Meetup One Hundred and Thirty Three: Point Zero


Details
Hey team - For our last crime novel of the summer we will be exploring the seedy underworld of Japan post-WWII. Written by "a master of Japanese mystery writing", Seichō Matsumoto and published in 1959, Point Zero takes on the taboo of Japanese prostitution catering to GIs during the American post-war occupation. The blurb from the fairly new English translation (by indie press, Bitter Lemon Press, support indie publishers!) is zippy enough to explain the plot best:
Tokyo 1958, Teiko marries Kenichi Uhara, ten years her senior, an advertising man recommended by an intermediary. After a four-day honeymoon, Kenichi vanishes. Teiko travels to the coastal and snow-bound city of Kanazawa, where Kenichi was last seen, to investigate his disappearance.
She discovers he had been a police officer in Tokyo after the war, keeping watch over pan pan girls, Japanese prostitutes catering to GIs. Some of these women have created a new life in Kanazawa and may have taken extreme measures to hide their past.
This new translation is 320 pages and is available for order at any local bookstore and there is a Kindle version.

Meetup One Hundred and Thirty Three: Point Zero