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Daughters of the Samurai

a Journey From East to West and Back
Aug 29, 2015DorisWaggoner rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This first book is an absolute page turner from the beginning. In her introduction Nimura, a white American who met her Japanese-born husband on the first day of college and then lived in Japan with him for a while after they were married, describes their Japanese life and how it was so different for each of them. Then when they return to the US and she, studying Asian studies, stumbled on a memoir of an American woman living in Japan with Japanese friends, and says, "Their story would not let me go." It would not let me go either. Being interested in history, I was dumbfounded at what I had not known about the war in Japan that preceded their being sent to the US. Given no choice, knowing no English, they were simply told they were going. Their lives in America were happy and fulfilling, and they had such dreams for what they would do when they returned to Japan. But in those 10 years, Japan had changed, and didn't really want their gifts. How they managed to find ways to use what they had learned, and how their different personalities coped, was fascinating. I hope Ms. Nimura goes on to a full fledged career as a historian, while writing additional popular histories like this one. I finished it in one day, not because it was so easy, but because it was so compelling.