Speak, Okinawa : a memoir

Brina, Elizabeth Miki 1981- (author.).

Summary: "Elizabeth's mother was working as a hostess in a nightclub 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. While she felt almost no connection to her mother's distant home, neither did she feel comfortable among her peers. It wasn't until decades later that Elizabeth finally recognized the shame and self-loathing that haunted both her and her mother. In Speak, Okinawa, Elizabeth Miki Brina comes to terms with the embattled dynamics of her own family and reckons with the injustices that reverberate throughout the history of Okinawa and its people. Clear-eyed and profoundly humane, her book is a startling accomplishment--a heartfelt exploration of identity, inheritance, forgiveness, and what it means to be an American"--Page 4 of cover.

Record details

ISBN: 0525657355
ISBN: 9780525657354
ISBN: 1984898469
ISBN: 9781984898463
Physical Description: 289 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
print
Edition: First Vintage Books edition.
Publisher: New York : Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, February, 2022.
Copyright: ©2021

Content descriptions

General Note:	Originally published: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2021.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references.
Formatted Contents Note:	Worse than the dog -- Skwars -- No name island -- Erizabesu -- One percent -- The gray city -- Before the enemy takes Japan -- Miki -- Without being taught -- My mother's church -- How they met -- Too young, too old -- Who is Kyoko Makiya? -- The fastest runner -- Missing ghosts -- Bamboo -- My mother's baptism -- The first Americans in Okinawa -- I am American -- I am sorry -- Second honeymoon in Japan: a travelogue -- Only three persons -- We are here -- Free Okinawa! -- More apologies -- Tadaima (I am home).