Near the end of the novel, Sayuri briefly references Japan’s surrender to the United States in 1945 and the American occupation of the country that lasted until the early 1950s. The novel, told in first person perspective, tells the story of Nitta Sayuri and the many trials she faces on the path to becoming and working as a geisha in Kyoto, Japan, before, during and after World War II. During World War Two, the Japanese government placed harsh restrictions on its civilians, rationing food and closing down all the geisha districts in Japan. Memoirs of a Geisha is a historical fiction novel by American author Arthur Golden, published in 1997. Despite local resistance against the Japanese occupation, Japan held onto Manchuria until the end of World War Two. In 1931, Japan invaded and annexed Manchuria, a region in northeast China. Sayuri also makes passing mention of Japan’s militaristic expansion into neighboring countries. A runaway success, the novel was on the New York Times’ bestseller list for over two years, sold more than four million copies, and was translated into thirty-two languages.
Sayuri, however, does not experience the effects of the Depression, since she works as a prominent geisha serving the wealthy elites of Japanese society. After returning to the United States in the mid-1980s, Golden began writing his first novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, which took him six years to complete.
During the 1930s, a global economic depression affected almost every developed country in the world, including Japan. While the novel makes infrequent mention of world historical events, the majority of the plot occurs from the beginning of the Great Depression in Japan to the end of World War Two.
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