Kuroshio: The Blood of Foxes

by Terry Watada

The Kuroshio is the “Black Current,” which Japanese immigrants believed brought them safely across the Pacific Ocean to a new life in North America. This vividly imagined novel explores the dark reaches of Issei (Japanese immigrant) life in North America prior to World War II. A picture bride from Japan, disenchanted with her loveless marriage in her adopted homeland, turns to an Issei crime boss for help in dealing with a senseless tragedy. Full of unexpected twists and flashes of narrative color, Terry Watada’s novel combines historic fact with all the intrigue of a modern-day murder mystery.

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2007

About the author

Terry Watada is a Toronto poet, novelist, playwright and essayist, and historian, musician and composer, with numerous publications to his credit. Five of his plays have received mainstage production. He contributes a monthly column to The Bulletin, a national Japanese Canadian community paper. For his writing, music and community volunteerism, he was recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. His published works include The Sword, the Medal and the Rosary (manga, 2013); Kuroshio: The Blood of Foxes (novel, 2007), Obon: the Festival of the Dead (poetry, 2006); Ten Thousand Views of Rain (poetry, 2001); A Thousand Homes (poetry, 1995); and The TBC: the Toronto Buddhist Church, 1995 – 2010 (2010).

Reviews

[Weronika Chac · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is just very dry. The jumbled time jumps make for a disconnected story. The last third or so of the book seems to take place almost chronologically, and it is the most readable part of the book.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Japanese American historical....Vancouver,BC 1920-40....new Japanese community, picture-brides, expectations dashed. The writing was dry and forced with unnecessarily jumbled timelines - except for the last third which read very well. If only the whole book had been that way, the underlying characters and story would have made this a favorite.

[Richard Janzen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story and characterization was quite good, but what I really liked was reading about the Japanese life in early Vancouver prior to WWII and the forced relocations. April 08