Reviews for Restless Wave : My Life in Two Worlds

The average rating for Restless Wave : My Life in Two Worlds based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-05-25 00:00:00 John Powers I came across this title many months ago while reading some books on women in Japan. Its title and the reference made to it sounded interesting. Thus, I kept in on my list of books to read when time permitted. The author's lyrical, almost poetic IMHO, descriptions of physical surroundings and/or of Japanese lifestyle, society, and culture made it quite engaging. For those readers less knowledgeable of Japan in the 1910’s and 1920’s which was a time of transition into so called modernity it would be quite informative. Her portrayal of the intense familial pressures she experienced to conform to traditional feminine roles was powerful and, at times, poignant. So were her later descriptions of how the Japanese government responded to her and others engaged in reform efforts during the mid-late 1920's and 1930's as the military took over the country’s government and, thus, affected society in profound ways. Equally interesting and informative was Ishikawa's depiction of life for first and second generation Japanese Americans living in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo in the mid to late 1930’s. This included their stoical determination, if not heroism, with which they encountered racism in those years leading up to WWII. Also, their, and her, perspective on the militarism in Japan which eventually led to the war was discussed. IMHO, this book had two deficits. First, the author often used Japanese vocabulary to describe an article of clothing, food, a cultural practice, etc. These were almost always not translated into English. As I speak Japanese and have lived in the country I was familiar with most of them. But it would be inconvenient for a non-Japanese speaking reader to have to google these terms so often in the midst of reading the book. Second, some important aspects of the evolution of Ishigaki’s life as a woman living in Japan and then later on in the USA were never really explained. Eg, as a teenager and young adult she voiced reluctance about accepting a traditional role as a wife and mother. But she never really articulated what it was about that which troubled her. Her reasons for her involvement in domestic reform efforts in the mid-late 1920’s were not clearly articulated. In the 1930’s, after she had gone to live in the USA, she met and eventually married a Japanese artist living in NYC. But this was also never explained. Some of these gaps in the narrative were illuminated in the Afterword of the book which was written by two scholars of Japanese culture, history, and feminism. However, even with this additional information the book felt less than complete, at least to me with my admittedly American/Western sensibilities and expectations. It was noted in the Afterword that Ishigaki fictionalized aspects of her life in order to protect the identity of family members and others from the military government running the country at the time of the book’s publication in 1940. When viewed with that in mind her courage in disclosing that much about her life as an unconventional Japanese woman is laudable, to say the least. Overall, though, this is a very interesting and informative read for anyone interested in Japanese women and society in the years leading up to WWII. As I do not read Japanese I wish more of her work was translated into English.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-02-12 00:00:00 Raymond Lee A difficult book to rate and review. I was intrigued and captivated by the book and perhaps more by the story of the author. The book was originally published in 1940 and is the reflections of a young Japanese woman on the changing culture of Japan. It is not an true autobiography but what she calls a "novelized account". She describes her childhood of traditional Japanese values, especially as to the place of women and her growing discomfort with her circumscribed life and her interest in social justice issues. Her father was an educated man who believed in education for woman and allowed her much more freedom than most young women would have. She also describes the huge changes in Japan during this period, especially in thinking about women, politics, poverty, class, and militarism. The author is forced to leave Japan to escape political arrest. In the US, she continued to be involved with social justice issues. My introduction to this period in Japan was through a novel, The Strangeness of Beauty, and I had the feeling that the author of that novel must have used Ishigaki as a source in her research. In school we learned about the changes in Germany and Europe that led to WW II but we never talked about the changes in Japan and other countries in the east or about colonialism that led to militarism and war. I love reading works written in Japan during the 1900 - 1940 time span that describe the complexity of life and thought.