The Tale of Junko
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From the ashes of disaster to the frozen edges of the world, Junko’s journey becomes a legend of resilience—bridging cultures, rescuing the forgotten, and carrying ancestral memory across oceans, ice, and time.
Junko Books
Through Junko’s voice, stories rise, carrying memory into tomorrow. Honouring the spoken word, Junko’s journey safeguards the fragile threads of ancestral language. In her telling, courage becomes ceremony, and heritage becomes a path forward.
Book One
LCCN # 2025926416
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Book One: The Tale of Junko
The Tale of Junko
Beneath the shadow of Mammoth Bluffs, Junko lives with her family in a modest canvas tent perched high in the mountains above Britannia Beach. The daughter of Japanese immigrants descended from Indigenous peoples, she grows up in hardship, gathering firewood each evening as her parents struggle to keep the household alive. When a landslide destroys her home and takes her loved ones, Junko is left bereaved and alone, forced to confront the mountains’ unforgiving silence.
Determined to survive, she embarks on a journey of resilience and self-discovery. Guided by the stories of her ancestors, Junko learns to forge bonds in a community that often overlooks newcomers and their contributions to society. Along the way she encounters figures who shape her path: Mr. Moodie, the stern mine overseer; Phyllis, a spirited companion; Bing, the kindly shopkeeper; and Chief Khatsahlano, whose oral traditions reveal the power of heritage. Even Miner Billie Baillie, curmudgeon and trader, leaves his mark on her unfolding tale.
Through trials and friendships, Junko finds strength in her loyal Coast Salish woolly dog, Mutton, and in a mystical encounter with a spirit bear that guides her towards self-acknowledgement. As winter closes in and the community rebuilds in the wake of disaster, Junko seizes an unexpected chance to lead the mule teams at the mine — a turning point that cements her place as a resilient young woman determined to honour her roots.
Tender yet unflinching, The Tale of Junko is a story of survival, cultural identity, and the enduring power of storytelling. Junko’s voice carries the legacy of her forebears into a new world, ensuring their heritage will not be forgotten.
Book Two
In Progress
Book Two: Junko TU in the Land of Ainu Moxori
Amid earthquakes, exile, and spirit animals, Junko discovers her lost culture and becomes a savior across seas and ice.
After surviving the Great Kanto Quake and mourning the loss of her grandfather, Junko sets out with her loyal grey wolf to seek her scattered relatives in Ainu Moxori. Along the way, she rediscovers her lost culture and gains the gift of communicating with spirit animals. Immersed in the lives of the Ainu, Junko witnesses the harsh realities of forced assimilation into Japanese society. Her journey becomes one of courage and compassion: she rescues Korean families enslaved in Sakhalin’s mines, helps rebuild Kuril Island villages devastated by a tsunami, and faces peril on an ice flow in the Bering Sea. In the gripping finale, Junko undertakes a heroic dog sled run across the frozen wilderness to bring life-saving serum from Nome, Alaska, halting a deadly diphtheria outbreak and preserving the survival of coastal communities.
Book Three
In Progress
Book Three: – Junko Re in the Shadow of the Trade
On a perilous voyage through Siberia and Finland, Junko bridges cultures and leads the forgotten to survival.
In Junko Re in the Shadow of the Trade, Junko embarks on a daring sailing voyage from Nome, Alaska with Cugu and her Sakhalin huskies aboard Olaf Swenson’s vessel. Their mission is to aid the Indigenous peoples of Siberia, who suffer after the Bolsheviks close the fur trade in the wake of the Russian Revolution—an act that devastates the Chukchi communities. Immersing herself in their culture and language, Junko helps reestablish trade and deliver vital supplies to starving villages. Racing against the Arctic freeze, she sails over the top of the continent to Finland, only to find the Red Army beginning its invasion. In a dramatic turn, Junko leads Sami reindeer herders to safety in the remote Ural Mountains. Set against the turbulent years of the late 1920s and early 1930s, this chapter of Junko’s journey blends survival, cultural resilience, and heroic leadership across some of the harshest landscapes on earth.
The Tale of Junko 