The Diplomat's Daughter A Novel

Karin Tanabe — 2017

"During the turbulent months following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, twenty-one-year-old Emi Kato, the daughter of a Japanese diplomat, is locked behind barbed wire in a Texas internment camp ... Plagued by fence sickness, her world changes when she meets Christian Lange, whose German-born parents were wrongfully arrested for un-American activities. Together, they live as prisoners with thousands of other German and Japanese families, but discover that young love can triumph over even the most unjust circumstances. When Emi and her mother are abruptly sent back to Japan, Christian enlists in the US Army, with his sights set on the Pacific front--and a reunion with Emi"--

Reviews

Leelynn Brady@sometimesleelynnreads

Oct 19, 2021

Full review and others originally found on my blog Sometimes Leelynn Reads All in all, I believe this was a good intro to Tanabe for me. I wasn’t expecting a WWII novel like this and I’m glad that I got to read this as opposed to one focusing on Europe and the Holocaust. Again, nothing wrong with that, but it’s been overused and sometimes… it’s just too much to get into. I liked the Kato family a lot, and Emi was a character that I was happy to get to know. I liked Tanabe as an author, and I think she did a great job with the research that she did in order to bring justice to this novel. You could see the personal influences that she added to this story as she mentioned in her author’s note, and I feel like it made the story that much more special to me. I think that people should definitely try this out, and I’m glad to try her other books.

Karen Shimek@karenreads

Jan 7, 2022