"You won’t welcome intrusions while reading this unprecedented, true story . . . memorably illuminating."
Christian Science Monitor - Terry Hong
"You’d be hard-pressed to find a novelist who is as deft at portraying relationships and inner thoughts…[Nimura] skillfully bridges Japanese and American cultures, using the seemingly small story of three young people to tell a much larger tale of another time."
"This is feminism for Japanese women in its infancy, and Janice P. Nimura enhances the reality of the entire experience with this superb historical nonfiction account."
"A riveting story of three remarkable girls, caught in the maelstrom of one of the strangest culture clashes in modern history, Daughters of the Samurai is history writing at its finest and required reading for anyone interested in Japan."
…beautifully written…In Nimura's deftly interwoven account, the three girls emerge as contrasting types, like Chekhov's Three Sisters …Janice Nimura has wisely gotten out of the way of her modern-day fairy tale, telling us what we need to know about Japanese history without obscuring the emotional nuances of the lives of her three heroines.
The New York Times Book Review - Christopher Benfey
03/09/2015
"Nimura has done an impressive amount of research to tell her story…. Most of the time Daughters of the Samurai reads like a novel about the meeting of East and West and how it transformed the lives of three extraordinary young women."
Dallas Morning News - Elizabeth Bennett
"Beautifully written…Begins like a fairy tale…In Nimura's deftly interwoven account, the three girls emerge as contrasting types, like Chekhov's Three Sisters ."
"Nimura brings the girls and their late nineteenth-century exploits to life in a narrative that feels like an international variation on Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women , so very appealing and delightful…."
"Surprising and richly satisfying…In Nimura's skillful telling, Sutematsu, Shige, and Ume become ambassadors once again, bringing to life an era from which we can learn important lessons about intercultural understanding, conflict, and compromise, still vital to our survival in the global twenty-first century."
"At a reform-minded moment, Japan dispatched five young girls to be educated in America. Patiently, vividly, Janice P. Nimura reconstructs their Alice in Wonderland adventure. A beautifully crafted narrative, subtle, polished, and poised."
"Nimura's exhaustively researched historical biography is as immersive as any work of fiction, heartwrenching in its depiction of these cultural orphans turned pioneers."
Oprah.com - Julia Pierpont
"Janice P. Nimura achieves the elusive dream of the historian, producing a work that will engage and satisfy academic and non-specialist audiences alike. The author offers both sets of readers a magnificently and meticulously detailed account of three women whose lives epitomize key features of the changing landscape of late 19th and early 20th century Japan."
Los Angeles Review of Books - Miriam Kingsberg
"This remarkable and beautifully written story—often as riveting as a page-turning novel—is both scholarly and accessible to non-specialists."
Seattle Times - Wingate Packard
"Daughters of the Samurai reads like a novel that happens to be true: three girls uprooted by fate, bridging the gulf between the elegant rhythms of Old Japan and the exhilarating opportunities of America. Janice P. Nimura paints history in cinematic strokes and brings a forgotten story to vivid, unforgettable life."
★ 03/15/2015
★ 2015-01-04
