Customer Reviews

Sachiko

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a totally absorbing and captivating book which relates the story of a preteen Japanese girl who overcame great odds and cultural norms to achieve her personal goals and destiny in life. Despite the objections of her parents, Sachiko was determined to graduate high school in the United States and attend University to obtain a degree ... She achieved these goals and so much more. The book is divided into four parts. It is most interesting to read about Sachiko's life as a preteen living with her parents in Japan. The author excells in her descriptions of Sachiko's school and family life. The reader learns so much about the culture, role expectations, religion, and lifestyle. Of particular interest is how Sachiko managed through serendipity to obtain passage to the United States and find a family who would sponsor her to earn her high school diploma. In Japan, Satchiko continued studying English and listening to a radio program to perfect her pronunciation of the language although she had no concrete plans of how to achieve her goal. Then, through a bulletin of the Pen Friend's Association (to which her sister Miyoko belonged), Sachiko learned of a creative way to search to live in the United States.

In part two, her plans materialized and she went to live with a wealthy but childless couple in New York. It was in the early 1960s, when the Civil Rights movement was fully active. It is an eye-opener to learn why Sachiko eventually changed her plans and moved to Minnesota to live with a different couple, who were more immersed in having multicultural exchange students living in their home.

The third part of this fascinating book is when Sachiko attends the University of Wisconsin to obtain her Bachelor's degree. She won a scholarship which covered her tuiton but she continued working part-time to pay for housing and other expenses. She also worked during holidays and in the summer to save money to pay for future expenditures. At the University, Sachiko opened up to new ideas and developed new life skills. She even entertained the idea of attending graduate school in the future. She made new friends who had similar interests and concerns as herself. Although shy around the opposite sex, Sachiko met a German college student, Konrad Schneider, with whom she felt comfortable sharing her thoughts and feelings. He helped Satchiko view the world differently, to explore her inner thoughts and feelings. No one else had ever made her feel this way. It was the 1960's. Women's liberation was coming into the forefront. Barriers were broken. There was a social revolution on many fronts. Students were protesting the United States involvement in Viet Nam. It was a time when college students questioned the establishment and were seeking answers to big questions, such as, what is the meaning of existence? Is there a higher purpose to life?

Part four of this book covers Satchiko and Konrad's relationship which developed into a kind of love where many questions remained unanswered. The author does a magnificent job of exploring their on-again, off-again love relationship. Satchiko eventually resolved the questions she had about their relationship in a very surprising but realistic manner. This book is filled with many complex themes which are explored with delicacy and sensitivity. It is a highly unusual and mesmerizing book because the topics are viewed within several cultural contexts providing multiple perspectives and viewpoints which magnify the meaningful outcomes.
Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

Sometimes, to see if I will like a book, I just open it at random. Then I read one paragraph. I did this with "Sachiko" and found I could not put this book down. The author, Shizue Tomoda, takes her own adolescence and young womanhood and creates a very fine novel.

It's hard to tell if this book is novel or memoir--the events mostly have a ring of real truth to them. I assume the novel is biographical in the way Antonia White's ("Frost in May", "The Sugar House") were biographical. Mostly true events with fiction linking them in a logical manner. Tomoda has written more novels (this is #2) and a memoir about her adopted cats. Either way, memoir or novel, this is worth reading and Ms. Tomoda has quite a growing list of fans, if you scan the book blogs and discussion sites.

The page I randomly opened to dealt wtih young Sachiko (Shizue's alter ego) who attends a highly-regimented Japanese high school and finds that her overcoat is not the right shade of navy blue. Now, in addition to a sort of sneering demerit, she has to go home and ask her parents to buy a new coat of the right color. The parents are not well-off, and this request is something that Sachiko feels puts an undue burden on her parents on her behalf. Selfishness is something Sachiko is sensitive to--as well as the questionable hierarchy of social expectations and position in Japanese society.

Sachiko, who even at a young age is a very independent thinker and strong-willed woman, formulates a daring plan to continue her education in the United States. After a formidable campaign, she gets her wish to go to an American high school, hosted generously by a well-off family in Newburgh, New York.

