AINOKO

About the Book

In this scathing depiction of America´s military presence during the U.S. Occupation of Japan, an unmarried Japanese girl is banished from home to raise her Amerasian son by a G.I. in the pleasure district of Osaka. Subjected to discrimination and contempt by the nation´s culture, the boy learns to be a pimp, a thief, and a prostitute. Being an outcast, he yearns for acceptance, but when a world-reknowned Japanese movie star befriends him, the boy cascades deeper into violence. Within its intricate and searing portrayal of a vanquished people immediately after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Jan Merlin´s masterful novel reveals the customs and remnants of Old Nippon surviving amidst the ghastly rubble, until two decades of rage, pain, and passion explode as the Far East confronts West again... on its own terms.

About the Author

Jan Merlin was born and raised in New York City. At the outset of WW II, he enlisted in the US Navy to serve as torpedoman aboard destroyers in the North Atlantic and South Pacific fleets, accumulating ten battle stars before entering Japan with the first Occupation Force group. Upon returning to civilian life, he enrolled in the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater and made his Broadway debut in MISTER ROBERTS. A twice nominated Emmy award winning writer, his professional acting career includes being starred or featured in numerous plays, several hundred live and filmed televison appearances, and more than thirty motion picture films made in the United States and abroad.