Awa Maru- The Titanic of JapanIn 1945 as the Japanese Empire in South East Asia started to crumble , the Japanese communities began desperate scrambles for passages on any available vessels back to Japan.A Japanese hospital ship, the Awa Maru was given a guarantee of safe passage to 2007 Japanese civilians and military personnel who had been “fortunate” enough to secure places on board. On the 27th of March 1945, amidst much joy and tears of farewell, the ship set sail from...

This is the heart warming story told by Abby, a veteran stray cat who insists, "We are not strays, we are community cats! Just as humans are citizens of their countries, we are citizens of the communities we live in!"This book brings to life the many stray cats who live in almost every community, giving each cat featured in this book a face, a heart, feelings, thoughts and the same fear and happiness of the humans who can make their lives a blessing or a curse.Abby, the mac...

Can a Japanese samurai of impeccable lineage in Edo period Japan get away with being gay?Can he break all the rules of society and get away with it?It all started when an aging samurai took an eccentric interest in a teenage peasant boy who had the unusual gift of writing. One day he brought his son, Lord Okimoto to the peasant’s house. Immediately when their gazes met, the samurai’s son and the teenage peasant, a forbidden love affair formed, an affair which broke all the ...

On the 26th of March 1995, sarin gas was released in a Tokyo subwaystation crammed with morning rush hour commuters and all hell broke loose.In the aftermath of anguish, death, painful injuries and broken lives, thedeadly action was traced back to a cult called Aum Shinrikyo.What lay behind this ferocious lashing the cult had given to the orderly,uncluttered society Japan was so proud of? What dark sinister secrets laybehind the walls of the Aum ...

“Like a Willow Tree…”A willow tree, soft and flowy on the outside, unbreakable and strong on the inside, left to brave the lashings and extremities of wind and storm but never quite breakingHanako Ishigaki was just 9 years old when her father decided to uproot the family from traditional and beautiful Kyoto and migrate to Hawaii.“You are not uprooting this family to some strange outlandish place where we will have to start all over again and maybe never be accepted,...

SYNOPSISBehind every face is a life and a story…The Japanese 5,000 yen note circulates round the world and changes hands every minute but has anyone really stopped to look at the face on this note?Take a closer look and you will see the face of a young Meiji era Japanese woman looking serenely out at a 21st century world she has never known nor ever dreamt she would be a part of someday.What is the story behind this face that moved Japan so much as to put it...

SYPNOSIS of “Japanese Magnolia” The true forbidden love story of two men, a samurai and a peasant in Edo Japan.Can a Japanese samurai of impeccable lineage in Edo period Japan get away with being gay?Can he break all the rules of society and get away with it?It all started when an aging samurai took an eccentric interest in a teenage peasant boy who had the unusual gift of writing and one day he brought his son, Lord Okimoto to the peasant’s house. The eyes of the s...

Can a successful and powerful entrepreneur with an impeccable reputation and moving in the highest circles of New York be born out of wedlock to a Japanese prostitute during the Second World War?Obviously someone thought it was possible and Tetsuyo Akinicho’s life spins into a sinister spiral of suspense and blackmail.“Your mother is not resting in peace. You should be ashamed of your ancestors. Do people know where you came from?”An email plunges Tetsuyo and his la...

He evaded death so many times it seemed it would never take him. The only man in history to go to Auschwitz as a volunteer, to form a resistance movement and document German atrocities. One of the few who succeeded in escaping. He sent drawings from there to his children and wrote letters to his wife, delivering them via the underground conspiracy along with reports. The British historian Michael Foot included him among the six most courageous people of the Second World War. After the war ...

"To Dave, the war was now personal. It had robbedhim of a love he might never find again. It had hushed a voice he would never hear again. It had turned his dream into a nightmare, and confirmed his belief that there's no road back to anything."In the summer of 1943, Dave Wagoner, a small town doctor from Mississippi, is thrust into the middle of World War II as an Army medic on the European front. This poignant story follows Dave through loves, losses, trials and tribulatio...

SURVIVORThrough six grueling years of warfare, USS Russell and her gallant crew pitted their prowess against a determined enemy.From the pre-Pearl Harbor Battle of the Atlantic to the campaigns in the Pacific, She was home to warriors who fought off attacks by submarines, planes and ships. She saw them through sixteen major engagements of World War Two including the Battles of Coral Sea, Java, Midway, Savo Island, Santa Cruz, and Guadalcanal She supported the land forces thro...