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I've been digging through my reference books and Google searches, but I'm not
getting anywhere with this.

For "Only I [do X]", can the subject of the sentence simply be 私だけは?

> 私だけは電車で魚を食べます。  
>  "Only I eat fish on the train."

And could that be done with an adjective like 好き or ほしい?

> 私だけは天ぷらピザが好きです。  
>  "Only I like tempura pizza."

For my final act, I'm going way out on a limb here, but how would I say "I am
the only [Y] that [likes X]?" This is the mess that I came up with:

> 「ドルアーガの塔」のことが好きなアメリカ人は私だけです。  
>  I am the only American who likes The Tower Of Druaga. (Or more literally,
> "As for Americans that like The Tower Of Druaga, it's only me.")

How wrong is all of that? Because I'm pretty certain it's not correct.
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2019-03-28T23:33:26.813
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2019-03-29T12:51:36.490
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question
particle-だけ
Saying "Only I [do X]", "Only I [like X]", and "I am the only [Y] who [does/likes X]"
> I think your last example's pattern is the way to go...

  * **「ドルアーガの塔」のことが好きなアメリカ人は** → 私だけです

_"As for Americans that like Tower of Druaga, I am the only one"_

  * **電車で魚を食べるのは** → 私だけです

_"As for those who eat fish on the train, I am the only one"_

  * **天ぷらピザが好きなのは** → 私だけです

_"As for those who like tempura pizza, I am the only one"_

Personally, I feel like it might be better to
say,「私だけだと思います」or「私だけかもしれません」instead of「私だけです」so as not to sound too dogmatic.
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2019-03-29T00:32:13.193
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2019-03-29T00:32:13.193
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私だけは電車で魚を食べます is not ungrammatical, but だけは tends to have a contrastive
meaning or the [nuance of "at
least"](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/29438/5010), like "(although
others don't do this,) at least I (will) eat fish on the train". A more
"neutral" way of saying this is 私だけ **が** 電車で魚を食べます using exhaustive-listing
ga.

Compare these simpler sentences:

  * 私だけ **が** ピザが好きです。  
(Among us,) Only I like pizza.

  * 私だけ **は** ピザが好きです。  
(Although the other people may not like pizza, at least) **_I_** like pizza.

  * 彼だけ **が** 生き残った。  
(Among the 10 people,) Only he survived.

  * 彼だけ **は** 生き残った。  
(Although everyone else died / Although it was tragic,) At least he survived.

It depends on what you want to convey.

Your last attempt is a perfectly correct cleft sentence.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-29T02:00:55.060
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2019-03-29T12:51:36.490
2019-03-29T12:51:36.490
5010
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