Books are the ultimate way for writers to reach immortality.

The whole story of the comfort women, the system of forced sexual slavery, the medical experiments of Unit 731, is not something that is in the US psyche. That is changing because many books are coming out.

I have certainly amassed many historical research gathering skills.

Your first duty as a writer is to write to please yourself. And you have no duty towards anyone else.

There isn't much discussion of ruling class in America even in Boston, probably one of the most class-conscious cities in the country?

Its a wonderful thing to see a segment of our population that is open and eager to learn more about Chinese culture. It has filtered into the mainstream. You see credit-card ads on TV with white couples and Chinese babies.

Somebody who was born in this country who visited China would later face difficulty getting back in to the USA. We have to keep in mind that the struggles of the Chinese against these exclusion laws really laid down the foundations of civil rights law.