The Woman in the White Kimono: (A BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick)

Product Information

Each of the girls at the maternity home were brought there by tragedy, a tragedy that is only worsened at the home: How does this shared experience bind the girls together? Do you think they The fact The Eugenic Protection Law is mentioned in the ‘Author’s Note,’ but not explored in more detail, gives the writing less traction and makes light of the situation in Japan in the 1950s. This may have been deliberate on the part of the author and the publisher; the truth would have watered down the romance. The book fully covers the topic of abortion but skims over society’s opinion of “blood-mixing”. It was a hot topic in those days and the prohibition of American men marrying Japanese women as part of this Eugenic Law was a subject on everyone’s lips, including the press, teachers, and social activists. If it had been examined in more detail, it could have deepened Naoko’s character and the story would have been more authentic. Usually when in a time-split novel, I find myself enjoying one narration more than the other. This wasn’t the case with this book. I loved Tori’s investigative journalist mind, and her clear adoration for the father she is no longer certain she knew. I willed her on in her quest, and as a reader could feel the conflicts she felt as she dug further into Jimmy Kovac’s history. Meanwhile, Naoko’s narrative is fascinating. She is a naïve girl of seventeen, accidentally falling pregnant and then secretly marrying a foreigner – a taboo in 1950’s Japan. Consequently her life is made difficult, and she is found torn between her family values and love for her mother and brother, and the wonderful love she feels for Hajime, the American soldier whose baby she now carries. When the worst happens and her beloved mother dies, leaving Naoko suddenly the head woman of the household, her choice begin to unravel her life.

The ground beneath my feet shifts, causing outward tremors in all directions. We stand on a cultural fault line, the fracture running miles deep, and the potential aftermath catastrophic. My intent may displace sides, but this baby connects us all like a bridge...”He would trust Grandmother, as a woman, to know best. She has created a lie with more than feet; it has sprouted scandalous wings and flown beyond my forgiving reach. To imagine, my father knows otherwise is the foot of a lighthouse. Dark.” (pg. 208) Ana Johns was inspired by true stories to write this novel. Her writing is glorious and poetic with a beautiful setting. I knew very little about this time in US and Japanese history. The choices Naoko faced were devastating. Her love for Hajime was so stunningly drawn. It’s sad, it’s emotional, it’s uplifting and my word.....when I got to the end I laid my kindle down and couldn’t help appreciating the superb writing. The insight to The culture and beliefs.

Ana Johns tells their story through two women, Tori Kova, the daughter of Hajmine who is dying when the story begins and Naoka Nakamura who knew the boy that became the man.Me encantó! Fue sencillamente espectacular. “Dos mujeres separadas por océanos y décadas a las que unirá la verdad”, es la mejor manera de definirlo. In breathtaking prose and inspired by true stories from a devastating and little-known era in Japanese and American history, The Woman in the White Kimono illuminates a searing portrait of one woman torn between her culture and her heart, and another woman on a journey to discover the true meaning of home. This story is told in two parts by two women—Naoko's story when she was 17 in 1957 and her American sailor. The second part of the story is told in the present-day with Tori Kovac and a letter her dad hands to her as he is dying from cancer that was returned from Japan and talking about his daughter. The two tales are interwoven as they head towards a climactic ending that may merge their lives.