No comments about Embracing the Firebird: Yosano Akiko and the Rebirth of the Female Voice in Modern Japanese Poetry.

2 comments about At Home in Tokyo.

1. Gwen Robinson charmingly tells of her year in Japan where her husband an academic appointment in Tokyo. So clear and colorful is Gwen in her telling that this reader almost feels that it is herself who is struggling with an unknown language, grocery shopping, meeting new people, discovering small intimate neighborhoods within the big city, and, finally, making friends and being a part of things. One only hopes that one would have the author's intelligence, empathy, good humor, and ability to laugh at herself.
   There is considerable information here on modern Japan--the position of women, theater, education, the beauties of the countryside. In the company of Gwen and her family, we are with worldly people and can feel grateful to have their take on things.
   This book has made me feel very ready to visit Japan myself.



2. In the early 1990s Gwen G. Robinson spent a year in Tokyo with her husband, who was a visiting professor/consultant there. She could not speak Japanese. Many people, when thrust into an utterly unfamiliar environment, would withdraw. Instead, the author closely observed and described her surroundings and her own reactions to them. She writes about her bewilderingly high-tech house, shopping for unidentifiable food, venturing forth via public transportation, getting to know her husband's interesting colleagues, visiting other parts of Japan (and, briefly, Australia), entertaining also-bewildered family members, and living an "ordinary" life. However, Robinson is obviously no ordinary woman, and her writing reflects a deep knowledge of world cultures and a scholar's tendency to analyze her surroundings in that context. The often-funny and engaging narrative is interspersed with historical and linguistic bits of information. Her account of tutoring three Japanese women in English is particularly revealing of cultural differences. I highly recommend this book--it is like visiting Japan without actually going there.

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

1. 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. ........................



2. 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 comments about The Life of Isamu Noguchi: Journey without Borders.

1. I really enjoyed reading this book .Not only was it informative but beautifully written .The book deals with Isamu Noguchi's life with insight and sensitivity .Definitely worth buying.



2. "Sam" Gilmour, heartlander, great sculptor, world traveler, free spirit, aka "Noguchi"--
   The sadly neglected tale of a shy 13 year-old boy traveling alone to LaPorte, Indiana for early schooling "as a true American" and known there as "Sam" Gilmour, was later to become widely known as one of the world's greatest sculptors -- Isamu Noguchi (a future Jeopardy question?). A new biography "The Life of Isamu Noguchi: Journey Without Borders" includes revealing details and childhood snapshots for the first time from the archives of Lilly Library at Indiana University. This biography, only recently published in English, unfolds like a panoramic tapestry of life ... colorful, insightful, personal. It includes his stressful adaptations to cultural duality, personal relationships with notable companions, and his bonding with the idea of "mound builders" of native Americans.
   
   After traveling alone across the ocean and the country, he began his new, Midwestern experience by hiking down the remote dirt road for the first time past the farms, fields, and woods to the Interlaken boarding school, feeling overwhelmed by the "vastness, the sweep, the panorama of that open Indiana countryside." Soon, when fateful WW I events abruptly closed the boarding school, he lived alone on the abandoned premises for a month "like Daniel Boone". Finally good fortune had him transferring to the public LaPorte High School and living with a locally prominent family in town, he graduated four years later in 1922. Typically, he had a newspaper route. Aspiring to be an "all-American boy", the yearbook included his illustrations and classmates elected him "Biggest Bull-Head."
   
   And so goes the first 100 pages. The next 340 pages of this epic follow his footprints through the Sands of Time, continuing 'Sam's Splendid Adventure' to the peaks of artistic expression in dance theatre, architecture, and sculpture. Along the way, this "Hoosier" sojourns with many of the greatest artistic spirits this world has ever seen.
   
   On a very personal note, I met with Noguchi a couple of times ('70s) in my New York work, and had once played a basketball game ('50s) at his Indiana high school (big deal there, then). Regrettably, I didn't realize at the time that our paths had previously crossed, albeit if only in space-time. Somewhere, sometime, "somewhat" dedicated individuals must necessarily put out a wake-up call to the Arts in Indiana patrons at colleges, museums, and libraries on this wholly unusual and neglected chapter of American cultural history at the turn of the 20th Century with its demographic changes of nation building immigration, new industrialization, and new urbanism. Fittingly, the Noguchi Foundation has an extensive curriculum guide available. His centennial birth date is November 17, 2004.

1 comments about He Goes Before Them-- Even Into Prison: The Story of Missionaries Imprisoned in China During World War II.

1. How ironic that the "Happy Way Courtyard" became an emblem of oppression under the heel of Japanese militarists! That which had formerly been a stronghold of conservative Christianity was drastically changed. For three decades these walls had housed a hospital, with nurses training school and doctors' residences, a Bible women's training school with dormatories, elementary and middle schools, as well as living quarters (single storied), row upon row. In a prominent place, near the main entrance, was the sturdily built brick church with a seating capacity of 300.
   
