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Aiko's Journey: Part 1

by Miriam M. Batts

216 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-2238; ISBN 1-4120-4430-8; US$21.50, C$24.00, EUR18.00, £13.00

Seventy five years ago, while Korea was under the Japanese suppression, children of Korean-Japanese mixture were rare phenomena. The author, whose parents were Korean and Japanese, would like to tell story of her life.

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About the Book     ? About the Author     ? Reviews and Excerpts     ? Catalogue Information

About the Book

Seventy five years ago, while Korea was under the Japanese suppression, children of Korean-Japanese mixture were rare phenomena. The author, whose parents were Korean and Japanese, would like to tell the story of her life from 1929 to 1945. This is also a record of social life of very ordinary citzens. By reading the story, one can have a glimpse of life in Japan, Korea and China prior to the end of World War II. Aiko's journey continues.

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About the Author

Miriam Misao Batts was born in Japan. She was educated at Keisen Jogakuen, the International Academy of the Convent of the Sacred Heart and Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, where she received a B.Sc in Social Science. From Julius Maximilian University in Wuerzburg, Germany, she earned a Dr. of Philosophy in History. She later studied fashion design at the Lydia Lawrence Fashion Institute in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. She worked as a fashion designer and a doll maker for a while.

In 1984, she became a student of the world-renowned Chinese painter, Johnson Su-sing Chow, studied Fine Arts at U.B.C. for a year and has been studying art. She has given exhibitions and some of her works are in private collections. She also teaches art privately. Her paintings can be viewed at: www.ccafv.org

Miriam is also a poet. Her poems have been published in 21 anthologies, including "The Best Poems" of 1998, "The Best Poems and Best Poets" of 2001, 2002 and 2003 by the International Library of Poetry, and "Theatre of the Mind" by Noble House in England. She also published a poetry book, entitled "Passing of the Summer." Her poems can be viewed at www.poetry.com and www.poemsoftheworld.com. She will be in "Who's Who" of poets, which will be published by the International Library of Poetry in 2004. She has written articles, both in English and in Japanese, and they have been published in Japan, England and Canada.

She draws enjoyment from another field of art, music. She started taking lessons in piano at the age of 57 and now holds a Grade Ten diploma in piano from the Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada. She is married to an Englishman, who is a professor emeritus in medieval German, has a married daughter and lives in B.C., Canada.

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Reviews and Excerpts

Chapter I, page 16:
Life was generally peaceful in those days. But it was in those days that I sensed that there was something different about us.

Chapter II, page 29:
...he was stunned to see the wide-open doors....He congratulated us for not having become a dinner for a tiger.

Chapter III, page 56:
It was also while we were at this house that the famous coup d etat took place. The night before February 26, 1936, Tokyo was buried under a thick blanket of snow.

Chapter VI, page 77:
...Being half Korean, I was wide awake to the world situation and social injustices.

Chapter VII, page 89:
There was another thing that appeared in our household that was supposed to be a luxury item. It was a small harmonium.

Chapter IX, pages 111-112:
Since the school was established on Christian principles, there was absolutely no racial discrimination....I trembled with a mysterious feeling of joy and revelation for it said: "God is the being who made everything and keeps them..."

Chapter XI, page 123:
It was becoming more and more apparent that my mixed blood isolated me from the world of the Japanese.

Chapter XII, page 128:
...while we were still in this house, permanent waves were imported, from a potential enemy country...women s desire to be beautiful superceded the cause.

Chapter XII, page 134:
At the news of the declaration of war, my mouth hung open.

Chapter XIII, pages 138-139:
We moved again. This time to a far away place: Peking, China....When we finally arrived, the city of Peking was shining in the strong summer sun of China.

Chapter XIII, page 142:
We sensed that something terrible was happening....Then it came. The sandstorm, which had traveled all the way from Mongolia, arrived with the fierce force of nature.

Chapter XIII, pages 152-153:
The journey back to Tokyo would be difficult and complicated. Since one could no longer buy daily necessities in Tokyo, we had to buy in Peking such things as a washbasin, soap, towels, underwear, winter clothes and summer clothes, and lug them back to Tokyo.

Chapter XIV, page 166:
Now these little insects...normally stayed in the same head....The lice wanted to immigrate to fresh ground and they found it.

Chapter XIV, page 172:
One day, after Japan had lost one important battle in the South Sea, food almost disappeared from the dining table.

Chapter XV, page 178:
By the summer of 1944, the school had to close down....My class was sent to a famous laundry by the name of Hakuyosha.

Chapter XVI, page 187-188:
March 1945 arrived....Japan was approaching the final stage of the War.

Chapter XVII, page 200:
Around this time, my sister and I became keenly conscious of our Korean blood.

Chapter XVIII, page 212:
One summer day, a draft paper was delivered to every able-bodied male in Peking.

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Catalogue Information

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