Sachiko [Paperback]

This is a totally absorbing and captivating book which relates the story of a preteen Japanese girl who overcame great odds and cultural norms to achieve her personal goals and destiny in life. Despite the objections of her parents, Sachiko was determined to graduate high school in the United States and attend University to obtain a degree ... She achieved these goals and so much more. The book is divided into four parts. It is most interesting to read about Sachiko's life as a preteen living with her parents in Japan. The author excells in her descriptions of Sachiko's school and family life. The reader learns so much about the culture, role expectations, religion, and lifestyle. Of particular interest is how Sachiko managed through serendipity to obtain passage to the United States and find a family who would sponsor her to earn her high school diploma. In Japan, Satchiko continued studying English and listening to a radio program to perfect her pronunciation of the language although she had no concrete plans of how to achieve her goal. Then, through a bulletin of the Pen Friend's Association (to which her sister Miyoko belonged), Sachiko learned of a creative way to search to live in the United States.

In part two, her plans materialized and she went to live with a wealthy but childless couple in New York. It was in the early 1960s, when the Civil Rights movement was fully active. It is an eye-opener to learn why Sachiko eventually changed her plans and moved to Minnesota to live with a different couple, who were more immersed in having multicultural exchange students living in their home.

The third part of this fascinating book is when Sachiko attends the University of Wisconsin to obtain her Bachelor's degree. She won a scholarship which covered her tuiton but she continued working part-time to pay for housing and other expenses. She also worked during holidays and in the summer to save money to pay for future expenditures. At the University, Sachiko opened up to new ideas and developed new life skills. She even entertained the idea of attending graduate school in the future. She made new friends who had similar interests and concerns as herself. Although shy around the opposite sex, Sachiko met a German college student, Konrad Schneider, with whom she felt comfortable sharing her thoughts and feelings. He helped Satchiko view the world differently, to explore her inner thoughts and feelings. No one else had ever made her feel this way. It was the 1960's. Women's liberation was coming into the forefront. Barriers were broken. There was a social revolution on many fronts. Students were protesting the United States involvement in Viet Nam. It was a time when college students questioned the establishment and were seeking answers to big questions, such as, what is the meaning of existence? Is there a higher purpose to life?

Part four of this book covers Satchiko and Konrad's relationship which developed into a kind of love where many questions remained unanswered. The author does a magnificent job of exploring their on-again, off-again love relationship. Satchiko eventually resolved the questions she had about their relationship in a very surprising but realistic manner. This book is filled with many complex themes which are explored with delicacy and sensitivity. It is a highly unusual and mesmerizing book because the topics are viewed within several cultural contexts providing multiple perspectives and viewpoints which magnify the meaningful outcomes.
Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

Sometimes, to see if I will like a book, I just open it at random. Then I read one paragraph. I did this with "Sachiko" and found I could not put this book down. The author, Shizue Tomoda, takes her own adolescence and young womanhood and creates a very fine novel.

It's hard to tell if this book is novel or memoir--the events mostly have a ring of real truth to them. I assume the novel is biographical in the way Antonia White's ("Frost in May", "The Sugar House") were biographical. Mostly true events with fiction linking them in a logical manner. Tomoda has written more novels (this is #2) and a memoir about her adopted cats. Either way, memoir or novel, this is worth reading and Ms. Tomoda has quite a growing list of fans, if you scan the book blogs and discussion sites.

The page I randomly opened to dealt wtih young Sachiko (Shizue's alter ego) who attends a highly-regimented Japanese high school and finds that her overcoat is not the right shade of navy blue. Now, in addition to a sort of sneering demerit, she has to go home and ask her parents to buy a new coat of the right color. The parents are not well-off, and this request is something that Sachiko feels puts an undue burden on her parents on her behalf. Selfishness is something Sachiko is sensitive to--as well as the questionable hierarchy of social expectations and position in Japanese society.

Sachiko, who even at a young age is a very independent thinker and strong-willed woman, formulates a daring plan to continue her education in the United States. After a formidable campaign, she gets her wish to go to an American high school, hosted generously by a well-off family in Newburgh, New York.

But all is not roses, pom-poms and high school proms. The family that takes in Sachiko turn out to be as hierarchical, arbitrary, prejudiced and unfair as the society she left behind in Japan. But God seems to smile on Sachiko, and she finds a new family in Minnesota. This family is indeed divine Providence--she gets a job after school, a scholarship and is able to put herself through college. And then on to graduate school in Arizona. Then she is reunited with her family in Japan, and her new experiences in the US and her maturation as a woman let her see her family in an entirely new light.

Sachiko experiences a first love affair and this is the culmination of the book. She falls in love with a fellow classmate, a young man from Germany who is fascinating but is also maddenly self-absorbed. The roller coaster of their relationship is written with great skill. The ending befits a novel--Sachiko is ever true to herself.

I loved how this author developed herself and her family as characters in an almost-novelized memoir. I read it all in one go, unwilling to put it down. A great story, and a really wonderful memoir. If you like autobiographies, and I certainly do, you will enjoy this one.

In the early Sixties life in Japan was very different than it is now. Young women were expected to marry, raise children, obey their husbands. This is not the life fourteen-year-old Sachiko sees for herself. She loves her mother Koharu, loves her father Masaru, loves her country as well, but she wants to go to America. And she doesn't want to wait till she's grown up. She wants to go to high school there.

However, she knows her parents would never go along. It would be unthinkable. So she devises a plan. She advertises for a family to take her in in American Newspapers and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Carlton of Newburgh, New York respond. Now Sachiko has ammunition she can use in her arguments with her parents.

She eventually wins those arguments and goes to America, however the Carlton's are autocratic, prejudiced and not to Sachiko's liking. She manages to find a new family in Minnesota, manages to get both high school and college degrees, learns about love and lies along the way and discovers a whole lot about America, herself and the country she's come from in this book that will grab you by the heart and make you sing.

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