After interviewing 26 people while staying in Hawaii, Masako Unezaki created the two stories that are included in this dual-text (Japanese-English) work: "Grandpa, Tell Me the Story" and "A Letter From Grandma in Hawaii."
Stories Connecting Hiroshima and Hawaii
by Masako Unezaki
$9.50 (plus S&H)
Recommended!
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Why She Left Us, the debut novel of Rahna Reiko Rizutto, revolves around a Japanese American woman's abandonment of her illegitimate child during World War II.
Rahna Reiko Rizzuto reveals the reason for her act--and its effect on four generations of her family--in a series of alternating narratives.
Rizzuto's book includes its share of violent and disturbing incidents. A daughter helps her mother give birth on the floor of a shack; a son accompanies his senile
grandfather to the toilet; a brother delivers a swift kick to his pregnant sister's belly.
Yet Why She Left Us never relies on mere sensationalism.
For one thing, the author's prose is strong and vivid, and she's particularly good at evoking the passage of time.
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Although the characters are fictional, the stories they tell recreate the situation of the Japanese first and second generation immigrants to America and what they went through during the Second World War.
Hawaii, the location of Pearl Harbour, scene of the notorious Japanese attack that brought America into the war, and Hiroshima, destroyed in the first Atom bomb attack at the end of the war, are linked by more than these bloody events. Many of the Japanese immigrants to Hawaii had come from Hiroshima... This book tells their story in a clear and engaging narrative.
It is not only an educational look into Japanese-American connections that run deeper than many realize; it is also an excellent language study resource with clear prose in both languages laid out side by side for quick and easy comparison.
Published by ANT-Hiroshima, July 2008
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