a large heritage that Mori is by now too American to share, but still Japanese enough to appreciate its redeeming value and to be in some measure restored by it."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review
"MAGICAL . . . ENLIGHTENING."
--San Francisco Chronicle
... Read more

Reviews (19)

We can't go home again.
Water, life-giving source of comfort and sustenance, is among the most maternal of symbols on the island nation of Japan. In her new memoir, Kyoko Mori explores the loss of her mother, her childhood and ultimately, her native heritage, as a result of the behavior of an abusive father and stepmother. "The Dream of Water" is a search for the soul and essence of the mother she once found lying on the floor with a plastic bag over her head and a natural gas tube in her mouth.An American citizen, the Japanese-born Mori has lived in the US since her late teens and teaches creative (English) writing at St. Norbert¹s College in Wisconsin. "The Dream of Water" tells the story of her first trip back to Japan since leaving 13 years before. None of us can go home again, and Mori is no different; but the book shows we can reach better a understanding of our past using the knowledge and experience of years.As Mori visited with what remained of her family and friends, she saw them now through the eyes of a self-confident adult from a radically different culture. Even this self-confident adult, however, had trouble with a father who decided to leave for a nap thirty minutes into her first meeting with him in years.The deliberate ambiguousness of Japanese language and culture is the basis of much current misunderstanding and apparent callousness when Japanese and Americans communicate. Although Mori had developed a strong dose of American assertiveness, the Japanese language she learned as a child lacked the words to civilly inquire why: why did you drive my mother to suicide? why did you cut me off from her family? why do you continue to criticize my looks, my work, my worth?We learn from this book that child abuse is not limited to America, nor is physical abuse necessarily worse than emotional abuse. This brilliant girl's pain has had a lasting effect on the woman. Though well written, it¹s not a fun book. It is often bleak and sad.Mori's first book, the fictional "Shizuko's Daughter" (Ballantine, 1993), dealt with the life of a twelve year old Japanese girl following the suicide of her mother and abuse at the hands of a distant father and an evil stepmother. It¹s easy to see the common influence for both books in her early experiences.With luck, the "The Dream of Water" will also serve to wash away the author¹s pain and help her produce more good writing on a different topic. -- End --

Going home isn't always easy
The prevailing message of Kyoko Mori's work is "going home is never easy." She never actually says it outright, however, instead opting to weave her life in America with her abused childhood and the people she encounters on her eight week trip to Japan.

The story did not strike me as being "whiny" in any way, shape, or form. "Whiny" is a term better left for books that I have read that involve people complaining about their comfortable lives of little or no strife with their surroundings. Ms. Mori had valid points to discuss, even if they were depressing.

A deeper message lies in the book -- you cannot change people. A perfect example is Hiroshi Mori, her father. Even as an old, sickly man, he has had no remorse or second - thoughts about the pain he has put his only daughter through, instead remaining a selfish, self centered old man.

Her writing style is rich and filled with long, poetic sentences, and I wish she was *my* creative writing teacher. She fails to be self-pitying and offers her humility to the reader by gently feeding it to them, not pounding out paragraph after paragraph of remorse and sorrow. I enjoyed her anecdotes about her childhood and her (limited) memories of her family, and this book is just as good, if not better, than the other works she has written. It's so nice to have read such a consistently well versed author.

Lies (Again)
The main watered down version of this book to save people the trouble of reading it: My past was traumatic, and I hate Japan. GO UNITED STATES!
In other words? Stupid, biased, and well... BAD

This is just like her book "Polite Lies", Ms. Mori just wants to display Japan in the lowest level doesn't she? All right, your past was traumatic. Thank you. Now either get OVER it, or just LEAVE JAPAN ALONE! I'm Japanese, just like this author but lived in the United States for seven years (from when I was 3-10) and have been living in Japan since. Now, as I am living in Japan NOW and not what? 25895039 million years ago (that's the impression I get from her book) I can tell you that the information is WRONG. Her writing style is well, beautiful and imaginitive, but her information? CATCH UP BEFORE WRITING A BOOK AND ACTING PERSUASIVE! If she's trying to lower a foreigner's view of Japan, she's probably done a fine job of it. So as a warning to all foreigners readning this book: IT'S A BUNCH OF LIES!

She also has a load of stuff on the Japanese school system that is so wrong. It's a perfectly fine system okay? Quit bashing on it! It seems she didn't even go through it because she spent half the book boohooing about how bad it was and how EXCELLENT her AMERICAN influenced private school was.

Read slowly to savor
This is a book I relish so much, I limit myself to a chapter a day just to stretch out the enjoyment and savor each sentence. I am an American who has lived in Japan for seven years, and it is so interesting to see the view through her eyes -- she really does capture aspects of Japanese culture that are below the surface, not normally visible, but nonetheless palpable. This girl definitely has a way with words!

