Edited and with a Foreword by Holly Thompson,
Tomo
Stone Bridge Press, 2012.
Ages: 12+
‘Tomo’ means ‘friend’ in Japanese and the purpose of this Anthology of Teen Stories is to offer friendship to Japan following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011: specifically, the book is dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives and to “all the young people of Tohuka”. Author Holly Thompson (The Wakame Gatherers, Orchards) has gathered contributions from creators of prose, poetry and graphic narrative, as well as translators, whose shared connection is Japan. Their work makes for a remarkable collection.
Many of the contributors’ names such as Alan Gratz, Wendy Nelson Tokunaga, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Shogo Oketani, or Graham Salisbury may already be familiar to readers; others such as Naoko Awa (1943-1993) or Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) will be less so, though famous in Japan. A great deal of Tomo’s success lies in its blend of expertly translated older stories with contemporary, new writing, and this is true also of the stories’ content. Many modern Japanese phenomena colour the stories, such as the particular fashion of Harajuku girls (“I Hate Harajuku Girls” by Katrina Toshiko Grigg-Saito) or the Purikura photo sticker booths (“Signs” by Kaitlin Stainbrook), yet these sit easily alongside more traditional stories such as the magical Ainu fable “Where the Silver Droplets Fall”, transcribed and translated into Japanese by Yukie Chiri (1903-1922) and translated into English by Deborah Davidson. The anthology is all the richer for its varied array of writing, and its success is also in a great part due to the skill of the different translators involved.
The thirty-six stories are divided into sections: Shocks and Tremors, Friends and Enemies, Ghosts and Spirits, Powers and Feats, Talents and Curses, Insiders and Outsiders, and Families and Connections. The opening story, “Lost” by Andrew Fukuda, is the gripping account of a girl regaining consciousness in a hospital bed following the Kobe earthquake in 1995; the other four stories in that opening section, including Tak Toyoshima’s graphic strip “Kazoku”, all have the raw immediacy of being set in the aftermath of the March 11th disaster.
Among the other stories, readers will find stories to suit every mood: thought-provoking tales of conflict, spine-tingling ghost stories (I’m glad all these happen to have fallen to my reading in hours of daylight!), ostracism and friendship, romance, magic and surrealism. Yearning to belong is a thread running through many stories, and the intensity for those characters seeking their identity is heightened where they are part of a bicultural family. Nor does the collection flinch from addressing racial prejudice or the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War.
As with all good short-story anthologies, Tomo needs to be read slowly in order to savour the intense individual flavors of its contents. Framed by an extract from David Sulz’s translation of Miyazawa’s thought-provoking poem “Be Not Defeated by the Rain” as well as Holly Thompson’s moving Foreword, and a glossary and note on the book’s contributors (a rich mine for future reading), Tomo is a very speci
An interesting art project spearheaded by Japanese Canadian artist and film-maker Linda Ohama is currently being displayed at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. The Canada-Tohoku Kids to Kids Cloth Letters is a response by Canadian young people from the ages of 3 to 17 to the earthquake and tsunami that rocked northern Japan on March 11. The children painted messages on cloth squares to disaster victims in the Tohoku region to express their sympathy for them. The letters were assembled into a giant quilt and sent to the area. In response, children in Miyagi created their own quilt with squares donated to them by children in Onomichi in Hiroshima prefecture, the ancestral home of Linda Ohama’s grandmother. Together the two quilts are now on display at the Canadian Embassy until the end of this year. Plans are afoot to tour the quilts in Canada after the new year. For more information about this interesting project, see Norm Ibuki’s interview of Linda Ohama on the Discover Nikkei website.
Lately for bedtime reading, I have been reading more chapter books to my daughter. This month we started on a book called When the Cherry Blossoms Fell by Jennifer Maruno (Napoleon and Company, 2009). The story begins on the eve of soon-to-be nine-year-old Michiko’s birthday. It is March 1942 in Vancouver, and Michiko awaits the arrival of her father from a business trip — he works as a candy salesman for The Imperial Confectionary Company of Canada — but instead of his return, Michiko’s mother Eiko gets an alarming phone call. Michiko’s father has been put in jail!
With this vivid opening, the story of Michiko’s family’s trials through the events of 1942 that affected thousands of Japanese Canadians on the west coast begins. Soon Michiko and her family will have to move, forcibly relocated to the interior of British Columbia. Slowly it dawns on Michiko, despite her family’s best attempts to shield her, what this event signifies for her as a Canadian of Japanese descent whose country is at war with Japan.
Although my daughter is aware of her cultural background, I don’t generally foist books on her about Japanese Canadian history or culture without her first indicating interest. This is especially true now that we are entering the realm of chapter books which require a longer commitment of time. In the case of When the Cherry Blossoms Fell, when I presented it to her, she said rather astutely “Read what it says on the back.” After hearing the crib on the back page, she felt it was worth the investment of our time at night together reading this book. And so we began reading When the Cherry Blossoms Fell together. My daughter is certainly figuring out how to ‘read’ a book in more ways than one these days!
Hinamatsuri Dolls
Today is Girl’s Day or Hinamatsuri in Japan. And we’ll be celebrating it at our house by putting up our hina dolls and having festival foods. As a Japanese Canadian growing up in Alberta, we never celebrated Girl’s Day. So why do I celebrate it now? Two reasons – because I have a daughter and feel it is important to transmit to her the customs of her heritage culture. And because, it’s also just fun! March 3 in Japan feels like spring and the peach blossoms that decorate the array of hina dolls displayed for the day make it feel all the more that way. Here in wintry Canada, blossoms are still far off, but celebrating Girls Day here helps me anticipate the season. Of course, we’ve made adjustments to the differences in climate. Instead of the clam broth or chirashizushi that is traditionally served on Girl’s Day, I usually make a thick and hearty clam chowder that’s good for fending off a ‘liony’ March wind. And I sometimes buy tulips for the table — the first flowers to appear in grocery stores around here that signal the coming season. Have you ever celebrated a traditional festival day with your kids that you never celebrated growing up? Do tell!
