Tag: WW11

Janie Chang’s — The Library of Legends *****

With the invasion of the Japanese into China in 1937, students at Minghua University leave their campus and escape on foot inland. Each student carries an original volume of the Library of Legends — a 500 year old collection of Chinese myths. Among them is Lian who learns from a letter that her mother is headed to Shanghai, but it is safer for her to stay with her professors and students. They walk mostly at night to avoid being spotted by enemy aircraft and while she walks, Shao and Sparrow befriend her. When they start out, it seems like a adventure, but soon they encounter starving refugees, Japanese bomber planes and death.

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Lisa See’s — China dolls

In the 1930s Grace escapes from her abusive father to follow her dream of becoming a star in San Francisco. She meets Helen, and drags her to an audition where they encounter Ruby. The three become fast friends, but all are hiding secrets from their past and are jealous when one becomes more successful than the other. Truths cannot be hidden forever, especially once U.S.A. becomes involved in WW11. Will they remain friends through their triumphs and tragedies?

Tan Than Eng’s — The garden of evening mist *****

Yun Ling is the only survivor from a hidden Japanese prison camp in Malaya’s highlands during the second world war. Trying to swallow her hatred of the Japanese, she becomes an apprentice to the skilled Aritomo to learn the techniques of creating a Japanese garden she wishes to dedicate to the sister she lost in the prison camp. But there are secrets she wants to uncover — where was the prison camp she was locked up in for over three years? Where are her sister’s bones? Why has Aritomo never returned to Japan?

This is an insight into Malay before independence and its struggles to overcome WWII and the internal fighting after the war as well as principles in designing a Japanese garden.

Mary Lynn Bracht’s — White Chrysanthemum *****

In 1943 Hana, a haenyeo rushes from Jeju Island’s sea to save her younger sister, Emi from capture by Japanese soldiers. In her place, Hana is kidnapped and sent on a long journey north to become a comfort woman. But before she arrives at the northern brothel to service Japanese soldiers she is raped by her captor, Morimoto.

This is a well written but a difficult read because the story is based on what happened to from 50 000 to 200 000 Korean women during WW11.