ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to thank Leza Lowitz, Yuto Dashiell Oketani, Avery Fischer Udagawa, Ralph McCarthy, Moto­yuki Shibata, Ken Rodgers, John Einarsen, Matthew Zucker­man, Trevor Carolan, Joe Zanghi, Suzanne Kamata, Tom Baker, Jasbir Sandhu, Holly Thompson, Susan Korman, Stephen Taylor, Mayumi Allen, Art Kusnetz, Deni Béchard, Donald Richie, Yelena Zarick, and especially the great team at Stone Bridge Press—Peter Goodman, Linda Ronan, Nori­ko Yasui, and Jeanne Platt—for their tireless efforts to bring Kazuo’s world to life.

The translator would like to thank Shogo Oketani and Leza Lowitz for the opportunity to translate J-Boys: Kazuo’s World, Tokyo, 1965; Dr. Angela Coutts and Dr. Thomas McAuley of The University of Sheffield for valuable feedback; and her husband, Kentaro, and young daughter, Emina, for their vital encouragement and support.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the editors of the following publications, where stories from this collection previously appeared, sometimes in different form—Wingspan, Kyoto Journal, Yomimono, Another Kind of Paradise: Stories from the New Asia Pacific (Cheng and Tsui)—and to Printed Matter Press.

About the photographs, sidebars, and J-Boys website

All the photographs in this book come from the collection of Shinagawa City (Shinagawa Ward) in Tokyo, where J-Boys is set. They were taken from the mid-1950s through the 1960s and show activities and scenes just as they looked when the stories in this book took place.

You will find many sidebars throughout the text. These contain definitions of Japanese words and information about Japanese things that you may not be familiar with. Words in boldface have sidebars nearby. There is a glossary at the back of the book for quick reference.

Explore the world of the J-Boys, learn more about the author, and find resources for teachers at a special website for this book, j-boysbook.com.