No comments about Lafcadio Hearn in International Perspectives.

2 comments about Disguised: A Teenage Girl's Survival in World War II Japanese Prison Camps.

1. This book was trimmed and re-released - Disguised: A Wartime Memoir
   
   This has more detail, including the final two chapters explaining what happened to the family during the Dutch war for independence, and briding the gap between the end of World War II and when the author moved to the US.
   
   BTW - the review of this by BOOKLIST has some glaring inaccurcies. For example, the author was NOT "sent to school to learn Japanese". She had a job as a clerk working with Japanese government, and saw the announcement and signed up on her own - she told her supervisor afterward (she was the first to register). She worked very hard at the course - and that effort is why she became translator and camp clerk.
   
   And her mother was seriously ill from two years before the author was born, i.e., had been ill for 16 years before passing away during a time the family was allowed to live out of the POW camp for over a year.
   
   And about that Japanese soldier's attempted rape - she escaped. You can read the book for the details.



2. The life of a teenager remembered by herself as a much older woman puts an interesting perspective on this story. As if being captured and held by the Japanese for 3 and a half years at the age of 13 or so is not interesting enough, this girl lived the experience by working in close quarters with the Japanese disguised as a boy for the whole time.
   
   Rita's memories of her early life in this environment were written as a much older woman, but none of the detail of those days has been lost, even though they may at times be overlaid with the sentiments of a much older and wiser person attributed to her younger self.
   
   Living a privileged life as a Japanese interpreter and office worker in the camps, she was not subjected to much of the poor treatment meted out to her fellow prisoners, and seems stunned at times that they should have resented her better treatment. Nevertheless, her achievements at such a young age of learning Japanese from scratch to become an interpreter, holding down a job, helping out her family, negotiating the adult male Japanese world, surviving the difficult world of the internees and staying safe throughout it all are to be respected.
   
   Rita writes about her experience before, during and after the war, with a focus of course on the Japanese run camps, the effect it had on the rest of her life and her resulting belief that that she could do anything with hard work and application.
   
   Recommended for those with an interest in the history of this time and for those who would just like an interesting read.

1 comments about One Thousand Days in Siberia: The Odyssey of a Japanese-American POW.

1. About eight years ago, I read Peter Sano's story when it was in its earliest form. I knew then that he should have it published - and finally, he did. Peter was born in America but at the age of 15, in 1939, he was sent to Japan to become the adopted son of his childless aunt and uncle. Drafted into the Japanese army in 1945, Peter was sent to war. By being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Peter ended up in Siberian POW and labor camps for three years before finally being released. During those years, Peter made life bearable for many of his fellow prisoners, often at his own expense - and though he downplays his heroism, he kept some people alive who would otherwise have perished. His is a tale both humorous and tragic and in the end, inspiring. Today, Peter is back in America, an accomplished architect, husband, father, and one of the kindest and gentlest souls I have ever met. It was impossible to put down his manuscript once I started it until I had devoured every page. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys tales of triumph over adversity, love beating hate, and quick wits winning out over the harshest odds.

No comments about Masanobu Tsuji's Underground Escape.

No comments about Personality in Japanese History (Michigan Classics in Japanese Studies).

No comments about Fake Fish: The Theater Of Kobo Abe.

No comments about Ten Great Educators of Modern Japan: A Japanese Perspective.

No comments about William Rossetti's Art Criticism.

No comments about Kokoro: Japanese Inner Life Hints.

No comments about The Hatoyama Dynasty: Japanese Political Leadership Through the Generations.