My Spy: Memoir of a CIA Wife [Paperback]

Bina C. Kiyonaga (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2001

So begins the love story of Joe Kiyonaga, the striking Japanese-American war hero from Hawaii, and Bina Cady, the irreverent Irish-Catholic redhead from Baltimore. Similar in their convictions, different in most every other respect, the two leaped into a marriage in 1947 that defied the anti-Japanese sentiments of the day. And their unlikely union would come to include a powerful, top-secret cohort: the CIA. For while Bina, Joe, and their children played the part of a normal family, all of their activities were geared toward Joe's clandestine mission as a spy for the CIA: to gather intelligence information and recruit new agents . Full of intrigue, passion, and danger, this extraordinary memoir has all the elements of the finest fiction -- made more compelling because every word is true.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Self-styled "CIA wife" Bina Cady met Joe Kiyonaga, a Japanese-American law student from Hawaii, at the University of Michigan in 1946. They married a year later. Her unpretentious account of their 30-year marriage elicits the reader's sympathy with its witty portrayal of a "mixed" couple facing bigotry (she calls herself Irish-Catholic, "although my father was Welsh-Cherokee") and its description of her lonely life as a mother of five, which unfolded on a need-to-know basis, with a tight-lipped husband always on guard. Kiyonaga, who fought bravely against the Nazis in WWII as part of the Hawaiian Nisei, a Japanese-American regiment, emerges as an urbane, mercurial, suspicious figure, a devoted husband and father who nevertheless used the agency's resources to track his wife's old beaus. While some of his activities as a CIA agent may have advanced the cause of freedom, other operations seem highly questionable. In Brazil, Kiyonaga plotted a coup with a cabal of business and military men, overthrowing Brazil's reformist government in 1964 and installing a 21-year military dictatorship. As CIA station chief in El Salvador and Panama, Kiyonaga (who died of cancer in 1977) exploited his contacts with military strongmen, including Manuel Noriega, Panamanian head of secret police, who later achieved notoriety as a dictator as well as a reputed murderer and drug dealer. The author's account of her husband's exploits is at times cavalier and occasionally insensitive ("Hope Somoza was the best looking and best dressed of the president's wives," she coos about the Nicaragua dictator's spouse), but she justifies almost everything in the name of the Cold War. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

For years we have been reading of spies coming in from the cold; now we have a wife's view of what it is like to lead a secret life in foreign lands with worry as a constant companion. Joe Kiyonaga was a Japanese American CIA officer from Hawaii who had served in Italy during World War II. His wife, Cady, was a red-haired Irish Catholic from Baltimore, and it was only when Kiyonaga lay dying of cancer at age 59 that the author discovered the details behind many of his spying activities. Their relationship makes for interesting reading, and the paragraphs on being peripherally involved in the Cold War spy trade are outnumbered by interesting observations on home life and cultural issues during their stationing in Japan and Latin America. This frequently humorous tale might make a good TV movie. Now if we can just get some Russian wives to contribute to the genre. Suitable for the espionage or women's studies collections of public and academic libraries. (Photographs not seen..
---Daniel K. Blewett, Loyola Univ. Lib., Chicago
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (February 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380794977
• ISBN-13: 978-0380794973
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,509,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars --From the wife's point of view--, April 15, 2002

By 

Judith Miller (Bluemont, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Spy: Memoir of a Cia Wife (Hardcover)

This is an interesting book about the marriage of a middle class woman of Irish descent to a Hawaiian man of Japanese descent. Aside from the differences in their backgrounds, their lives were further complicated by Joe Kiyonaga's career as a CIA agent. Throw in several children, add tours of duty to Japan, Central and South America and you have a lifetime of various adventures. The author, Bina Cady Kiyonaga writes with feeling, and tells the story of her marriage to Joe Kiyonaga with a great deal of candor, even describing the racial prejudice that her husband had to endure. Her rich descriptions of the various places that the family lived really enhance the story and give it an extra dimension.

Bina has an easy style of writing and describes her life with a great deal of wit and humor. I recommend the book to anyone who might be interested in what it was like for the wife and family of a CIA operative.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly remarkable story, February 24, 2002

By 

P. J Lambert "pjlambert" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Spy: Memoir of a Cia Wife (Hardcover)

I wasn't sure what to expect when I bought this book. However, after the first chapter, I was hooked. Bina Kiyonaga has effectively portrayed the difficulties of trying to strike the delicate balance between maintaining a semblance of normalcy for her family, while supporting her husband's career as an officer of the CIA. Having lived overseas, I can certainly appreciate Bina's problems of having to raise a family without the normality and convenience of life in the United States (not to mention having to raise 5 children in this environment!).

While the details surrounding much of what her husband accomplished during his tenure at the CIA will never be disclosed, Bina has done an excellent job of providing background to lend a certain aura to what her husband was all about. I was awestruck by the devotion she lavished on her husband during good times and in bad. Her faith and her family certainly allowed her to become the women she is today. And is portrayed in the book in a very effective manner.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Despite the minor redundancies throughout the narrative, I think this is a remarkable story...truly something in this book for everyone!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, Misleading Title, September 29, 2001

By 

Imperial Topaz (Marrakesh, Morocco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Spy: Memoir of a CIA Wife (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book, but its title is a bit misleading. It Should have been titled, "My Life, While Married to a CIA Spy." The thing which struck me the most was that I'd never make it as the wife of someone in the CIA. Maybe as a spy, but never as the wife. The wives had to sit at home whenever their husbands disappeared, with no advance warning, and perhaps for weeks on end without EVER picking up the telephone to call and enquire as to the husband, or when he might be back--or a mission could be compromised. One woman was in the last weeks of her pregnancy, and her husband had disappeared for several weeks. This finally did make that call, and the husband's mission was compromised. It was the husband's last mission. Later he left the agency, and also divorced his wife. Anyway, there were a lot of interesting anecdotes in the book. Bina tells as much as she can without compromising anyone who could now be hurt by the book.