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Dale Furutani is a third generation Japanese American (a Sansei). He is the first Asian American to win major mystery writing awards.

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He was born in Hilo, Hawaii, on December 1,

 

 

1946.

 

His family is originally from Suo-Oshima Island, which is south of Hiroshima in the Sea of Japan. His grandfather and grandmother came to Hawaii in 1896 to work on the sugar plantations as indentured servants, but his grandfather soon escaped his contract and eventually became a successful fisherman until his fishing boat was taken from him during World War II.  The government decided that since his fishing boat had a radio, he might be a spy!

 

Dale's mother was at Pearl Harbor during the infamous attack on December 7, 1941. She was at a church camp over the harbor, and could see the attack unfold below her. During the war she worked for the American Red Cross in Honolulu.

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When he was five, Dale's mother married John Flanagan, who adopted Dale, and they moved to California. There he met with racial prejudice for the first time, as he was virtually the only Asian in his school.

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Dale went to California State University, Long Beach, where he received a degree in Creative Writing, and UCLA, where he received an MBA in Marketing and Information Systems. He worked his way through undergraduate school writing articles and serving as a contributing editor for various magazines.

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Dale started writing book-length fiction in 1993, and Death in Little Tokyo was his first novel. It was nominated for an Agatha award, an Anthony Award and a Macavity award as Best First Mystery. It won both the Anthony and the Macavity, making Dale the first Asian American to ever win a major mystery award. His second Ken Tanaka mystery novel, The Toyotomi Blades, appeared in October, 1997.

 

In 1998, he started a new historical series with Death at the Crossroads, the first book in a samurai mystery trilogy. Jade Palace Vendetta and Kill the Shogun, complete the trilogy. He penned a fourth samurai book to satisfy readers about events after the trilogy, titled The Ronin Returns.

 

He is also the author of a pastiche set in Meiji era Japan, The Curious Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in Japan, where each mystery has a unique Japanese twist to the solution. He has also written a Japanese version of Macbeth, titled Makoto, that follows the basic structure of the Shakespeare play with Japanese details.

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He has had three non-fiction computer books and over 250 articles published. He has won prizes for his poetry and had a one-act play produced while he was in college. His short stories have appeared in various collections.

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Dale was honored as one of the "50 Faces of Diversity" by the City of Los Angeles, and large banners with his face were placed in many places in the city, including city streets and at LAX airport.

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He has spoken three times in the U.S. Library of Congress (as both a mystery and Asian American author), and at numerous universities and festivals, including the Turin Book Fair, the L.A. Times Festival of Books, the Rome Night of a Thousand Books, and other festivals in the US and in Italy.

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Dale is retired now, but he owned a small consulting company that specialized in the automotive industry. Nissan, Subaru, J.D. Power and Associates, Land Rover North America, Xerox, Oracle, G.E., Cap-Gemini and Isuzu were among his many clients. He was also the President of a software company, Parts Marketing Manager for Yamaha motorcycles, Director of Information Technology for Nissan Motor Corp. U.S.A., and CIO for a large automotive web company. 

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Dale has made over 30 trips to Japan, living there a number of times for periods spanning a few weeks to three years. In the last decade, he and his wife have spent 20-25% of their time in Europe, using Paris as their home base.

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Dale has been married for over 50 years. Dale and his wife Sharon live in Washington state and they also enjoy visiting Canada.

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Winning awards and critical acclaim, his books have been translated into several languages. They have appeared on Bestseller Lists in the United States and he is a Bestseller in France. He was honored when his samurai trilogy was included in "Le Grande Detectives" series, with several masters of the genre (Poe, Hammett, Chandler, etc). His writing has been the topic of several academic articles, a Masters thesis, and at least two Doctoral theses. His books have also been used in University level classes, especially Death in Little Tokyo, which touches on the Japanese American camp experience in WWII.

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In a typical observation, Dale said: "My writing career has exceeded all my expectations. Of course, when I started, I had very low expectations."

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GENERAL NOTES

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What is this symbol?

