An Author’s Note to His Readers

I wrote this book while remembering my own childhood in Tokyo in the 1960s. I knew boys like Kazuo and his friends—the J-Boys—and the area where I lived (and still live) was very much like West Ito in Shinagawa Ward. I wanted to show how Japanese kids were influenced by American culture back then. Even the Beatles were influenced by American rock and roll—Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and of course Elvis.

Everything that happens in this book sort of happened to me—or to my friends, you might say—but not in exactly the way it happens here. Throughout this book, I’ve added some notes and photographs to help you understand what life was like for me and other kids back then.

I remember the tofu shop, the empty lots and the stray dogs, the American cartoons, the TV shows on black and white screens, and all the noise and construction. There are still tofu shops in Tokyo. But the physical look of Tokyo, except for some side streets and quiet neighborhoods, is nothing like what it was when I was growing up. Nowadays, there aren’t so many empty lots. There are no stray dogs, and kids rarely play on side streets (they’re more likely inside on their computers, playing video games, or spending time at after-school cram centers). Yes, things change, and in my imagination they have changed a great deal for Kazuo and his friends, too, although I must emphasize that these J-Boys in particular are largely a work of my imagination.

In case you’re wondering, Minoru never did write another letter back from North Korea, and no one knows what happened to him or where he is today. I read some newspaper reports of Japanese Koreans who moved to North Korea, as Minoru’s family did. Most of them had hard lives there because Japanese-Koreans are considered the lowest members of their society. Still, I hope that Minoru and his family settled comfortably and are doing okay. As for Keiko Sasaki, I’ll bet she ended up moving to Switzerland with her Swiss husband. She’s probably living a peaceful life with her family in the mountains.

Yasuo had to wait until he grew up and got his own house before he got a dog. And even then it was a small dog, since houses in Japan are still small compared to houses in America. He works for a record company and listens to rock and roll music all day long. Nobuo stayed in the countryside after he and his parents had to leave Tokyo in embarrassment, after a rabbit meat scandal that affected a number of butchers. Once, after Kazuo started working as a businessman at a company, he ran into Nobuo in Osaka. Kazuo took his clients to a sushi bar, and when he saw the short-haired sushi chef, he recognized Nobuo right away. They were both so happy to see each other again. After that, Nobuo married and opened his own sushi bar in Kyushu, southern Japan, where his wife is from. He sends a New Year’s card to Kazuo asking about his family every year.

Yes, that’s right. Kazuo got married and had kids. He lives in Tokyo now, not too far from where he grew up. He and his wife have a boy and a girl, who love spending time with their Uncle Yasuo. Otohsan and Okaasan passed away a while back, but not before they got to see their grandchildren.

And before Kazuo settled down to work in Japan, he really did get to travel around the world, just as he dreamed of doing when he watched the clouds that day in April, and when he told his friends he wanted to be a ship’s captain. He even learned to speak English, and spent some time living in America and England. You remember how he was good at math? Although his father hoped that he would get a Ph.D. in science, Kazuo studied sociology and economics. Of course, his father was disappointed at first, but later managed to satisfy himself that at least Kazuo had gotten into a good college and hadn’t flunked out.

Now, as for Nishino-kun, he never did go to college, although he loved to read and write poetry, and from time to time he would send Kazuo a poem he had written. I’m afraid something very sad happened to Nishino-kun, but Kazuo will always remember him as a good friend who gave him wonderful memories. In one of his letters, Nishino-kun wrote to Kazuo, “Live your life fully enough for the both of us.”

Kazuo now has gray hair. He has saved that letter from Nishino-kun, and thinks of the J-Boys often. And, speaking of J-Boys, there was a Japanese rock album in the 1980s with the title J.BOY. Maybe Yasuo even had something to do with it, but I’ll never know for sure.

Shogo OketaniTokyo, 2011

Note: The title J-Boys is inspired by Shogo Hamada’s J.Boy, a Japanese rock album released in 1986.