Further Confessions of a Kamikaze Geisha

Confessions of a Kamikaze Geisha is an absurd retelling of the history of the Greater East Asia War and its aftermath from the Japanese point of view. In the first volume of her memoir, Suzukaze took us through the ordeals of her war as she became first the Maiden Maiko and then the Kamikaze Geisha, the nation's symbol of purity and sacrifice. In this second volume, Suzukaze continues her remarkable odyssey, recounting her return from the war and her eventual recruitment by the Americans as the "face" of the "New Japan."America has won the war. Now it will try to make over Japan in its own image. How will its ideals fare in the emerging post-war battle between the Left and the Right?From the opening:"After the Lieutenant, I thought I would never fall in love again."You may remember my Lieutenant. If you read the first volume of my memoir, I'm certain you do. I met him the evening of my debut as an apprentice geisha and I fell madly in love with him, and he was my one and only true love for many years. But he never came back from the war."Then I met Lieutenant Rose, Lieutenant William Rose. He was one of my teachers, and he became my second true love-- my second Lieutenant, my American Lieutenant. He came after the war with all the other Americans to teach us everything there was to know about democracy. Democracy was a miracle drug, like the vaccine that later eradicated polio. In the same way, the Americans were certain democracy would rid us Japanese of militarism. At the heart of much of this reshaping was the conflict between the unions and the company owners. It was a tumultuous battle, the outcome uncertain- and little could I have known the critical role I myself would come to play in this drama."