   But in 1943 this community became the prison home for 1800 civilians from Allied nations. Malnutrition, disease and suffering made a mockery of the name, "Happy Way." Guard towers manned by Japanese soldiers, searchlights and machine guns became symbols of death and destruction. Yet the sudden dawn of the atomic age dramatically changed all, and the glorious moment of liberty finally cmae. At last, the loathsome bars of confinement were broken.
   
   This acount of God's protection and care is a story of answered prayers. With thew recovery of freedom we were ushered into a world from which we had been isolated for four war-weary years.
   --- excerpt from book's Preface

No comments about Kitahara Hakushu: His Life and Poetry (Cornell East Asia, No. 65) (Cornell East Asia Series).

1 comments about Public People, Private People: Portraits of Some Japanese.

1. Of Richie's many excellent books, this is probably the best,and certainly one of the two or three best books about Japan andJapanese people today. A vision of Japan through precise, intimate portraits of ordinary and extraordinary Japanese people. A moving work that is both fine and great.

3 comments about Samurai and Silk: A Japanese and American Heritage.

1. This book gets a 5 because of the number of light bulbs that turned on. I have always wondered what the difference was between a mistress and a concubine. This book clears the mystery. The difference between the initial driving forces for Japanese immigrants is apparent today. One group came develop business and trade, the other came as contract labor. I wonder if there are parallels or similarities between Meiji reformers and Scotch Presbyterians?



2. I found this book particularly well written, as it "filled in the blanks" for me, having visited Japan on business numerous times and having studied the language for about 2 years. I used the Internet to find the author's son to say how heart warming and enlightening I found the book. I also learned that the author is currently writing another book and hope to meet her soon. Regards, Rich Blish, Saratoga CA



3. This book gives a wonderful view of Meiji-era Japan. The Meiji era started, I believe, in the 1870's and extended to 1912[?]. During the reign of the Meiji Emperor, Japan first opened itself to Western culture and trade.

   One of Haru Matsukata Reischauer's grandfathers was an early silk merchant who journeyed to the United States. He came from a merchant/farmer family. Her other grandfather was a prominent Meiji-era statesman of the samuri class. (I believe a marriage from these two families could only have occurred after the opening of the Meiji-era.)

   This wonderfully written, elegant memoir gives an intimate portrayal not only of the Meiji era, but of the author's own experiences as her prominent family courageously distanced itself from the rising Japanese militartism that resulted in World War II.

   The author is the wife of Edmund O. Reischauer, Professor of History at Harvard University and Ambassador to Japan during the Kennedy administration.

3 comments about I Am Alive!: A United States Marine's Story of Survival in a World war II Japanese POW Camp.

1. "I Am Alive!: A United States Marine's Story of Survival in a World War II Japanese POW Camp," by Charles R. Jackson, has been edited by Bruce H. Norton. The introductory materials of the book note that Jackson graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served as an Army officer. He resigned his commission in 1925 and enlisted as a private in the Marine Corps in 1927. He rose to the rank of sergeant major and was made a warrant officer before retiring. This book draws on his experiences as a prisoner-of-war held by the Japanese in the Philippines and Japan.
   
   This is a remarkable book. While firmly in the tradition of the American military narrative, it is quite different in tone from any military true-life story I have ever read. Jackson's voice is that of a folksy storyteller. In the book he specifically mentions the tradition of military oral folklore, and his own style draws on that tradition.
   
   Most of the book is structured as a series of interconnected character sketches. The gallery he presents is a very diverse group: officer and enlisted, as well as civilian; Japanese, Filipino, and American of various ethnic groups; Christian and Jew; even non-human. I found some of the most striking pieces to be the following: "The Story of Lieutenant Asaka," about an enigmatic Japanese prison commandant who is respected as a "real soldier" by his own enemies; "The Story of the Old Swede," about a Marine first sergeant who is an alcoholic; and "The Story of First Sergeant Santaleses," about a formidable soldier of the Philippine Scouts. But my favorite tale is "The Story of Soochow," about a little mongrel dog who becomes a Marine mascot, and stands by his Marines in battle and in prison.
   
   Jackson's sketches bring all of these characters to life. Despite the serious subject matter, the author's tone is often quite funny--at times he made me laugh out loud. But he also unflinchingly describes the horror and violence of war, and the often horrific suffering of the POWs. Jackson also touches often on Marine tradition and esprit-de-corps.
   
   Jackson's is a truly extraordinary voice: witty, learned, clever, playful, and deeply humane. This book is a valuable contribution to the canon of military narrative, as well as to the literature of imprisonment.



2. 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.



3. 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

No comments about Art Of Ogata Kenzan: Persona And Production In Japanese Ceramics.