Rei Kimura is a lawyer with a passion for writing about unique events and personalities. She has adopted an interesting style of creating stories around true events and the lives of real people in a number of her books, believing that is the best way of making hidden historical events and people come alive for 21st century readers. With this objective in mind, Rei has touched on historical events like the horrific sinking of the Awa Maru and the Kamikaze pilots of World War II and woven them into touching stories of the people who lived and died through these events. Then there are stories of courage, love and rejection beautifully portrayed in “Butterfly In the Wind” a story of the concubine of Townsend Harris, first American consul to Japan, set against the colorful and turbulent era of the Black Ships. This book has touched the hearts of many and been translated into languages from Spanish, Polish, Russian, Dutch to Thai, Hindi, Indonesian, Marathi. Rei's writing also touches on interesting issues like that raised in “Japanese Magnolia” a book based on the true story of two men, a samurai and a peasant who dared to cross two forbidden areas in feudal Japan, that of homosexuality and a class society “so sharply defined it cut like a knife.” Other controversial stories she has written include “Japanese Rose” a book which asked the question was there ever a Japanese female kamikaze pilot in the Second World War? But it's not all history and culture, she also writes on contemporary events like “Aum Shinrikyo-Japan’s Unholy Sect” an expose of the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Occasionally, her love for animals and sense of humor surfaces in this very heart warming and delightful story of a rogue Pomeranian dog, “My Name is Eric,” a complete departure from Rei’s normal story lines but nevertheless, a refreshing one! Kimura considers her writing as part of the perennial quest for truth, challenge and fulfillment. Her books have been translated into various Asian and European languages and widely read all over the world. Apart from being a lawyer, Rei Kimura is also a qualified freelance journalist and is associated with the Australian News Syndicate.