Member Reviews
2 stars
Wastes plenty of potential with stereotypes and inaccuracies.
I really had thought that the blurb for this memoir sounded promising - a foreigner who tries to understand Japanese culture instead of being content with staying on the outside for his limited stay.
Delmastro comes to Japan with the US military doing classified work that mostly sounds like espionage in a military base close to Tokyo. He is young and it is the seventies, so it is still a big adventure to try and become familiar with Japanese culture without plenty of information available on the internet.
We learn that he is of Italian origin with many, many siblings, most of them sisters. He is also vegetarian and apparently very much into spiritualism and Buddhism. All of this sounds like a very interesting premise and like his view on Japanese culture could be an insightful one.
And partly that is the case. His conclusions regarding how keeping face and obligations work seem pretty accurate to me and he is well able to see that not all Japanese actually conform to the social standards but are quite comfortable breaking or bending the rules. And I am glad to see that mentioned as is does help counteract the notion that Japanese society is extremely homogeneous. Which it indeed is not at all.
Unfortunately, there is plenty of off-putting stuff in there as well. Delmastro has no qualms to quote some of his fellow expats being utter jackasses who exploit the social obligation of keeping up appearances of politeness and/or using gross language when describing Japanese women ("Nipper chickies", UGH).
And in some cases his own perspective is not much better, although it is being cloaked in nicer words. He describes a woman he meets as "Mariko-san was a beautiful person and the nicest girl I'd ever met in my life. She was the epitome of the type of Japanese girl who would serve and do anything for her man." Are you even serious? This is a book being published in 2023 and really we should be beyond this nonsense!
A large part of this memoir is being taken up with the "relationship" Delmastro has with his koto teacher Yoko, which I can only describe as a heavily romanticized view on a seriously dysfunctional non-relatioship with a woman in a very restricted family situation that (as is quite obvious from the beginning) cannot possibly end well.
He keeps calling her a Geisha despite the fact that she very much isn't one and also again and again brings the concept of Bushido into the narrative to make it all sound like a very Japanese way of restraining yourself and waiting patiently to achieve your goal.
However, as Delmastro himself states repeatedly, he is extremely passive and just lets things happen, which ends up with him ultimately letting Yoko down and leaving her to her fate.
Also, quite a lot of the transcribed Japanese is misspelled (repeatedly) which lets me think that Delmastro's Japanese maybe wasn't that fluent despite him spending many years in the country. Also, where was the editor here to check on the accuracy?
Examples are: "o-seiwa ni natte" (o-sewa ni natte), "Aso desu ka" (Sou desu ka), "Kiosukete ne" (ki o tsukete ne), "shitsuri shimasu" (shitsurei shimasu), "irrashaimase" (irasshaimase, this appears countless times in the book) etc. pp.
Ultimately, he comes across as being pretty full of himself and unsympathetic and the further I progressed the more I was rolling my eyes. This is not the best book for having a first glimpse into Japanese society - not really recommended! What a shame, it could have been good.
I have received an advance review copy via NetGalley from the publisher and voluntarily provide my honest opinion. Thank you very much!
Cultured Gaijin is an interesting memoir following young man who determined to get acceptance in Japan. This book offer us insights as foreign to understand some cultures and systems at Japan and how to adapting for daily basis.
I like the story, the background history, description and all the insight stories. It is intriguing and make me want learning more about Japan.
Thank you Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for provided me with this copy. I am enjoyed my reading time but my thoughts are my own.
A coming of age(ish) tale of a US military intelligence officer stationed in Japan in the late 1970s. The narrative covers life on US military base and life out in Tokyo. It seems that the US military lot enjoy a good swear - this may be off putting to some readers - and the references to himself/his dad as ‘Stallions’ is somewhat cringey.
The question facing our author is his identity: is he Joey, the American-Italian Catholic or is he Jo-san, the American studing to be Japanese? The story is told in a meandering fashion as he weighs up different options with a number of anecdotes about life in Japan as well as meeting some American expats who resolutely refuse to obey any Japanese customs (which causes Jo-san and us to wince inwardly). This meandering style keeps the reader guessing as to what’s coming next which may not work for all readers.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
As a world traveler I've always tried to respect the cultural differences and pay close attention to hat is acceptable around the world. Joseph Delmastro's Cultured Gaijin gives an intimate portrait of how this acceptance can determine acceptance in a foreign country. In Japan, first as a young Air Force man assigned to a base near Tokyo, he as introduced to Japanese society by his friends who were also in the military. Fortunately for him he soon made friends with a young Japanese woman and her mother. He learned two different ways to behave in Japanese society and saw the good and bad of both.
With his desire to remain in Japan after leaving the Air Force, Joe had to make a decision on how he wanted to be seen by the Japanese - either as a gaijin, who are normally not well accepted, or a understanding and cultured gaijin, who acted in ways that were respectful and mostly accepted by the Japanese. With his love of a young Japanese woman, he learned more than most gaijin, these lessons leading to a dramatic conclusion of the book and of his love of all things Japanese.
This book has so much potential but for me it felt like it was written by an excitable frat boy. I didn’t like the use of ‘deaf and dumb’ - offensive, and describing someone as being from ‘Hicksville, USA, who could pass for Gomes Pyle’s brother’. All these are offensive and not in an ‘Oh Oh, PC warrior!’ alert kind of way. They’re outdated, offensive, comments.
Had this book been written with more maturity, I would have thoroughly enjoyed it. The descriptions of shopping and socialising experiences, navigating the transport system, Ma and Pa’s, Japanese history and culture, these were all great but I am sorely disappointed. I didn’t finish. 2/5 is all I can muster and that is given with a hope that there will be a re-write.
Having lived in Japan during the same time period as the author, of course I was eager to read this book and hear his perspective and experiences. I was pleasantly surprised by the writing itself which was quite well done. The story line was interesting though I felt like a fish on a hook, wondering how it would all end. Is it a love story or something else? It's a bit hard to categorize.
All in all, this short book gives an intriguing look at a time and a place and a coming-of-age. Anyone interested in Japan and specifically life in Japan for Americans will find this book of interest. Is there a follow up book planned? Because.... I'm waiting!
Also, for non-Japanese speakers, the glossary at the end of each chapter was a great touch!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.