Books from Japan

When Mako Yoshikawa learns that her estranged father has died on the eve of her wedding, she is overwhelmed by grief, guilt, and unanswered questions. Shoichi Yoshikawa was a brilliant Japanese physicist and nuclear fusion researcher whose life was marked by extraordinary intellectual ambition, bipolar disorder, alcoholism, and episodes of violence toward his family. Although Mako loved him, she eventually cut him out of her life, unable to reconcile his brilliance and generosity with the pain he caused. After his death, she begins investigating his past, exploring his childhood in prewar Japan, his experiences as an immigrant in America, and the secrets that shaped his identity. Through personal memories, family stories, and historical research, she confronts the complicated relationship between mental illness and responsibility, love and abuse, and the desire to understand someone who has caused profound harm. Intimate and deeply reflective, Secrets of the Sun is a memoir about family trauma, cultural displacement, and the difficult search for understanding when reconciliation is no longer possible.