White Chrysanthemum

White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht          Audio Book:  10 hrs,, 39 mins    Hardback Book   320 pages                   

Excellent Book set during WWII and the Japanese invasion and capture of Korean women held as prisoners and forced into prostitution even as children.   The author  researched  the topic thoroughly and created a magnificent story of fortitude, courage and strength under extreme duress of Korean women, young girls and children captured and brutalized by Japanese soldiers.during WWII.   It starts off innocent and lovely as a mother and her two daughters who were or became in the youngest sister's case, haenyeo - female divers of the sea who could hold their breath for long periods of time in order to make deep dives in order to collect fish, octupus, crabs, clams, oysters, conch shells and whatever looked appealing that they found on the sea floor to sell to provide food for their families.    The mother always told the older daughter to protect her younger sister and when the older girl saw Japanese soldiers coming down the beach she told her sister to stay quiet and hide all the time praying her mother would continue diving and not come out of the water.   She went to meet the soldiers to avoid their seeing her sister or mother and when forced to go with them, she did so knowing she was saving her family from such a fate.   The story is a sad and brutal one as the poor girl, Hana, is raped and forced into prostitiution though she was a young teenager.   Known as "comfort women,"  the Japanese soldiers used the women to satisfy themselves not caring the pain, shame and cruelty they committed.   Some of the children were raped to death.   It is a gripping, haunting novel that the reader will carry images away from that can't be unseen even if they are the creation of the writer's words.   These atrocities did happen and these women are vindicated today as the story later tells of Hana' s younger sister going to protests against the Japanese and asking for apologies, and charges to be brought against the Japanese regime in honor of these women who suffered unmercifully at the hands of Japanese soldiers who treated them less than human as things to be used then discarded or dealt sharply with to appease their own stress, anxiety and hatred of peoples other than themselves.    An excellent story, I highly recommend it.

Shirley J

Miracle of Father Kapaun

The Miracle of Father Kapaun: Priest, Soldier, and Korean War Hero by Roy Wenzl and Travis Heying, 140 pages

 

Emil Kapaun (kuh-PAWN, in case you're interested) had an unremarkable upbringing as the son of a farmer in a small Kansas town.  He grew up to become an ordinary parish priest, and volunteered as a chaplain during the Second World War, then reenlisted during the Korean War.  It was then that his life became remarkable.

 

When his position was overrun shortly after China entered the war, he refused to retreat, instead choosing captivity alongside the wounded soldiers in his care.  During the death march that followed, he inspired the other prisoners with his fortitude and selflessness.  In the POW camp, he scrounged for tin cans to make pots for boiling water, stole food from the guards' storehouse, and snuck into other barracks to encourage and pray with the inmates.  During reeducation sessions he defied the instructors, but without anger.  Increasingly a target of the camp authorities, he nonetheless urged his fellow prisoners to forgive their captors, and as he was taken away to his death he forgave the camp commander and asked for his forgiveness in return.  Of the 3000 to 4000 men held in the camp, 1300 died.  According to the survivors, hundreds more were saved by Father Kapaun.  In 2013, Emil Kapaun was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Meanwhile, at least three people claim to have been miraculously healed by his intercession, and it is their stories which dominate the final third of the book.

 

Wenzl and Heying, Kansas journalists who wrote a series of articles on Kapaun's life and legacy, have written a short, easy to read book that is, unfortunately, light on hard facts.  If it is sometimes muddled, it does benefit from the clear voices of many men and women who knew and loved Father Kapaun.

MASH

MASH by Richard Hooker, 219 pages

I am a major fan of the television series, MASH, so I was very intrigued to find out that the television series was actually based on a book. Quite honestly, I'm not surprised; it seems like everything worth watching is based on a book.

The book featured the same antics highlighted in the television series: drunken escapades, practical jokes, and debauchery. However, if you are familiar with the Alan Alda series, you will be quite surprised as to how the characters are depicted in the book. For one thing, Hawkeye Pierce is married (married?) with two kids (kids?!) in the book, and Frank Burns doesn't stick around long enough to make the reader fully loathe the character (pity).

I do recommend this book whether or not you are a fan of the series. The humor is dark at times, but war is always dark. It makes sense. While I found myself laughing out loud quite a bit, I will go on the record to state that the television series is better (the antics last for 11 seasons...how could you not love that?). Plus, the book just didn't allow me to love the characters as much as the television series. And the characters are really what makes MASH a truly wonderful form of entertainment.