I lived among the Japanese, and saw their mode of living, in regions unaffected by European contact.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My life was very Japanese.
I was fortunate to live for 3 years in another country, and although we lived in an American compound, still as a young adolescent I did venture into the world of the Japanese with great interest and enjoyment. But many Americans never left that safe and familiar life among their own people.
I have a lot of Japanese friends: I grew up in Vancouver, and there's this huge Japanese population over there.
As I grew up, I was continually to suffer hardships in different realms of life - in my family, in my relationship to Japanese society and in my way of living at large in the latter half of the twentieth century.
I might have played a little bit more in Europe than I have in Japan.
I couldn't speak Japanese very well, passport regulations were changing, I felt British, and my future was in Britain. And it would also make me eligible for literary awards. But I still think I'm regarded as one of their own in Japan.
I sailed around Europe and lived with the Karen tribe in Thailand for a month.
I lived in San Pedro, California, which is, you know, on the west side of California, and it's where many, many Japanese lived.
Growing up in California, I obviously knew about our deep connections with the Japanese.
I went to Japan and I lived there. I lived in Mexico for a year. I went to Europe. I lived in Canada.