Edward Moreno

>> Parte 1

Para la nueva oportunidad con el sushi, el objetivo inicial  del Sr. Nakajima fueron los inmigrantes japoneses, especialmente los hombres de negocios. Impresionados ellos con la atracción, comenzaron a traer a sus clientes americanos para que probaran algo novedoso y extraordinario. Tras su primera experiencia con el sushi, los novatos se volvieron adictos.  La barra de sushi en Kawafuku tenía solo siete asientos y siempre estaba llena. 

El Sr. Saito, Chef de Kawafuku, vino a ser el primer especialista de sushi en los Estados Unidos; su esposa, la Sra. Saito fue su mesera. En sólo ...

En uno de nuestras reuniones semanales en Maryknoll, pregunté a mis amigos si alguno sabía ¿cómo y cúando vino el sushi a Los Ángeles?  Ko Hosizaki me dijo que la persona indicada para contestarme era el Sr. Noritoshi Kanai, el presidente de Mutual Trading Company (MTC) de Los Ángeles.

"Hasta un libro escribió él sobre eso," comentó Ko.

Entonces no perdí tiempo en pedirle que me presentara a esa legendaria persona. A los 86 años, Kanai san, alto e imponente, encabeza la firma MTC, negocio que él dirige tras de haberse retirado el padre de Ko ...

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Again, we stray a bit from Yoshiko’s personal story to review the situation between China and Japan at the close of the Pacific War. Why? On the 75th anniversary of what President Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy” (December 7, 1941), many Western media outlets revisited the “safe versions” of World War II history—those that portray the Allies (China and Russia included) as icons of righteousness and Japan as a most ignoble country. Yoshiko had already become a significant artistic figure in that period, so we cannot talk about her and ignore ...

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China, for centuries adopted by Japanese poets and philosophers as their cultural beacon, had become a poor, filthy, confused, and opium-ridden mess, after years of autocratic government. After the death of the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), little seemed left to unite the nation.¹ Internally, ambitious and brutal warlords arose everywhere, each one aiming to become “top dog.” Externally, every swashbuckler country seemed intent on devouring the immense country, whether piecemeal through concessions² or in a single gulp by colonization. By 1920, every colonialist country had its own extraterritorial heelin China.³ 

To prevent their ...

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In each of the previous chapters, we have seen young Yoshiko get a few tastes of the real political world around her: the killing of a Chinese bandit, witnessed from her window; the massacre of an entire town to avenge the burning of a coal mine; and the local police’s wrecking of her best friend Liuba’s home.

Consider for a moment the forces tugging from all directions at the girl’s psyche: her father’s demand that she become a solid bridge of understanding between the Chinese and the Japanese; masquerading as Chinese and being ...