In this episode of the Books on Asia podcast, show host Amy Chavez talks with Robert Whiting about his just released memoir Tokyo Junkie: 60 Years of Bright Lights and Back Alleys . . . and Baseball (Stone Bridge Press, April, 2021). Whiting is known for his numerous books on Japanese baseball: The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, and The Samurai Way of Baseball. He’s also penned a book about gangsters called Tokyo Underworld. In this episode of the podcast, Whiting talks about all these books as well as what its like to write a memoir.
Podcast Show Notes:
The show starts out as Whiting tells how he came to Japan in 1962 and worked for the CIA. At the time, Japan was preparing for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and Whiting elucidates the transformation of Tokyo as the city prepared to host the Games. He contrasts that with the upcoming 2021 Tokyo Olympics to show how far Tokyo has come in 60 years.
Whiting talks about attending Sophia University where he studied politics, and why he returned to the U.S. His homecoming led to his first gig writing The Chrysanthemum and the Bat and after that, a chance to come back to Japan with “Time/Life.”
While working in Tokyo, he started hanging out with gangsters at the bars which, eventually, led to his writing Tokyo Underworld.
Lastly, Whiting talks about his life with his long-time wife Machiko, and how he followed her career around the world for her position as Officer for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Whiting shares some writing advice as well as his favorite books on Japan:
Japan Diary by Mark Gayn
Five Gentlemen of Japan: The Portrait of a Nation’s Character by Frank Gibney
Typhoon in Tokyo: The Occupation and Its Aftermath by Harry Emerson Wildes
MacArthur’s Japan by Russell Brines
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein
Japanamerica by Roland Kelts
Anything by Alex Kerr, Richard Lloyd Parry or Peter Tasker.
See Books on Asia’s review of Robert Whiting’s memoir Tokyo Junkie
The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, publisher of fine books on Asia for over 30 years:
