1. What scene did you enjoy writing the most?
Answer:
Mr. Ono's bath scene. I couldn't write it alone. My friend
Darryl filled in details. Any blame is his.
2. How did you feel after publishing Kaerou Time to
Go Home?
Answer:
Relief. Why? Japan has so many natural disasters. Half of my
mind was worrying about how I would finish Kaerou if our house collapsed in an
earthquake or typhoon. Now that it's been a few months since publication, I'm finally
enjoying an on-top-of-Mt. Fuji sense of accomplishment.
Answer:
Shinko Yamaguchi, whose painting is on the cover, thought
each of the story lines headed to one place...like ships lost in a storm,
returning to the same lighthouse, afterwards families celebrating safe returns.
I told my friend from Armenia about that image. She said there's a perfect
Armenian word. The English "return" doesn't hold the same feeling. My
editor in New York suggested the Japanese verb Kaeru, meaning "to go
home." Then my Japanese husband reminded me that the noun Kaeru means
"frog." Croak. He suggested Kaerou: "let's go home." My
friend from Australia fine-tuned it--Time to Go Home. The center dots and red
lettering on the cover evoke images in the story.
4. Where do you write from?
Answer:
The first draft...always on my bed (no futon) so I can
easily take a nap. Writing first drafts puts me to sleep. Most rewriting is
done at my desk...I check the drafts outside the house: coffee shop, temple
stairs, Nara Park bench.
5. What inspired you to write the books...
Answer:
For KAEROU--In 1995, fifty years after the end of WWII, a bloodstained
Japanese flag was sent from the US to a colleague of mine in Osaka. He asked me
to find the family it belonged to...that was the seed of KAEROU. I often
thought about what had happened to that soldier on the battlefield. In 2009, a
friend suggested I write a novel. I was in a funk, missing some of my friends/colleagues
who had moved back to their home countries. When I started writing, I asked
them to help with the editing. They did. Kaerou kept us connected.
6. Something personal about you people may be
surprised to know.
Answer:
B. Jeanne trivia no. 1: Famous people who crossed my path in
Japan--Rakugo performer and TV talent, Tsurube, and (Former) Prime Minister
Koizumi, on separate occasions, in front of the train station near my home in
Nara; international superstar Brad Pitt, on Midosuji Boulevard in Osaka.
B. Jeanne trivia no. 2: At Arizona State University in a
calculus class populated mostly by engineering students, I got 100% on every test
and broke the bell curve used for grading. Only the teacher was impressed.
7. Any special mention about your reader
Answer:
Of all the novels on all the sites in all the Net, thank you
for clicking onto mine.
Answer:
My father-in-law, whom I called Oton, told me the bravest
man he'd ever met was from India...an English teacher, loved and respected by
his students at an all-boys school in Nara, Japan. If Oton were still alive, he
would be 100 years old. His teacher from India told the class that he was going
back to fight for his country's freedom. The boys cried, asking him not to go,
it was too dangerous. His answer: Human freedom and dignity had to be fought
for and were worth fighting for...India should be a lovely, free country like
Japan. The years that followed found Japan invading countries and destroying
that freedom and dignity that Oton's teacher had gone back to India to fight for.
Throughout Oton's life, during India's turbulent and violent years, Oton
thought of his teacher and believed he was safe...as Oton had been safe during
Japan's military tyranny. Oton appears on the sidelines in KAEROU as Mr. Ono's
father and in the description of the Osaka dandies before WWII. Now that KAEROU
is in India, I can imagine my Oton is there too with the bravest man he had
ever met.
Dear Sarath, thank you so much for the wonderful interview!
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