Suribachi : A Samurai Daughter's Story

Born in Japan from samurai lineage, Chica Tadakuma Sugino was raised by a wet nurse and brought to America as a young girl on the aspirations of a father chasing after the American dream. Suribachi is the autobiographical story of her remarkable life.

It is the story of how culture, immigration, war, racism, faith, family, and love intertwine and impact one fiercely determined individual. It is a story built on traditions, hope, struggle, success, loss, and new beginnings.

It chronicles Chica’s life beginning in Japan, coming to the United States, and navigating daunting challenges in a new country. She experiences cultural clashes and enigmas as she learns a new way of life and thinking, juggling Japanese values and traditions with those of America. Growing up under the shadow of a beautiful and talented older sister, Chica nonetheless nurtures her own strengths and strives to excel. Her father’s various money-making schemes, involving Chica and her sister, lead to an estranged relationship with him. Forced to return to Japan as a young adult, Chica encounters being a foreigner in the land of her birth and finds faith through the kindness of an American missionary. She eventually returns to America with a heart of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Suribachi is one woman’s personal story, unique, yet familiar in the emotions expressed and experienced by us all.

LeeAnn Shigekawa
Granddaughter