"'I want to go across the river,' says my mother, wrapping me up with the blankets. 'We have someone waiting for us across the river,' says my father. 'Thank you for everything,'"
p. 15

"As I sit looking at these slogans, the Invincible Imperial Forces are battering the Chinese, having conquered most of the heartland of China. In Italy, the Fascist Mussolini has been in power for years now, and, in Germany, Hitler and his Nazis are firmly in control. Three years ago, in 1935, Mussolini's Fascist armies conquered Ethiopia, and, the next year, Ethiopia was 'annexed' by Italy, just as my country was 'annexed' by Japan, by force, in 1910. Japan's Imperial Army gobbled up Manchuria in 1934 and invaded China proper in 1937. The same year, Japan, Germany, and Italy formed the so-called Axis powers - all set to carve up the world. In 1938, the year I am...