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MAKABE, Tomoko, PICTURE BRIDES: Japanese Women in Canada. North York, Ontario: Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1995, 180 pp., $24.95 softcover
This is an English translation of a book first written in Japanese by a young Japanese woman, Tomoko Makabe. Her research into the life histories of five elderly issei (first generation) immigrant women through interviews is a sentimental journey. She sees herself as someone who has followed in their footsteps by immigrating to Canada as a student, becoming one of the shinissei, or new first generation immigrants. Occasionally Japanese stereotypes of Japan persist in some of the general commentary, such as the proclaimed projection of Japanese homogeneity as an essentialized Japanese trait even among those in Canada.
The wealth of this book is in the oral narratives of five Japanese immigrant women's lives. As "Meiji women" (born in the Meiji era, 1868-1911) they prove that Meiji women did not always conform to the "good wife, wise mother" ideal. Despite Japanese notions that women are totally devoted to the home, these are working women. They worked because they wanted to, and also out of...