New York: Vantage Press, (1979.) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - SIGNED by the author with the words "with the best of good wishes" on the dedication page. A fictionalized account - a novel based on the author's experiences - of a young American girl who arrives in Japan in 1945, at the end of World War II, to work with the American Red Cross - among the soldiers was the Army officer, who became her husband. As they spent the years working in Japan, they fell in love with the country and with the people as they struggled to build a new life among the devastation of the old. Illustrated with 42 full-page black and white paintings by the artist-cartoonist Takeo Nishijima (based on watercolors which inspired this book). 399 pp. Illustrated endpapers. ISBN: 0-53303843X.