10 questions. War and Remembrance
| Author | Jenny B. Davis |
| Pages | 12-13 |
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ISAAC SHAPIRO
10 QUESTIONS
12 || ABA JOURNAL MAY 2018
Opening Statements
War and Remembrance
Lawyer’s memoir of growing up Jewish in Japan during WWII may be headed
for the big screen
SUDDENLY, EVERYONE
IS INTERESTED in Isaac
“Ike” Shapiro’s childhood.
It’s easy to see why. His
parents, Jewish émigré s
from Russia, were liv ing
in Berlin when Adolf Hitler
began his rise t o power.
Sensing danger, they fled,
eventually settl ing where
they thought their young
family would be safe:
Japan. That changed on
Dec. 7, 1941. And Shapiro
detailed his unique ex-
perience during World
War II—including how
he became a U.S. Marine
Corps translat or at age 14
and eventually moved to
the United States—in a self-
published book almost 10
years ago. He also beca me a
citizen, veteran a nd lawyer,
ultimately learn ing to speak
four dierent languages.
Last year, an agent
discovered Shapiro’s
memoir, called Edokk o:
Growing Up a Foreigner
in Wartime Japan. Then
they worked together to
re-edit, updat e and re-issue it in both print and
Kindle editions and a lso as an audiobook, rea d by
Shapiro. There’s even a screenplay set to be shopped
around to Hollywood st udios. That means Shapiro,
who turned 87 in January, now finds himself jug gling
his position as of counsel in t he New York City oce
of Skadden, Arps, S late, Meagher & Flom with book
promo events and interview r equests from NPR and
other outlet s.
Congratulat ions on the renewed excitement
surroundi ng your book! How does it feel?
I didn’t think the book would have a second
life, especial ly commercially, so it’s very exciting.
My grandchildren have even been rea ding it. They’re
quite interested in lea rning about our family ’s back-
ground, and that’s something that ord inarily doesn’t
interest grandchi ldren.
Your parents fled Europe
in the 1920s for Chin a and
later Japan. Was Japan a
welcoming place for Jewi sh
peop le?
Oh, very much so. They
showed no hostility what-
soever. My parents were
musicians, so they were
very welcome. My father
was a cellist and a lso a
composer and a conductor;
my mother was a pianist.
They helped to start t he
first opera -class symphony
orchestra in Tokyo.
What was it like t o be in
Tokyo when the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor?
It was a total surpr ise.
I was almost 11, and I
remember going to school
and seeing people listening
to the radio and hear ing
the announcement. The
average Japanese who lived
in our neighborhood were
very sad about it. They did
not welcome the war at all.
I realize t hat your family
was not America n, but as
non-Japanese, did thing s
change following Pearl Ha rbor? Did your family
ever experience any d iscrimination?
No, the Japanese divided foreigners into thre e
categories: There were allies a nd there were enemies,
and the enemies were arrest ed and sent back or
exchanged. Then there was the c ategory of people
who were stateless. There were a lot of Russian s in this
category. They had come from Russia a fter the revolu-
tion and had lost their national ity, becoming stateless.
All of our ocial paper work listed us as stateless, and
the Japanese respected th at.
How did your family su rvive the war?
We survived thank s to food rationing and working
with our neighbors. When the B-29s bega n to bomb
the cities, things bec ame very rough, especially wit h
the fire bombings of Tokyo during early 1945. The fire
engines had no gasoline, so w e would put out the fires
using water pumps operated by two people. In Ma rch
“The Japanese divided fo reigners into
three categories: There were all ies and there
were enemies, and the en emies were arrested
and sent back or exchanged. Th en there was the
category of people w ho were stateless. There
were a lot of Russians in this categ ory. They
had come from Russia after the revoluti on and
had lost their nationa lity, becoming stateless.
All of our ocial pape rwork listed us as stateless,
and the Japanese respec ted that.” —Isaac Shapiro
To continue reading
Request your trial