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it could have been scarlet fever or radiation. There are many new treatment options available since my mother died, including the one that Shoko undergoes in the book, called “left ventricular remodeling.” In this, a wedge is removed from the too-large heart. That is an oversimplification, and possibly there’s a cardiologist out there who will take me to task, but this is fiction.

The postwar handbook quoted within this book, also titled How to Be an American Housewife, is, likewise, fiction, but with a nonfiction inspiration. About twelve years ago, I was going through some cookbooks at my parents’ home and found a book entitled The American Way of Housekeeping. Written in Japanese and English, it told of how to keep house “the American way” in order not to offend Western sensibilities. I asked my father about it. “I got that for your mother. I thought it was a book for housewives,” he told me. “But it was a book for maids.” It appeared to have been barely cracked open.

I put the book down and didn’t think of it again for a decade. Of course, my father had given it away by then. I finally found a copy after I had written the novel. Written “by the Women of the Occupation” (several officers’ wives groups), the book details how to report to “your mistress” and contains recipes as well as cleaning instructions. Though the book was written for maids, another Internet search revealed two references to Japanese brides using it for assimilation. It seems that this book for maids was the best option available at the time.

For the novel, I created my own version of this book, keeping in mind how my mother might have viewed the world back then, through her unique cultural lens.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my husband, Keith, for his support and encouragement of my writing and blocking our children from door-pounding at crucial times. Thank you to my children, Elyse, Ethan, and Kaiya, for understanding that Mommy gets cranky when she can’t write.

Thank you, Bill and Sharon Dilloway, my parents-in-law, for providing moral support and babysitting services as often as I needed. Thanks to my own family for never telling me I couldn’t be a writer when I was little.

Thanks also to several crucial teachers who encouraged me from a young age: Gayle Bean; Norma Garcia; and Carleen Hemrich, who promised to have me back as an author for the Pershing Junior High Book Fair.

To my early readers, Denise Armijo, Hedy Levine, and Barbara Ryan, from the Scripps College Book Club, who helped rein in a huge blob of a work, thank you. Thanks also to my two later readers, Elizabeth Eberle and Adriane Fleming, for their quick turnaround and moral support.

A big thank-you to Jane Cavolina, freelance book editor and my champion, who would not let me give up.

Thank you to my agent, Elaine Markson, who gave me the greatest early-morning call ever. Thanks also to Gary Johnson, for answering my questions with good humor and alacrity.

And thank you to Peternelle van Arsdale, my editor, who saw the potential in the book and helped me change it in the very best ways possible. She is gracious and generous, a true writer’s editor.