"Amadio's Box: How I Became Filipino" is published

I have just published my first non-scholarly book, “Amadio’s Box: How I became a Filipino”, with Anvil Publishing, Inc. in Manila.

Book is available online at the Anvil publisher web site.

マニラのAnvil 出版社 で、初めての非学術本を出版されました。”Amadio’s Box: How I Became Filipino” (「フィリピン人になっておかげでアマデオのボックス」).

Anvil のオンラインサイトで、購入すること出来ます。

http://www.anvilpublishing.com/shop/amadios-box/. 

It also will be available from Friday, Sept. 4 at selected National stores in Manila: 

NBS Glorietta, 

Powerbooks Greenbelt, 

NBS Katipunan, 

NBS Shangrila

NBS Alabang Town Center

What’s it about: Back cover text

What makes someone a Filipino? This is the question this book attempts to answer. The American-born author is half Filipino by way of his father and half American by way of his mother. However, by a stroke of fate in 1948 he was taken to the Philippines to be educated as a Filipino from high school through to college. While in high school he announced, “On this day, August 18, 1950, I proclaim that from now and forevermore I am a Filipino!” In sixty or more years to follow the author proudly lived life in keeping with Filipino precepts even though he had only a vague idea of what these were and he no longer lived in the Philippines.

In Amadio’s Box the author explores these precepts and then, based on his conclusions, describes what he thinks are the qualities that distinguish him as a Filipino. The descriptions are presented in essays, short stories and articles, some factual, some fictional, based on his experiences. The author hopes that this approach will be appealing to Filipinos and would-be Filipinos who are continually trying to define their identity as Filipino.

About me

At present I am an adjunct professor of intercultural understanding in the Graduate School of Humanities at Josai International University in Tokyo, Japan. I was born in the United States, but went to the Philippines in 1948 for high school education at Far Eastern University Boys High School and college education at Ateneo de Manila. My college and graduate studies were in science so I worked for a few years as a research chemist before moving into book publishing, first, as an editor for Academic Press, Inc., American Heritage Dictionary, then, as chief editor, international editions, University of Tokyo Press and as director of the United Nations University Press in Tokyo. After retiring in 1996, I joined the university where I now work. Among my previous publications are Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: Emerging Techniques, Kodansha International, 1977, Publishing in the Third World: Knowledge & Development, Heinemann Mansell, 1985 and an encyclopedic chapter on Book Publishing in Japan in International Book Publishing: An Encyclopedia. I am also into my third year of learning to make violins.