Awa Maru- The Titanic of Japan In 1945 as the Japanese Empire in South East Asia started to crumble , the Japanese communities began desperate scrambles for passages on any available vessels back to Japan. A Japanese hospital ship, the Awa Maru was given a guarantee of safe passage to 2007 Japanese civilians and military personnel who had been “fortunate” enough to secure places on board. On the 27th   of March 1945, amidst much joy and tears of farewell, t...

SYPNOSIS of “Japanese Magnolia” The true forbidden love story of two men, a samurai and a peasant in Edo Japan.Can a Japanese samurai of impeccable lineage in Edo period Japan get away with being gay?Can he break all the rules of society and get away with it?It all started when an aging samurai took an eccentric interest in a teenage peasant boy who had the unusual gift of writing and one day he brought his son, Lord Okimoto to the peasant’s house. The eyes of the s...

SynopsisMy Name is Eric…..No one can argue with the cliché that a dog is “Man’s Best Friend” from time immemorial. But has anyone ever looked behind this airy statement and see what Man’s Best Friend is really like INSIDE of him? His thoughts, his perceptions of life and how he sees his relationship with us?This is the story of Eric, a precocious, irreverent male Pomeranian and is told from HIS perception of life and how he views his best friend, Man! It is a deligh...

SypnosisThis is the true story of the tragic life of Okichi Saito who became the pawn toplacate Townsend Harris, the first American Consul to Japan in the turbulent mid1800's . This poignant story takes place during a period in history when the "Black Ships" arrived in Japan and changed many lives, especially those of Okichi and her fiancé andlover, Tsurumatsu. Like a butterfly, Okichi was beautiful but fragile, easilytossed about and bruised by the stro...

“Like a Willow Tree…”A willow tree, soft and flowy on the outside, unbreakable and strong on the inside, left to brave the lashings and extremities of wind and storm but never quite breakingHanako Ishigaki was just 9 years old when her father decided to uproot the family from traditional and beautiful Kyoto and migrate to Hawaii.“You are not uprooting this family to some strange outlandish place where we will have to start all over again and maybe never be accepted,...

Can a successful and powerful entrepreneur with an impeccable reputation and moving in the highest circles of New York be born out of wedlock to a Japanese prostitute during the Second World War? Obviously someone thought it was possible and Tetsuyo Akinicho’s life spins into a sinister spiral of suspense and blackmail. “Your mother is not resting in peace. You should be ashamed of your ancestors. Do people know where you came from?” An email plunges Tetsuyo and...

Can a Japanese samurai of impeccable lineage in Edo period Japan get away with being gay?Can he break all the rules of society and get away with it?It all started when an aging samurai took an eccentric interest in a teenage peasant boy who had the unusual gift of writing. One day he brought his son, Lord Okimoto to the peasant’s house. Immediately when their gazes met, the samurai’s son and the teenage peasant, a forbidden love affair formed, an affair which broke all the ...

This is the heart warming story told by Abby, a veteran stray cat who insists, "We are not strays, we are community cats! Just as humans are citizens of their countries, we are citizens of the communities we live in!"This book brings to life the many stray cats who live in almost every community, giving each cat featured in this book a face, a heart, feelings, thoughts and the same fear and happiness of the humans who can make their lives a blessing or a curse.Abby, the mac...

Editorial CommentWhat "Waiting to Exhale" did for black women and "Sex In The City" did for white women, this book does for Asian women against a backdrop of Japanese life as it is today, the good, the bad, the dents and all!Three young women arrived in Tokyo from the small towns of rural Japan with nothing but a burning ambition and the vague knowledge that somehow, their lives would be different. With so many odds stacked against them, what were the chances that their amb...

On the 26th of March 1995, sarin gas was released in a Tokyo subwaystation crammed with morning rush hour commuters and all hell broke loose.In the aftermath of anguish, death, painful injuries and broken lives, thedeadly action was traced back to a cult called Aum Shinrikyo.What lay behind this ferocious lashing the cult had given to the orderly,uncluttered society Japan was so proud of? What dark sinister secrets laybehind the walls of the Aum ...