New novel portrays tragic story of Japanese prostitute, American sailor stationed in Japan ...

Earnest Brant Mercer draws upon his own experiences in Japan after the war in his fictional novel, “Skivvy Girl: The Love of a Post-WWII Japanese Pleasure Girl”

AUBURNDALE, Fla. (MMD Newswire) May 9, 2011 — After World War II ended in 1945, few people, other than the occupying forces, were aware of the hardships the Japanese people faced. In his novel “Skivvy Girl: The Love of a Post-WWII Japanese Pleasure Girl” (ISBN 1456522590), Mercer uses the fictional story of a teenage girl to portray the life these fatherless young women had to cope with in the wake of the war.

Facing a life of poverty in her home village, 17-year-old Matsuyama Yoshiko turns to prostitution in the sprawling naval port of Yokosuka. Arriving in the city penniless and desperate, she doesn’t know where to turn. Luckily she is befriended by a prostitute, who leads her to a local skivvy house and a sympathetic house madam who teaches the naive village girl how to be a skivvy girl and accommodate her clients.

After rigorous training, Yoshiko meets her first client, a drunken brute from one of the ships in port who provides her with a horrific initiation into the world of prostitution. She eventually meets an American sailor, who treats her with a respect and kindness. She leaves the skivvy house to be with him. Together they conquer language barriers, cultural conflicts and catastrophic natural disasters.

Yoshiko’s happiness comes to an end when her lover’s assignment in Japan is over and he must return home. Brokenhearted, she abandons the life of a skivvy girl and returns to her village, where she finds a job at a new ceramic plant. Years later, the sailor returns seeking his former lover. They resume their life together but fate cruelly intervenes dealing the star-crossed lovers blows from which they cannot recover.

Mercer believes that his story accurately portrays the lives of these young women after the war. Like Yoshiko, many of them resorted to selling their bodies after their breadwinners were killed. He hopes that his readers will sympathize with the trials of these desperate young women, who had little or no involvement with the war, and the classic doomed love affairs their circumstances thrust upon them.

“Skivvy Girl: The Love of a Post-WWII Japanese Pleasure Girl” is available for sale online at Amazon.com and other channels.

About the Author:

Earnest Brant Mercer enlisted in the U. S. Navy at the outset of the Korean Conflict. He served four years in a branch of Naval Intelligence, two of which were in Japan during the closing days of military occupation. He wrote a thesis on Japanese culture and economy while earning a master’s degree in business administration. He spent 30 years with IBM, working in the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and South Africa. Upon retirement, he returned to his hometown, where he did consulting work for American companies in Asia, South Africa and the Czech Republic. He taught for five years in the graduate school of business at Webber International University, Babson Park, Fla., where he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree of business administration. Now on his third retirement, he writes novels, memoirs and essays.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Earnest Brant Mercer

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (863) 967-2077

Website: http://earnestmercerbooks.com

REVIEW COPIES AND INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE

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