Inheritors by Asako Serizawa
How where the Japanese impacted by World War II? This book contains a gorup of tightly-coupled stories of a family that span the time before and after World War II. There were family members that had a strong loyalty to the emperor and country and wanted to serve. There was also a discovery that there was Korean ancestry in the family. Family members had been involved in secret biological weapons work, including research on involuntary human subjects. The book continues to modern times and alternate-reality worlds that end up becoming intermeshed with the real world. There are family "secrets" that only become disclosed after many years - often limiting the chance for people to know their relatives until their death.
The family spanned both America and Japan. This left them somewhat isolated and not really part of the culture of either. The mind of the traditional Japanese is difficult for Americans (even of Japanese origin) to understand.
Ava Wong, a Stanford educated Chinese-American lawyer finds herself in a pickle. Her husband has required both of them to authorize expenditures on their account. She is on a trip to China and doesn't want to have her dirty laundry aired. She contacts an old roommate and finds some quick money by helping out with a counterfeit ring. This gives her money of her own. The two women become more and more involved. They import counterfeit luxury bags from China to the US. They will buy the "real" bag from a retail store, then return the fake for a refund. Then they can sell the real one online. They end up getting a number of others to help them with the operation. However, it starts to unravel. Stores identify the fakes and a detective infiltrates the operation.