UNCERTAIN LUCK

In this novel, a young woman searches for her missing father in Tokyo—only to fall in love with an American soldier on leave from the Vietnam War.

It is 1969, and even Japan has not escaped the Vietnam War controversy. Emiko Ozeki’s father, Hiroji, has disappeared in Tokyo while aiding young people protesting the conflict. Those in her small, snowy town of Kitayama already consider him a jōhatsu, or one of the “evaporated people”—folks so overwhelmed by the pressures of society and families they simply leave their lives behind. When Emiko’s mother dies, she goes to Tokyo to track down her father, but with little money and few leads, she finds herself among many of the city’s less savory characters, from serving girls instructed to “talk cute” by their yakuza bosses to criminal imperialists and glue-sniffing delinquents. But she also meets Juan, an American GI from Puerto Rico who has been sent to Japan on medical leave after being injured while fighting in Vietnam. He reminds her of her father, and they fall swiftly in love. But they can stay together only if they leave Japan, Juan going AWOL and Emiko abandoning her hunt for Hiroji. Or they can put off their love until Juan’s service in the war is over, leaving their future in fate’s uncertain hands. Keech’s book presents a post–World War II Tokyo that is no longer in lockstep with America, with New Left, anti-war movements like the Beheiren offering readers a view of Japan in the 1970s many may not have considered. Emiko is a strong, independent, and clever protagonist, using her wits to try to find her father and outsmart the radicals and criminals on the edges of this new, harsher world outside Kitayama. But the story struggles when it leaves Japan, as the setting and dangers faced by Juan in Vietnam never come to life quite like the streets and trains of Tokyo do. The war-torn jungles seem less frightening than, say, Emiko’s imperialist boss or the gangster she winds up owing money. Thankfully, this digression only accounts for a small portion of the novel. And though wartime romances are obviously not rare, the historical and political impacts of Vietnam on Japan as depicted here make for unique challenges for a charming pair of lovers.

A vivid and unusual era and setting help this wartime love story stand out.