Foreshore Signs Robert W. Norris’s Memoir ‘All That We Are’

Foreshore has signed a timely, perceptive, and poignant book from the well-regarded American writer and academic Robert W. Norris, offering deep insight into themes of peace, resilience, and identity.

Norris, a Vietnam War conscientious objector who was court-martialled in 1970 for refusing to fight, was released from military prison in 1971. Following this pivotal moment, he spent eleven years wandering the world, working labour and cooking jobs, attempting to write a novel, and searching for an elusive identity. In a last-ditch effort to find his place in life, he arrived in Japan with approximately two hundred dollars and a tenuous belief that fate would be kind.

All That We Are chronicles the next twenty-four years of Norris’s life teaching at a women’s junior college and university on Kyushu Island, highlighting his deep involvement in peace education and activism. Central to his journey is his mentorship by Professor Ichikawa, a former radical student leader of the 1960s known for protesting American nuclear warships entering Japanese ports. This relationship profoundly shaped Norris’s commitment to peace and education. Alongside this, the memoir candidly explores Norris’s long and arduous battle with hepatitis C, during which he reflects deeply on the traumatic effects of PTSD experienced by war veterans, adding a poignant layer to his story of resilience and healing.

The memoir also includes six appendices, two of which are academic papers focusing on the history of WWII conscientious objectors and a comparative study of GI resistance to the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. Other appendices provide peace education lesson plans, translated academic writings, and materials useful for educators and peace activists.

All That We Are is scheduled for release in autumn 2026 under our imprint Foreshore Books.

ROBERT W. NORRIS is an American writer and retired teacher who lives near Fukuoka, Japan. He is the author of several novels including Looking for the Summer (1996); The Many Roads to Japan: A Search for Identity (1997); Toraware (1998); Autumn Shadows in August (2006) and the memoir The Good Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise (2023).