After reading a good portion of Dear Miye, letters home from Japan (1939-1946), I decided to research a bit more on the background of the author May Kimoto Tomita. Although thus far I have read many of her letters, I feel as though I only know about her daily life.
I stumbled upon this article: http://www.cerescourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=55819&TM=26960.72.
This article states that she recently died on March 9, 2009 from pneumonia. She earned three degrees from Berkley and was a human rights activist among accomplishing many other successes. I also learned that she has a family, but her husband and son have already passed.
One of my favorite letters in this novel is a letter to Kay on pages 200-201. I enjoyed the questions that Mary brought up and allowed me to think on a deeper level. Some of the thoughts brought up were death, democracy, ideals of Japan and their ways of life, love, fate and reality. I found Mary’s strong opinions on the Japanese way of life interesting. She seems to have such a strong bitterness towards the Japanese way of life and justifies this by just saying “they know no other way of life,” (Tomita, 201).
I love how this book is written in letters from Mary and her two friends Kay and Miye. Because this book is written from a more personal perspective and not a formal journalistic point of view, the novel is much more effective. I enjoyed the pictures because it allowed me to put a name to a face and I felt that it allowed me to know the people better. I am not a history buff or even particularly a fan of history, but the way Tomita wrote this novel, it actually sparked my interest because it was about her personal story that was affected because of the events that occurred in history.
Marika,
ReplyDeleteI find it most interesting that we ended up writing about a very similar topic.
I think that Mary's death is quite timely in discussing her collection of letters. I for one enjoyed being able to read about her life's accomplishments after Dear Miye.
Dear Miye is a most enlightening collection as it allows us, the readers, to witness a first-hand account of this time. I am actually quite interested in history. The history I enjoy, however, is the kind we have learned about from Mary's letters. I am fascinated by personal accounts of history rather that a history book summary.
I look forward to finishing Dear Miye and finding out more about her interesting history.
-Jill
Marika,
ReplyDeleteI also had a strong connection to the novel. Not only was it a personal account of this woman's uniquely interesting life, but it also brings the reader's attention to a whole slew of issues. The racism that Mary encountered, not only from the American perspective, but also from her Japanese heritage, is completely startling. I can't imagine having to deal with the prejudice and struggle that she was met with. I especially enjoyed the passage in which she was describing Hitler, stating that he was "a great man" (Tomita 101). She obviously couldn't have known what he was actually doing during that time, and while living in a communist country her opinion was swayed in favor of him, regardless of the fact that she was an American. These letters are an incredible way to take a look into the past and see the world from another person's viewpoint.