Quote

After college, I wanted to learned about myself as an American, so I left the United States and went to Japan.

I have dual citizenship.

I have dual citizenship, it just so happens I live in America.

Well I don't know, I might have lost my citizenship, I don't think you can lose your citizenship though.

My father is 100% Japanese and came to the United States when he was only 18 years old. My grandmother still resides in Japan, which has allowed me to travel to the roots of my ancestors with my father.

I was in the U.S. about 15 years. Especially in New York. And then I came back to Japan.

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 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.

In 1986, when I was 21, I lived in Tokyo for four months, boarding with a Japanese family and working for an American company.

The American society around me looked at me and saw Japanese. Then, when I was 19, I went to Japan for the first time. And suddenly - what a shock - I realized I wasn't Japanese; they saw me as American. It was an enormous relief. Now I just appreciate being exactly in the middle.