I earned my PhD in Japanese literature, then left a 17-year career in academic research to write creative nonfiction and teach. "Kiku"is a pen name that memorializes my grandmother's Kikuchi 菊地 family of origin from Yamagata farm country. How To Become Japanese is my coming-of-age memoir about how as a mixed-race American, I learn Japanese to bond with my mother’s childless sisters in their Tokyo home and pierce her silence about her family of origin. I’m entangled in the grief and betrayal between her and my aunts, and must find my own voice from recovered family stories and my own battle with loss.