AMERICAN JAP GIRL

Tome (to-meh) is a pre-WWII three-year-old girl cast out from a farming family of nine kids and raised as an only child. When formally adopted, she becomes a member of a Samurai family, already schooled in the way of Bushido. Her constructed reality of being the all-American farm girl in Southern California is crushed when she is incarcerated by the President of the United States at the age of twenty, without due process, based solely on her Japanese heritage. She accepts being a Jap Girl, a visual immigrant in the eyes of America. She is an American citizen. Throughout her life, shaped by Bushido training, her ikigai or purpose in life, and a fractured future attempting to heal itself, Kintsugi, Tome gifts these philosophies to her mystical son.

AMERICAN JAP GIRL, “Overall, this touching and heartwarming story will engage many readers. An inspirational work that weaves many accounts into an earnest account of tenacity.” - Kirkus Reviews (“Highly recommended OUR VERDICT: GET IT.”)

AMERICAN JAP GIRL author, Richard Y. Okumoto, “Creates an authentic voice for his mother, believable and poignant, including details that bring the period alive.” - Blueink Reviews (Starred)

‍AMERICAN JAP GIRL, “Part historical record and part filial tribute, this moving, meticulously documented memoir…” - Booklife Reviews (⚡️Editor’s Pick)

AMERICAN JAP GIRL is “a revealing hybrid memoir…memorializes a resilient woman who faced many hardships in the course of her life.” - Foreword Clarion Reviews (4/5)

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