Reiko Nakai was shocked when her father told her on his deathbed that she had been adopted.

"Your parents are Japanese," she quoted him as saying as tears rolled down his face. Half an hour later, he was dead.

Nakai, 72, was 28 years old at the time. Her parents were so loving that it never occurred to her that she might have been adopted. Her father was a popular professional storyteller and the family was well off. Her mother was an excellent cook and took good care of her, dressing her up and combing her hair every morning until she got married at 19.