Elizabeth Miki Brina

Speak, Okinawa Elizabeth Miki Brina

Elizabeth's mother was working as a hostess in a nightclub in U. S.-occupied Okinawa when she met the American soldier who would become her husband. The language barrier and power imbalance that defined their early relationship followed them to the predominantly white, upstate New York suburb where they moved to raise their only daughter. There, Elizabeth grew up with all the trappings of a typical American childhood and adolescence. While she felt almost no connection to her mother's distant home, neither did she feel comfortable among her peers. It wasn't until decades later that Elizabeth finally recognized the shame and self-loathing that haunted both her and her mother.