Daughter of a Gun

Book excerpt: This is not your usual autobiography chronicling dates, events, people and places in a person's life. In Daughter of a Gun the reader walks beside Kaori beginning when she is born in Beijing to Japanese parents who were expecting a boy. The family lived in great comfort in one of the former German colonies in China. This ends abruptly when they are expelled and repatriated to Sasebo, Japan, a suburb of Nagasaki, one of the two towns destroyed by atomic bombs. We now encounter and follow Kaori, a person born to survive, as she becomes a serious contributor to the family's food supply at age nine and in her intrepid march through the Japanese schools with their draconian determination to turn girls into properly submissive women. Submission was not in her plans. Escaping to America was. At age 19, she is on her way to a new life in Los Angeles. Here we follow her through her personal life and university education from her "combat zone" teaching in inner-city ghetto schools to becoming the first professor of Asian Studies courses in the entire 9-campus Community College District of Los Angeles County. This is a fascinating life perceptively portrayed with understated humor. Her undaunted courage, spirit and faith in the future shine though every experience. ~ Charles Shirriff, author: - Spirits of a Feather - Souls of a Feather