Author Description

This memoir reflects the author's missionary notes written while assigned as a Special Assignment Missionary in Inaghi, Japan, northeast of Tokyo. Her son's engagement to a Japanese woman from Nagoya gave the author motivation to learn more about Japanese culture and why women are discriminated against in all areas of Japanese life. Being from an elite, wealthy businessman heritage whose lineage appears to go back as far as 800 A.D., the time of the Silk Road, the Japanese father revered the tradition that required the family lineage to remain 'pure Japanese' so as not to anger ancestors buried in the family cemetery plot. As a missionary, the author was conflicted and driven to uncover the Christian as well as the political history of Japan that influenced the actions of some Japanese toward gaijin (foreigners). Meanwhile, the tensions grew between the families leading to tragic consequences. Patricia Gee has been a Speech and Language Specialist treating autistic individuals for 40 years, both in the public school and in private practice. Patty has also been the christian education coordinator during those years in several churches and she served as a Christian missionary with her husband from 1996 to 1999. Patty has five children, 10 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. She lives in Olympia, WA, on the family farm with her husband, three dogs and 15 cows.