K
Karin Tanabe
Diplomat's Daughter
Synopsis
The Diplomat's Daughter follows Emi Kato, the daughter of a Japanese diplomat, through the years following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Interned at a family camp in Texas alongside German and Japanese Americans classified as enemy aliens, she forms a bond with Christian Lange, whose German-born parents were arrested on suspicion of disloyalty.
The novel moves between three characters and three fronts of the war: Christian, who enlists in the US Army and is sent toward the Pacific theater; Emi, repatriated with her mother to Japan and later sheltering in a resort town used by both Jewish and Nazi refugees; and Leo Hartmann, the Viennese friend and first love from whom she was separated when his family fled Austria, now surviving in occupied Shanghai.
Drawing on internment history that is less widely documented than the Japanese American camp experience, the novel follows its three leads as the war pushes them toward each other again.
Genres
Characters
Emi KatoProtagonist
Daughter of a Japanese diplomat, interned in Texas and later repatriated to Japan.
Christian LangeSupporting
German-American internee who enlists in the US Army and serves in the Pacific.
Leo HartmannSupporting
Emi's childhood friend from Vienna, son of Austrian Jewish refugees, later in Shanghai.
Frequently asked questions
What inspired the story in The Diplomat's Daughter?
The author was inspired to write this novel after seeing the Broadway musical Allegiance, which centers on the experience of Japanese internment camps. A subsequent conversation with her husband, who is of German descent, led her to research the lesser-known history of German-American internment, which she then wove into the narrative alongside her own family background.
How did the author research the specific historical details of the book?
The research process involved consulting an unpublished memoir from a woman who traveled on a repatriation ship and speaking with a family friend who lived in the mountain town of Karuizawa, Japan, during the war. These personal accounts helped the author capture specific, little-known stories that distinguish the book from other historical fiction set during this era.