He was a 19-year-old sailor ashore in Japan. She was a 31-year-old Japanese woman. This is the beginning to the memoir, Please Enjoy Your Happiness - the story of Paul Brinkley-Rogers, former sailor and Pulitzer-winning journalist.
The author talks of 1959 and the lingering impact of the woman he left behind a lifetime ago.
For many years Paul Brinkley-Rogers worked in Asia as a staff member of Newsweek, covering the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia, the death of Chairman Mao, and Japan's economic miracle. He also reported from Latin America for The Miami Herald, sharing the Pulitzer Prize with a reporting team in 2001 for coverage of the Elian Gonzalez custody battle.