But all is not roses, pom-poms and high school proms. The family that takes in Sachiko turn out to be as hierarchical, arbitrary, prejudiced and unfair as the society she left behind in Japan. But God seems to smile on Sachiko, and she finds a new family in Minnesota. This family is indeed divine Providence--she gets a job after school, a scholarship and is able to put herself through college. And then on to graduate school in Arizona. Then she is reunited with her family in Japan, and her new experiences in the US and her maturation as a woman let her see her family in an entirely new light.

Sachiko experiences a first love affair and this is the culmination of the book. She falls in love with a fellow classmate, a young man from Germany who is fascinating but is also maddenly self-absorbed. The roller coaster of their relationship is written with great skill. The ending befits a novel--Sachiko is ever true to herself.

I loved how this author developed herself and her family as characters in an almost-novelized memoir. I read it all in one go, unwilling to put it down. A great story, and a really wonderful memoir. If you like autobiographies, and I certainly do, you will enjoy this one.

In the early Sixties life in Japan was very different than it is now. Young women were expected to marry, raise children, obey their husbands. This is not the life fourteen-year-old Sachiko sees for herself. She loves her mother Koharu, loves her father Masaru, loves her country as well, but she wants to go to America. And she doesn't want to wait till she's grown up. She wants to go to high school there.

However, she knows her parents would never go along. It would be unthinkable. So she devises a plan. She advertises for a family to take her in in American Newspapers and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Carlton of Newburgh, New York respond. Now Sachiko has ammunition she can use in her arguments with her parents.

She eventually wins those arguments and goes to America, however the Carlton's are autocratic, prejudiced and not to Sachiko's liking. She manages to find a new family in Minnesota, manages to get both high school and college degrees, learns about love and lies along the way and discovers a whole lot about America, herself and the country she's come from in this book that will grab you by the heart and make you sing.

Spurred on by an impelling force, Sachiko's destiny is unyielding. Unassailed by doubt, a true militant for social justice, responsive Sachiko affirms life against all odds. The author's subtlety of characterization and careful probing of experience are delicately balanced. If this novel is a mix of charm, poignancy and innocence, it also triumphs by its dramatic if not cinematographic appeal, posing a timeless riddle and ending with a superbly managed coup de théâtre. Here the English word is as dense as the Japanese ideogramme: so much is said with a stroke of the brush. Sunsets and snow-capped peaks capture a platonic reality as the game of a destiny is played out. I pay tribute to a novel with immense emotional appeal.

Sachiko is a young Japanese girl who is determined to leave Japan and study in the United States. After years of arguing with her parents, she is finally given permission to go to America. Sachiko has received an invitation to stay with a retired couple in New York and they appear to be a suitable match. She is enrolled in a Catholic School, but the curriculum involves little in the way of Catholic doctrine, so Sachiko has no cultural assimilation difficulties in that area. This part of the book is interesting as it gives some glimpses into the conformist Japanese culture.
However, this is taking place in the sixties and the cultural turmoil spills over into Sachiko's relationship with her hosts. They are strongly in support of American involvement in Vietnam and react very negatively to her questions and doubts about it. They are also very racist, expressing extreme prejudice against black people. Eventually, the situation deteriorates to the point where Sachiko can no longer stay so she moves to Minnesota, where she enrolls in college.
Sachiko does well, working hard in her classes and holding down a job. She also starts developing a social life, interacting with males and the world outside of her school. This is where the book starts to bog down. The dialog and events depicted are at or near the level of the necessary details of the beginning of relationships, which all adults have engaged in. Therefore, it just does not grab and hold you. Furthermore, Sachiko's on and off again relationship with Konrad goes on too long without a definitive conclusion. A great deal of this portion of the book could have been gleaned out with no real loss of story continuity.
I really enjoyed the first part of the book, the interaction between Sachiko and the Japanese culture around her provided insights into the Japanese social mind. However, once she arrived in the Unites States, it started ceasing to be a story about a Japanese girl and became more a tale about a girl in America having relationship difficulties. That is much less interesting as it is so much more common.

