Restless Wave, published in 1940 under the pen
name Haru Matsui, is one of the first English-
language books written by an Asian-American
woman. Mixing autobiography, fiction, and re-
portage, it tells the story of a young woman, Haru,
and her coming of age as a feminist and political
activist in Japan and the United States. Restless
Wav e is notable for the interconnections Ishigaki
traces between Japanese military aggression and
“feudal” attitudes within Japan that restrict the
freedom of women and the poor. The author also
expresses sympathy for Japanese Americans, both
issei and nisei. While she criticizes Japanese im-
migrants for supporting Japanese militarism, she
makes clear that their pro-Japanese attitude stems
from their and their children’s race-based isolation
from mainstream American society. Restless Wave
received numerous positive reviews and had im-
pressive sales.
In 1942, following the outbreak of war between
the United States and Japan, Ishigaki joined the
Office of War Information (OWI) as a transla-
tor and writer. She worked for OWI and the War
Department for the following five years. During
this time, she undertook a novel about Japanese
Americans, but the project was never realized.
In the years following the war, Ayako and Eitaro
faced increasing harassment by the U.S govern-
ment due to their radical political views, includ-
ing their friendship with left-wing activist Agnes
Smedley. They had already planned to leave the
United States when Eitaro was summarily expelled
in 1951. Ayako joined him in returning to Japan.
Once in Japan, Ayako became renowned as
a critic and interpreter of America, and for her
feminist writings in the women’s magazine Fu-
jyin Koron, particularly the controversial 1955
article, “Shufu to iu dai-in shokugyö-ron” (House-
wife: The Second Profession). In that article, Ish-
igaki complained that Japanese women’s minds
had “turned to mush” from staying at home,
and she urged women to take up outside work.
In later decades, Ayako Ishigaki became a famil-
iar Japanese television personality and women’s
adviser, as well as the author of more than 20
Japanese-language books of memoirs, essays,
and biographies (including a Japanese transla-
tion of Restless Wave). Following Eitaro’s death
in 1958, she also dedicated her efforts to building
a museum of his artwork. Ishigaki revisited the
United States in 1975 and contributed to the Jap-
anese-American literary anthology Ayumi. After
her death in 1996, a new edition of Restless Wave,
by then long out of print, was published in 2004.
Two years later, it won a special citation as a “lost
Asian American treasure” from the Association
of Asian American Studies.
Greg RobinsonItsuka Joy Kogawa (1992)
This novel chronicles the adulthood of the pro-
tagonist Naomi Nakane in JOY KO G AWA’s OBASAN
from September 1983 to September 1988. She
undergoes a personal and political awakening,
awaiting itsuka (“someday” in Japanese) referring
to the redress from the Canadian government for
Japanese Canadians interned during World War
II. The novel follows Naomi’s move from the
Alberta prairie to Toronto. After she gives up a
frustrating teaching job and starts working for
The Bridge, a multicultural magazine run by St.
John’s College, her world slowly broadens. She al-
lows for the possibility of romance in her life with
the French-Canadian Anglican priest Father Ced-
ric and begins to attend political rallies aimed at
unifying the Japanese-Canadian community and
strengthening the redress movement. The novel
ends with Naomi carrying banners at a rally on
Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The last scene shows
her at a small official ceremony during which
the government officially apologizes for the in-
justices done to Japanese Canadians during and
after World War II.
Interspersed in Naomi’s first-person narrative
are flashbacks to her childhood that will seem fa-
miliar to readers acquainted with Obasan. These
scenes are aimed at clarifying Naomi’s almost
pathetic silence. While Obasan emphasizes the
years spent in internment at Slocan, Itsuka focuses
on the memories of beet farming in Granton,Itsuka 129