We’ll Call You “Susie” (9:04)

Hiroko Furukawa Tolbert O’Connor

My mother knew nothing about farms or chickens. As a young Japanese girl, it was beyond her wildest imagination that she would one day be a local “egg lady” in a small town in America. But amid the devastation of post-war Japan, she thought a future with the quiet GI she met in Tokyo was one she could build.

Caring for Kimiko (4:57)

Kimiko Kasahara Drake

Being alone and old in an adopted country, Kimiko Drake might have died in lonely isolation. She had no children and her husband passed away years before. Like so many Japanese women who married American servicemen, she didn’t feel she could return to Japan, that Japan would not be a welcoming place for her. But Kimiko had Karen, the daughter of another Japanese woman, who put herself in Kimiko’s shoes.

Keeping the Ties (3:47)

Deacon Joe Sexton

There is little to suggest in Joe Sexton’s Philadelphia upbringing that he would be so connected to Japan into his 80s. His Japanese wife died of cancer a dozen years ago. But in Joe’s case, his wife’s roots are also his, and the impact of one young Japanese bride is that a retired Catholic deacon is a connoissuuer of ramen broth and treats as relatives a family in northern Japan, despite the barrier of distance and language.