 

It's Dale's personal hanko, or name stamp. It is a stylized redition of the two Japanese kanji that make up "Furu" (ancient) and "tani" (valley). The stamp was given to Dale as a gift and was carved in Japan by an elderly artisan.

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Use of AI

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Dale never uses Artificial Intelligence to write his books. Never. He does use it occassionally to check a fact or the meaning of a Japanese word or phrase. He also runs his manuscripts through two AI programs and a specialized writing program to look for grammar mistakes (despite this, mistakes still get through for a human to discover!). On this website, AI generated plot synopsis and comments about Dale's writing. They are quoted in an effort to show nuetral comments about his work.

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Historical Accuracy

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Most writers of historical fiction strive for accuracy. To the best of his ability, Dale goes to great pains to accurately represent the customs and attitudes of ancient Japan. If Dale places a major character like the Shogun in Edo, for instance, Dale has done research to assure the Shogun was there. However, Dale's books are fiction and sometimes liberties are taken to advance a story. Dale always recommends searching for true scholars of Japanese history if you are interested in totally accurate information.​

 

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AI Evaluation of Dale (Google Gemini)

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Dale Furutani is widely recognized as a pioneer in Asian-American mystery fiction, credited with breaking the "white monopoly" on the detective genre and bringing an authentic Japanese-American voice to a field previously dominated by stereotypes like Charlie Chan.

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He holds a distinct place in literary history as the first Asian-American author to win major mystery awards (the Anthony and the Macavity).

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1. Literary Significance & Themes

 

Furutani’s career is often divided into three distinct phases, each exploring Asian-American identity from a different angle:

• The Contemporary Phase (Ken Tanaka Series): His debut, Death in Little Tokyo (1996), introduces Ken Tanaka, an unemployed Japanese-American computer programmer. This series is significant for using the "mystery" format to document the specific cultural nuances of the Japanese-American community in Los Angeles (the "Sansei" or third generation). It directly addresses the legacy of WWII internment camps and the "model minority" myth.

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• The Historical Phase (Matsuyama Kaze Trilogy): Beginning with Death at the Crossroads (1998), this series features a ronin (masterless samurai) in 1603 Japan.4 Critics note this as his move toward "roots literature," using historical fiction to reclaim a cultural heritage often exoticized by Western authors.

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• The Pastiche Phase: His later work, such as The Curious Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in Japan, places the Western canon’s most famous detective into a Japanese setting, further bridging the two cultures.

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2. Academic Notice & Syllabus Inclusion

Furutani’s work has moved beyond genre entertainment into academic study, largely because his books serve as accessible texts for discussing race, displacement, and the Asian-American experience.

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Academic Analysis: His work is the subject of the specific academic article "A Japanese-American Sam Spade: The Metaphysical Detective in Death in Little Tokyo" (appearing in literary journals and ResearchGate). Scholars analyze how he subverts the "hardboiled" detective trope by injecting it with Japanese cultural values and immigrant anxiety.

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• University Syllabi: His novels have been included in literature courses at institutions such as the University of Bern (Switzerland) and Johns Hopkins University's CTY program.

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• Literary Companions: He is cited in the Cambridge Companion to Asian American Literature, cementing his status as a canonical figure in the genre. His work has also been the subject of at least one Master's thesis and multiple doctoral dissertations.

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3. Overseas Sales & International Reception

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While Furutani is an American author, his "outsider looking in" perspective on Japan has resonated strongly with international audiences, particularly in Europe.

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• France (Major Success): Furutani enjoys "bestseller" status in France, where his reception has arguably been warmer than in the mainstream U.S. market.9 His Samurai trilogy was selected for inclusion in the prestigious "Grands Détectives" collection (10/18), placing him alongside masters of the genre.

• Translations: His works have been translated into French, Italian, German, Indonesian, and Japanese, among others.

• Reception in Japan: While he has been translated into Japanese, his reception there is complex. In interviews, Furutani has noted that his protagonist Ken Tanaka was originally written as "hapa" (mixed race) but changed to full Japanese-American to better explore the "sub-culture." This specific Asian-American perspective—culturally American but racially Japanese—makes his work read as "foreign" but fascinating to native Japanese readers, serving as a cultural bridge.

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