Let's be like Kyoko!
I don't like giving a synopsis or summary of the book. Thats what reading it is for. What I do like to discuss in reviews is what kind of effect the book had on me. The mood and atmosphere of the book was on the depressing side, but that's okay. Because life is like that sometimes. Like Kyoko Mori, if you don't confront a problem correctly, it will fester in your soul until you come to terms with it. The book was realistic. I like putting down a book and knowing it isn't "too good to be true" because it is true, and I don't end up in a fantasy land.

The book does deal with alot Kyoko's negative experiences and views of the Japanese culture. I love Japanese culture, and I think her views are totally valid. I can accept the good and bad. Why be closed minded? Kyoko even comes to appreciate and understand some of the seemingly "rude" behaviors of her Japanese friends, and can enlighten us outsiders to what might seem to be odd behavior.

Good book. It was nice for Kyoko to let go of some of her personal demons and share this very personal and painful story. Maybe we can all be as brave as her and launch head on into what we've been dreading and fearing. ... Read more

Book Description

The Eurasian son of a Chinese railroad executive, young David lives in a world of privilege until World War II. His father serves the Japanese while secretly working for the Resistance. After the war, with his father imprisoned, he leaves the country at the age of twelve, unsure that they will ever be reunited. This memoir was awarded the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize for Nonfiction.
... Read more

Reviews (4)

Simply amazing
I was sent a copy of this book by my mum from Australia last year and only recently had the chance to finally read the book.

It's no wonder that this book is an award winner (2000 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize). Kwan keeps you rivetted to his story, told through eyes of a young boy growing up in very turbulent times. In spite of coming from a wealthy family, it cannot save him from the terrors and turmoil brought to Northern China in the 1930s and 1940s, nor from the racial judgement passed on him for being half-Chinese and half-White.

How Kwan manages to survive is quite amazing. He is abandoned by his own mother and faces major abuses at school. Then, war begins and he begins to witness the atrocities committed by the Japanese in China. Finally, after the Japanese are defeated, he nearly loses his father to the KMT government that his father has faithfuly served through the resistance movement. He is not even safe from his own family, who try to use him as a means to extort his father for money that no longer exists.

An absolute must read for anyone interested in China, the Japanese invasion of China, and a boy's coming of age.

A beautiful work, both tender and powerful.
I read a review and an excerpt of this book in Toronto last summer, and waited anxiously for it to be published here in the States.I read it in two days, gulping it down excitedly; then I re-read it slowly, informed of the story but savoring the beautiful prose.I wrote Mr. Kwan a "fan letter," only to learn today in this forum that he passed away.I was hoping for a sequel.

a powerful and well written memoir
An extraordinary story told with well controlled language and subtle understatements. The book chronicles the lives in a previledged, but also marginalized, world where everyone is deeply enshrouded in his or her own loneliness : the western expatriates in China, the mixed-blood children like the author himself, the western women married to Chinese men but unable to summon any love for the country or its people, the well-cultured mem ostracized by the society for their marriages to western women. Each of them, making good-intentioned efforts to connect, failed miserably because of their own deep-rooted prejudice, social barriars imposed by other people, or simply the uncontrollable historical whirlwinds. Outside this walled-in existence, a war is raging on with unimaginable callousness. The wall would eventually crumble down and the fineness of the Legation Quarter be swallowed by the brutal and rancid humanities of that era. Reminding us at times of Proust and Graham Greene, this remembrance of things past documents, in a hushed voice, an extraordinary age and all the human efforts to stay emerged in the midst of sweeping torrents. Warmth and friendshipflicker from time to time in this vast emotional void : the author's attachment to his down-to-earth and understanding nanny Shu Ma, his natural bonding with the reticent peasant Xiao Hu, and the unusual and quiet friendship between the boy and the Japanese Admiral. Language in the last couple chapters slips a little bit and becomes less disciplined. But overall this is a wonderfully written memoir. Saddened by the news of the author's death couple weeks ago, I was especially grateful for the gift he left with us in the form of this book.

A moving, understated memoir
I bought Michael David Kwan's "Things That Must Not Be Forgotten" after reading a glowing review in the Washington Post.I was not disappointed. It is a moving, understated memoir about Mr. Kwan's childhood years starting shortly before the outbreak of World War II and ending as the Kuomintang was breathing its last in mainland China.Although young David was fortunate enough to be born into a wealthy family as a "half-caste" child of a Chinese father and a Swiss mother (who abandoned the family very early in David's life), he was never considered to be a true part of either the white and Chinese communities. The editorial reviews give a good overview of the content of the book and the increasing difficulties that David and his family endured under the Japanese andeven more so under the corrupt Nationalist Chinese government.The narrative is brisk and engaging; it is probably the best work of non-fiction that I have read in quite some time.

Sadly, on May 20th of this year Mr. Kwan suffered a fatal heart attack just two weeks before the official U.S.-publication of this book. We are all very fortunate that he was able to give us such a memorable farewell gift.

"Things That Must Not Be Forgotten" won the 2000 Kirayama Prize for non-fiction, beating out such well-received books as Herbert Bix's "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan," Helen Zia's "Asian American Dreams" and Chanrithy Him's "When Broken Glass Floats." ... Read more