The Girl with the White Flag, by Tomiko Higa

The Battle for Okinawa in WW2 was an incredibly devastating and brutal protracted battle, made doubly horrible by the fact that there were over a quarter million civilians living on the island, unable to flee, as 100,000+ Japanese soldiers defended the island against the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific campaign. The battle took 3 months and killed over 220,000 people (140,000 civilians, 66,000 Japanese soldiers, 12,500 Allied troops), with many times that wounded.

One such civilian family were the Matsukawas, descended from a line of Samurai from back in the day, living in Shuri. The youngest child of this family was 6 year old Tomiko, the eventual author of this book, which chronicles her attempts to survive the battle, separated from her family and alone, for the three months the battle took. Often walking around in the midst of the battle itself, bullets flying and bombs dropping, trying desperately to find a safe place to hole up, to rest, to scavenge food, to survive in the "every man for himself" chaos of the battle, the account is stirring, to say the least.

The book is written in the simple, clean style of one for whom English is not the primary language, augmented (I'm sure) by the author's desire to tell a clear, unambiguous story. The simple, effective style is likely the main reason why this book is classified Young Adult, in spite of the often harrowing content. I don't know how to explain what I want to say... I keep starting and erasing this sentence... lemme try again... the book strikes me as the logical fleshing-out of very old, but vivid, impressions and emotional snapshots. The author was six at the time, and didn't write the book - or even tell anyone about her experiences - until the late nineteen-eighties, when the photographs of her as a child holding the white flag on the day of the surrender surfaced, with someone else claiming it was them in the picture. Tomiko was put out, to say the least, that someone else would dare to do such a thing, and resolved to set the record straight, if only for her own sanity.

That's 40+ years after the fact... I can barely remember things that happened last year, much less from when I was six, and she recounts conversations that took place, feelings she had, things she ate and how they tasted, places she hid... I suppose, if circumstances are traumatic enough, they will leave vivid, long-lasting impressions for some. This must be the case for this author; how she can recall the details of her weeks alone as a 6 year old is stunning to me. Just because I can't remember what I was wearing yesterday doesn't mean someone else can't remember 40-year-old childhood conversations from random encounters, etc.

But I digress. The book is brief - barely 125 pages long, and a quick read. I finished it in two sittings, over about 3 hours. Just because it's a quick read doesn't mean it won't take the breath out of you, and make you long for the day when war and death and extreme suffering will cease for good. Kids shouldn't have to experience things like Tomiko did. No one should, but kids especially. It's no wonder she kept her story buried for so long.

Summary: Strongly Recommended 5/5