“Koji and Ruby are fictional characters inspired by Kent’s Japanese American parents, Hisao and Reiko Matsumoto,” Connie shared. Their stories create the plot lines of the novel.  Reiko was raised on the island of Kauii. Her father, like Ruby’s, was a Buddhist Priest. She and Ruby spend their teenage years in two internment camps.  Hisao was raised in an increasingly militaristic Japan, was forced out of middle school to work in a rifle factory and was 16 when the bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, where he was living.

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I asked Connie how we rebuild from trauma and tragedy, as those living through war were and are forced to do. “Your question strikes at the heart of wartime trauma. Hisao and Reiko, along with tens of thousands of Japanese Americans unjustly incarcerated, and tens of thousands of innocent souls harmed by the Hiroshima atomic bomb, share the unique Japanese belief that things can’t be helped known as shikata ga nai and the unique quality the Japanese refer to as gaman: to move through and overcome adversity with grace and dignity.” Like many who lived through trauma, speaking about it is often difficult, especially with family members, as the memory of these events is painful, even many years later. Many do not want to burden or terrify their own children.

 

Both Ruby and Koji struggle with loyalty to their countries. Ruby loves her country, yet, with many Japanese Americans, Ruby is enraged at the Roosevelt Administration’s Executive Order 9066 to incarceration 120,000 loyal West Coast Japanese Americans behind barbed wire, stripped of all they owned and had worked for and stripped of dignity and due process. There were no documented cases of sabotage by any Japanese American. The Roosevelt Administration’s racism extended to its support of segregation, antisemitism and prejudice against-the Japanese, as neither Italian Americans or German-Americans were imprisoned during the war years.  A high school debate in the novel, that Ruby participates in, illustrates the highly volatile opinions of many those imprisoned.

 

Koji chaffs under Emperor Hirohito’s dictatorship and the difficulty living in a war zone where freedom of speech is severely limited. As the war continues, “master race” theories similar in both Japanese and Nazi ideologies prevail and become harder for Koji when he learns his parents had lived in the US and he was born in Los Angeles. He is a US citizen, a secret enemy, living in wartime Japan.

 

The novel continues after the war years. Koji fulfills his dream of moving to the United States, where he meets Ruby. Their relationship twists and adapts to the constant companionship of uncertainty and loss. In her beautifully written prose, Connie told me, “Love and joy can also provide solace in the face of war’s devastation, which we recognize has existed throughout human history and very much exists today. Despite the scars left by war, the human spirit finds ways to keep love alive. Some find that their commitment to love and family becomes even more vital, serving as a reminder of what truly matters amidst the chaos.”

 

Connie wrote lovingly of her parents-in-law when she told me, “Despite their wartime trauma, Hisao and Reiko lived a life of education, patriotism, hard work, resilience, and humility and raised three children to love and respect the U.S., as they did. I am proud to have married one of those children, be Hisao’s and Reiko’s daughter-in-law, to have known and loved them, and co-authored their stories.”

 

The meticulous research, travel to all the novel’s locations and interviews with those who lived through what Ruby and Koji did, help us gain a small insight into the injustices, tragedies and individual lives affected by war and the indominable spirit that allows rebuilding of lives worth living.

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Fresh vegetables make so much of Japanese cooking delicious. These two vegetable salads, Spinach Salad and Cucumber Salad, both use toasted sesame seeds and tamari, which give these salads that wonderful taste we are accustomed to with Asian cooking. Easy to prepare and perfect ofr a first course or a side, my only regret was not making more!! Big thanks to my nephew Elliott who lived in Japan, speaks Japanese, loves Japanese food, and gave me the suggestions for using these salads!