{"product_id":"9780984457663","title":"Yokohama Yankee: My Family's Five Generations as Outsiders in Japan","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"A lovely, unsettling family story and a vivid traversal of modern Japanese history that will impress the jaded Japan scholar and inspire the curious general reader or memoir fan.\" — \u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHelm was the Tokyo correspondent for the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e when he realized that the majority of the articles he had written were \"critical of Japan in some way.\" This was surprising considering Helm was born in Japan and is part Japanese himself. In this lovingly researched memoir, he sifts through five generations of Helms living in Japan...history buffs will relish Helm's painstaking detail and impressive command of the material. — \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\" \u003ci\u003eYokohama Yankee\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ea marvelous and eloquent work of family history\u003c\/b\u003e. What makes it more remarkable is this family's history also sheds light on the political, economic, cultural, and racial interactions and tensions between Japan and the United States for more than a century and a half, right up to the present day. This is a humane and insightful book that will be read many years from now.\" — James Fallows, national correspondent for \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e and author of \u003ci\u003eChina Airborne\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Like a sword cleaving a bittersweet fruit, Leslie Helm’s saga of his mixed-blood family in Japan cuts to the inescapable isolation of being white in a country where blood still means so much. \u003ci\u003eYokohama Yankee\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ea painfully intimate story\u003c\/b\u003e that spans more than a century and brings the wrenching history of modern Japan into a focus that is both razor sharp and deeply human.” — Blaine Harden, author of Escape from Camp 14 and former Tokyo bureau chief of \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Leslie Helm has written a lively and engaging account of his remarkable family history and its intertwining with Japan ... It is a warm and human story that will charm its readers.” — Kenneth B. Pyle, Henry M. Jackson professor of Asian history and Asian studies, University of Washington, and recipient of Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“ \u003cb\u003eOne of the finest correspondents to have reported on Japan\u003c\/b\u003e, Leslie Helm tells the riveting, sometimes painful story of his multinational, biracial merchant family. Living in Yokohama for generations in war and peace, the Helms are at the heart of Japan's long modern history without ever actually becoming ‘Japanese.’” — Sheldon Garon, Nissan professor of Japanese history at Princeton University\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Helm mines the many treasures of his family's past, and the multicultural futures of his adopted, Japanese children, to investigate the mysteries of identity that are locked away inside all of us. The family fortune disappears, and relatives scatter in the winds of war and reconstruction. But this lovely story remains, about an erudite man trying to make sense of the world, of the past, and of himself.\" — Alex Beam, \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e columnist\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[A] wonderful work full of pathos, insight and humanity.” — Fred G. Notehelfer, emeritus professor of Japanese history at UCLA and author of \u003ci\u003eJapan Through American Eyes: The Journal of Francis Hall, 1859-1866\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLeslie Helm's decision to adopt Japanese children launches him on a personal journey through his family's 140 years in Japan, beginning with his great-grandfather, who worked as a military advisor in 1870 and defied custom to marry his Japanese mistress. The family's poignant experiences of love and war help Helm overcome his cynicism and embrace his Japanese and American heritage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the first book to look at Japan across five generations, with perspective that is both from the inside \u003ci\u003eand\u003c\/i\u003e through foreign eyes. Helm draws on his great-grandfather's unpublished memoir and a wealth of primary source material to bring his family history to life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chin Music Press Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47024063938800,"sku":"9780984457663","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780984457663_p0.jpg?v=1763878647","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780984457663","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}