Synopses & Reviews
The letters of Mary Kimoto Tomita tell the story of a young American woman of Japanese descent who, along with over ten thousand other Japanese Americans, was stranded in Japan during World War II. Mary's letters to her two closest friends, Miye Yamasaki, her childhood friend in California, and Kay Oka, another young Japanese American stranded in Japan, chronicle Mary's turbulent life from her arrival in Japan in 1939 and her experiences as a civilian employee of US forces in the first years of the American occupation. Mary's wartime letters and journal were destroyed in the Tokyo air raids, but shortly after she returned to the United States in January 1947, she wrote a memoir that reconstructed her wartime experiences. Selections from this account are included here to cover the war years. This is a fascinating account of a young woman defining herself against the demands of two competing cultures.
Review
"The letters give a sense of immediacy in her descriptions of conditions in prewar, wartime, and postwar Japan. They also reveal an ordinary, resourceful, sassy, yet vulnerable young woman negotiating her way through tough situations."Library Journal
Review
"Tomita's commentary on the racial prejudices, economic disparities, moral dilemmas, and day-to-day social and sexual politics that she observed and experienced provides an intimate account of Japanese society, as well as a critique of U.S. society as represented in microcosm by the Allied occupation establishment."Asian Weekly
Review
"The letters cover three periods: the prewar years (1939-41); the war years (1941-45); and the postwar years (1945-46), during which Tomita worked as a civilian employee for the U.S. occupation forces pending her repatriation. As an 'indelibly American' woman, she describes the conflict of competing political loyalties, gender role expectations, and ethnic identity in a voice of immediacy and authenticity that make these intensely personal, unselfconscious letters a valuable contribution."Choice
Review
"A fascinating, and often passionate firsthand description of Japanese, American, and Japanese American society from 'over there.'"JAAS
Synopsis
These letters tell the story of a young American woman of Japanese descent who was stranded in Japan during World War II. They chronicle her turbulent life from her arrival in Japan through her experiences as a civilian employee of U.S. forces in the first years of the American occupation.
Synopsis
“The letters give a sense of immediacy in her descriptions of conditions in prewar, wartime, and postwar Japan. They also reveal an ordinary, resourceful, sassy, yet vulnerable young woman negotiating her way through tough situations.”—Library Journal
“Tomitas commentary on the racial prejudices, economic disparities, moral dilemmas, and day-to-day social and sexual politics that she observed and experienced provides an intimate account of Japanese society, as well as a critique of U.S. society as represented in microcosm by the Allied occupation establishment.”—Asian Weekly
Synopsis
These letters tell the story of a young American woman of Japanese descent who, along with over 10,000 other Japanese Americans, was stranded in Japan during World War II.
Table of Contents
1. The prewar letters, 1939-41; 2. The 'dear Kay' letters, 1941-1945; 3. The postwar letters, 1945-1946; Epilogue; Index.