Recently released from a Canadian internment camp in 1946, thirteen-year old Aya is now living in Japan with her widowed, embittered father who took up the Canadian government’s forced option of repatriating to Japan. Into this world of cataclysmic change and instability enter the two principal characters, two young school girls, Aya Shimamura from Canada, and Fumi Tanaka of Japan. General Douglas MacArthur, with his signature aviator-style sunglasses and corncob pipe, reigns as the supreme conquering hero of Japan. The Translation of Love is a true contribution to Japanese Canadian literature because it goes beyond the familiar telling of the World War 2 internment experience found in notable novels like Obasan and The Electrical Field and tells instead the mostly untold story of those who spent their post-war years in a war-torn Japan.
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