Leslie Lorimer defied definition in Japan from the time she was a young child, when her blond hair, blue eyes and fluent Japanese proved a startling mix.
She and her brother would enjoy going to the imported-foods shop in Yokohama, where they would point to non-Japanese and exclaim, "Oh, look at the gaijin!" Back then, Lorimer found nothing odd about their pastime. She says, "We never thought we were gaijin, we were Japanese."
Despite what Lorimer thought as a girl, in terms of citizenship, she was not Japanese. She was born in Oregon to American parents, but lived in Japan from 1964, when she was 2. Then, after two years back in the United States, she went to Japanese elementary school, where she and her brother were the only non-Japanese students. She grew up virtually no differently from any Japanese child.