Wave-ringsin the water

"Fifty years ago, a gutsy former teacher left the Midwest for Japan and what seemed to her a huge adventure. The effort she joined was, in fact, an adventure for all involved: the victorious Allied countries of World War II were to occupy defeated Japan and help establish democracy and equal rights there. This occupation became one of history's great success stories, and Japan is now a peaceful, stable economic giant. But for the Japanese of the late 1940s, the occupation introduced not only welcome opportunities, but wrenching conflicts between past and future. The Americans, as well, experienced both frustration and success." "In this first American book by a woman occupation officer, Carmen Johnson, now 86, chronicles that period with abundant and revealing details. In a forthright yet sympathetic style, Johnson recounts the daily dramas of her new friends' lives: a widow's little son is taken away by her mother-in-law; a young historian spends fifteen minutes with the emperor; women in a small town band together to oust a corrupt official; a determined mother, one of six people on her tiny island who can read, takes a fishing boat to seek guidance on democratic procedures; housewives, taught for generations to be silent and subordinate, struggle to voice their opinions and to vote." "Johnson's story--sometimes poignant, often playful, always authentic--shows that ripples from the occupation, like "wave-rings in the water," are still spreading. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET.