Speak, Okinawa: A Memoir (Unabridged)
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A “hauntingly beautiful memoir about family and identity” (NPR) and a young woman's journey to understanding her complicated parents—her mother an Okinawan war bride, her father a Vietnam veteran—and her own, fraught cultural heritage.
Elizabeth's mother was working as a nightclub hostess on U.S.-occupied Okinawa when she met the American soldier who would become her husband. The language barrier and power imbalance that defined their early relationship followed them to the predominantly white, upstate New York suburb where they moved to raise their only daughter. There, Elizabeth grew up with the trappings of a typical American childhood and adolescence. Yet even though she felt almost no connection to her mother's distant home, she also felt out of place among her peers.
Decades later, Elizabeth comes to recognize the shame and self-loathing that haunt both her and her mother, and attempts a form of reconciliation, not only to come to terms with the embattled dynamics of her family but also to reckon with the injustices that reverberate throughout the history of Okinawa and its people. Clear-eyed and profoundly humane, Speak, Okinawa is a startling accomplishment—a heartfelt exploration of identity, inheritance, forgiveness, and what it means to be an American.
Customer Reviews
Love Okinawa; Love this book!
I was an art specialist through the Army Civil Service in Okinawa '72 to '74 while the island was going through the reversion from the US back to being controlled by Japan. The names of towns were being changed to reflect Japanese, Machinminato to Makiminato, Zukuran to Sukuran . . . I worked with the most delightful Okinawa people and they showed nothing but kindness to me. It breaks my heart to read their history and Elizabeth Miki Brina has such an amazing writing style of weaving her history with her mother's past and Okinawa itself. I love this book and am grateful to have happened to stumble upon it on an interview on NPR. I am seeing Okinawa with new eyes and love it so much more. Thank you for writing this book!