Good story about achieving your goals. Realistic concerning prejudice, which Americans don't percieve as being prejudiced. It was nice to see a perspective from a different and innocent point of view. Young and old alike should enjoy this for a quick read.

NOTHING, this book is fiction. Girl dredges a dream to go to America. She is unlucky in that the Lady of her host family turns against her because of some mental thing. Goes to another host family, sleeps with a guy she meets in collage. I felt no bond with the way this character is written. Liberal fiction with no point. No value what so ever.
The book arrived in good time. I will buy from Amazon again, just NOT this author, Shizue Tomoa.

This novel is the most believable I have ever read, it was like reading a true autobiography. This is not to say that I believe Sachiko is based on the author’s life, for that is something I do not know. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Shizue Tomoda has captured both the post-war Japan era and the American eras of the war in Vietnam and the breaking away of the ideals and conformity of earlier decades. Even as a Canadian living through the same decades, I could feel bonded with the story as it progressed.This is the story of a young 14 year old girl in Japan who through sheer determination and belief in herself works hard to gather every bit of information she will need to go to high school in America despite the opposition of her family. Coming from a very traditional Japanese Buddhist family, this is no small feat. But Sachiko never veers from her decision and proceeds with her plans regardless. At the last moment permission and funds for her fare to the United States are provided by her parents, and she travels alone to America. She has already gained a sponsor, an invitation and scholarship to study in Newburgh, New York. I admire the strength and depth of feeling in this character both in her old world and the new. She settles quickly into her new life, and is doing well until she is shocked to discover the racism her sponsors harbor toward the blacks, and cannot avoid a confrontation with them. She is then sent to Arizona to another family where she settles in quite happily and makes friends. The reader must keep in mind the times that this story is taking place. Existentialism, counterculturism, and other “isms” were a major influence, and thus caused more confusion for Sachiko than one might expect between cultures. When Sachiko falls in love, this very influence affects her deeply and as her love story plays out we see how much confusion, drama and trauma came out of this decade. This book never loses its focus and is a wonderful look at life in diverse cultures and mores. I would certainly recommend this book to both young people and adults. It is life as it was, fully captured, the book could have gone off on various tangents but sticks to its own truth. I most heartily congratulate the author on a beautiful slice of life.

Sachiko does not fit the mold of her Japanese culture and family. Instead of holding a menial job until she becomes a wife as her sisters have, she wants to go to America to finish her high school and college education. Though she faces many problems and much opposition from her parents, Sachiko realizes her dream and goes to America. Her host family, who are very welcoming at first, are not all they seem to be and eventually Sachiko moves on to another home. Throughout the book, she continues to grow as she advances through her education, has a love affair, and meets people from all walks of life. Her search for identity is made more difficult by her confusion while straddling the American and Japanese cultures. This is a book written with amazing insight and passion, and is a fascinating look at the Japanese culture and the difficulties encountered by immigrants.

Sachiko by Shizue Tomoda is a spellbinding novel about a young Japanese girl's coming of age in America during its great social upheaval. As a woman who grew up during that time myself, I can feel her feelings. She's a sensitive and brave young women. Like all young people, she's unsure of herself and life. But she takes it and masters it.

The book is part autobiography. Sachiko is author Tomoda's heartfelt story about a woman who comes to America and finds herself thrust amidst the turmoil of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. This certainly was a unique time to be young. Perhaps it was the most exciting time to be young. It was also dangerous.

It was a time when American society underwent much social change and the call for revolution sounded in the air. Sachiko, however, is determined to succeed in life. You simply fall in love with her.

When she falls in love with a German exchange student, she believes her life to be complete, until tragedy strikes and she discovers that he is engaged to another. Through this painful development, she learns to accept the uncertainty of life.

She questions everything. For example, about a college course she says to a friend, "Well, I'm already tired of studying nothing but statistics and so-called scientific methodology. It seems the professors put so much emphasis on the term 'science', but I'm not sure if the so-called 'scientific method' would lead us to reality and better understanding of human interaction."

This is a lovely book and I highly recommend it to you.