4 Stars
This novel
is set in post-war Japan. It describes life
in the aftermath of Japan’s defeat, focusing on the impact on individual
lives. Aya Shimamura, 13, was released
from a Canadian internment camp and repatriated to Japan with her father. She is enlisted by a classmate, Fumi Tanaka,
to write a letter to General MacArthur asking for his help in locating Fumi’s
older sister, Sumiko, who was working at a dance hall as a companion to American
soldiers. The letter is received by Matt
Matsumoto, a Japanese-American working for the Occupation forces as a
translator. He and a colleague decide to
search for Sumiko themselves.
What stands
out in the book is the situation of the Japanese both during and after the
war. The Japanese in Japan lost so
much: property, livelihood, family
members. The lesson that they learned is
“’that everything you have can be taken away from you in an instant’”
(190). Because her family has been
reduced to poverty, Sumiko takes a job to help but that job leaves her at the
mercy of an unscrupulous dance hall owner and ruins her reputation. Mixed-race children of Japanese mothers and
American fathers are unaccepted and abandoned.
Japanese-Canadians,
like Aya and her family, lost everything; her father lists all the belongings
taken from him and adds, “They took his dignity and his honor and his pride and
his sense of self-worth” (148). When Aya
and her father arrive in Japan, they are not welcomed; the opinion is that the
immigrants “’shouldn’t have come back.
The immigrants eat all our food’” (6 – 7). Aya is called “the repat girl” and is bullied
and shunned by her schoolmates.
Japanese-Americans
also face discrimination. Matt’s brother
fought and died in Europe to prove his loyalty to the U.S., but Matt is turned
away from an American bar in Tokyo by Japanese doormen even though he is
clearly a G.I. One of Matt’s co-workers
is a Japanese-American who was in Japan looking after a family member when the
war broke out; because she entered her name “in the family registry in order to
get a ration card’”(93), she is no longer considered American and has been
waiting for years to have her American citizenship reinstated.
A major
theme is how people continue after war has devastated their lives. One of the letters sent to General MacArthur
is written by an 85-year-old man: “Ever since the beginning of this terrible
war, I have been plagued daily by the same question: How should a man live?” (287). An answer of sorts is suggested: “In the end there was only the task of moving
forward, one step after another, making your way through the dust and dirt of
living” (309 – 310). Of course some people
do not have the strength to continue, hence the reference to suicides, but that
advice to live “Just day by day. Going
forward. . . . Just live” (310) applies to many situations where people are faced
by catastrophic events.
The
perspective offered by this novel is unique.
I have read Obasan by Joy
Kogawa which focuses on the predicament of Japanese-Canadians during World War
II, and I have also read Snow Falling on
Cedars by David Guterson which highlights American anti-Japanese sentiments
following World War II. The Translation of Love sheds light on
the events in Japan following the war. The
book is well-written, interesting, and informative and should be read along with
the other two novels.
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